Festival 2011 - Photo's by Chris Cameron and Peter Gannushkin

July 1, 2011 (submitted by: Ken Pickering)

We're heading into the home stretch; Canada Day has arrived and that means the Jazz Fest program will heat up to a boiling point over the next three days. Colin Stetson, The Thing and Atomic boys are in town, Gord Grdina is back off the road from his various tours, the most recent with Mats Gustaffson (heard they tore it up in Ottawa) and we're looking forward to DLP and the Roundhouse Innovation series through July 2 and 3 with Trevor Watts / Veryan Weston, Ingrid Laubrock / Kris Davis / Tyshawn Sorey, Kjaergaard / Street / Cyrille and more.
Of course Canada Day will rock at Granville Island - and we're still looking forward to shows with Christian McBride, Gonzalo Rubalcaba / Richard Galliano (at the Vogue), Kevin Breit & Sisters Euclid (at Perf Works), the final weekend's Ironworks program (2 shows nightly @ 10:30 and midnight) and the grand finale with master flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia and his Band. So lots still to come.

Here we have a few nice photographs from Chris Cameron (he's got an archive that includes photos from every festival since '86) and Peter Gannushkin (our guest photographer from NYC). Check out his website: http://downtownmusic.net/

John Butcher (photo: Peter Gannushkin)

Torsten Müller (photo: Chris Cameron)

Both photos taken at the wonderful Way Out Northwest concert at Performance Works, June 29th (not seen - Dylan van der Schyff)

(photo: Chris Cameron)

(photo: Peter Gannushkin)

Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura with Ma-Do Quartet (from Tokyo) at the Roundhouse on Tuesday night. The band was at the end of a long tour and sounded super tight and on the money. The music was full of surprises and most of the set was performed as a long suite.

(photo: Chris Cameron)

The incredible Fado singer - Ana Moura, from Portugal. A gorgeous concert at the Vogue Theatre.

(photos: Chris Cameron)

The Group Doueh (from West Sahara) concerts on Tuesday night at Performance Works was a window into another world. An amazing evening of North African sounds.

(photo: Chris Cameron)

The amazing songwriter Lucinda Williams gave a knockout performance to a full house at the Vogue.

(photo: Peter Gannushkin)

Jean Michel Pilc, Francois Moutin and Ari Hoenig presented a well crafted, fiery set of straight ahead piano trio music - standards with a twist. Great technical ability all round. The audience loved it! Two shows at Performance Works on Wednesday night.

Erik Truffaz at the Venue on Granville St. on Thursday night. The Venue has been a cool room to hear bands like Jaga Jazzist and Erik Truffaz. Australia's rockin' Blue King Brown tonight and Colin Stetson / Fond of Tigers on Saturday evening. If you haven't been there yet - check it out.

(photos: Chris Cameron)

Standing ovation for the always burning - The Bad Plus - at the Vogue last night - with: Ethan Iverson (piano), Reid Anderson (bass) and Dave King (drums).

Three days to go.. LIVE MUSIC RULES!

by: ken pickering