Artistic Director Speaks - Jazz Ahead ++ May 20th, 2014

Artistic Director Speaks – Jazz Ahead ++ May 20, 2014

(by Ken Pickering)

Twitter: @ken_pickering
FB: https://www.facebook.com/ken.pickering.969

Time waits for no one. Suddenly it’s spring and we're blessed with an abundance of northwest sunshine (happily the weather has been pretty amazing in recent weeks), tons of new blossoms and the leaves have mostly returned to the deciduous trees. It's true, Vancouver is among the world’s greenest cities. I for one am very happy to call Vancouver home.

For the music fan, there's just one month to go before the festival hits and the welcoming sound of jazz is in the air. It's a great feeling.These are exciting and very busy times around the environs of Coastal Jazz. In the past month we’ve had our media launch (May 7^th), unleashing the full details of this year’s event (the printed version of program guide is being distributed around town and its also available on the website for download in digital and pdf formats here). Finally after an exhaustive months long search, we’ve hired a brand spanking new executive director - Mike Forrester -  just in time for this year’s festival! Details here. Now that’s exciting stuff for us.

President of the Coastal Jazz Board of Directors, Pat Julian speaks at the recent media event to announce the upcoming festival.

Before we get completely consumed by the  festival (more previews upcoming shortly), I'd like to tell you something about the annual Jazz Ahead conference in Bremen, Germany that I attended in late April. A blitzkrieg week of non-stop rounds of meetings and showcases and to my surprise the final tally of all those meetings / hangs matched almost perfectly up in number with the 60 plus CD’s that I brought home to check out.

On this occasion it was a pleasure to be joined for the first time by two of my esteemed Canadian colleagues; Lulu Healy (Jazz East Festival – Halifax) and Petr Cancura (program manager – Ottawa Jazz Festival). It was a blast introducing them to a lot of folks on the European scene that I’ve know for years. 

Petr Cancura and Lulu Healy

There was just too much going on to touch on everything, however I’d like to touch on a couple of noteworthy music highlights of interest, especially for the Canadian listener:  Montreal based - Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra (Juno award winner) and Marianne Trudel’s Trifolia (back for round two this year) both delivered strong performances that made a deserved big impression on the international guests. It was also cool to reconnect with the Nordic / UK trio Phronesis (Jasper Hoiby, Ivo Neame and Anton Eger) as well as their manager Sue (@jazzshark) Edwards. Phronesis is emerging world-wide to claim their place among the great piano/bass/drums trios in jazz.  Amongst the dozens of shows at Jazz Ahead were excellent sets by two Germans; percussionist Christian Lillinger's Grund, trombonist Nils Wogram's Root 70 + Strings and Denmark's Blood Sweat Drum + Bass. 

Denmark was the featured country at Jazz Ahead this year (catch Ibrahim Electric in Vancouver, June 29 at David Lam Park) and they had some tongue planted firmly in cheek as you can see in this photo. In Canada you'd probably end up in jail for being this irreverent. 

For myself, the outstanding concert of the week took place at the acoustically perfect chamber music hall Sendesaal (used to be the Radio Bremen studios) the day before the conference kicked off. A sublime solo performance that took place in complete darkness by the masterful pianist Fred Hersch is something I’ll never forget. For a more complete snapshot of Jazz Ahead showcases check out ace Ottawa scribe (All About Jazz) John Kelman here.

The fabulous Rui Neves (Jazz em Agosto - Lisbon, Portugal) accepts European Jazz Network award for adventurous programming 2014 - annually awarded to a European jazz promoter who exemplifies the values of EJN and has succeeded in turning vision and skill into forward-looking and fascinating musical programmes for their audience.

Caught up with lots of friends and colleagues (musicians, agents, presenters etc): Samuel Blaser, Ab Baars and Ig Henneman, Sunna Gunnlaugs (in Vancouver June 29^th), Maggi Olin and Torben Waldorff (Maggi’s with David’s Angels June 28^th), Antanas Gustys (Vilnius Festival), Danielle Oosterup (The Thing), Caroline Muntz (Eric Boeren), Susanna von Canon (ICP), Julia Hulsmann (wonderful pianist on ECM) and her agent Anastasia Wolkenstein, John Gilbreath (Earshot Jazz), Cathy Rae (Scottish Jazz Federation), the Whirlwind Recordings crew (Michael Janisch, Jim Hart), Achim Kaufmann and Tobias Delius, Helen Kontos (Savina Yannatou), Nanou Kurstjens (long time!) and my man Jan Ole Otnaes (now at Victoria Nasjonal Jazz Scene in Oslo), the lovely Ragnar Berthling, John Cumming (Serious / London Jazz Festival), Ulf Bjorkman (Caprice Records), Minna Huskonen (Helsinki Fest), Peter Knight (Australian Art Orchestra) and so many many more. 

The rock steady John Gilbreath (Earshot Jazz - Seattle) is one of our regions true jazz internationalists.

Jan Ole Otnaes has moved on from Molde Jazz Festival to Victoria - Nasjonal Jazz Scene in Oslo - a fantastic state funded jazz club that hosts the worlds best all year round.

Also great to meet some folks for the first time including long time facebook friend and now agent of the hour – Riccarda Kato (Kato Bookbird), Mariah Wilkins (manager of Ambrose Akinmusire – he’s at Performance Works June 27^th) and finally had a nice hang with flautist Jamie Baum after many years of hellos at APAP. 

Jamie Baum on the final night - post Osteria dinner hang with Jan Ole Otnaes, Lulu Healey, Petr Cancura and myself - in the Bremen town square.

Saxophonist Nils Berg Cinemascope (with Josef Kallerdahl and Fredrik Rundkvist) at the final Sunday's Swedish Showcase at Kito in beautiful Bremerhaven. Nils Berg will be in residence from mid-August to mid-September in Vancouver courtesy of Coastal Jazz and more importantly the Swedish Arts Grant Committee. Lisa Ullén (piano) and Mats Åleklint (trombone) will also enjoy a Vancouver residency funded through this program for the entire month of June.

Even this extensive laundry list doesn't give one any real idea of the breadth and scope of what takes place at Jazz Ahead.It’s also seems just a wee bit crazy how this conference has become so manically busy that you can easily miss folks that you’ve known for years in the midst of the madness. It happened more than once! Suffice it to say that this event has become one of the important dates on the calendar for any folks connected to the art and business of jazz.

The Norwegians are on the move. Enough said.

My next post will focus on Bobby McFerrin and Cassandra Wilson. From there we’ll begin the process of drilling down to some of the highlights of our upcoming June jazz festival. Stay tuned. More will come shortly.

(Ken Pickering, May 20, 2014)

Photos: KP (iphone, ipad)
except Pat Julian by Chris Cameron.