The Guelph Jazz Festival was founded in 1994 and has presented a multi-day festival every September until 2020 in the mid-size Southern Ontario city. The Festival features the best in the field of creative improvised music locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, and draws eager and dedicated audiences from the same constituencies. We aim to add sound walks that are both chronologically historical in scope, featuring performers from a given year, as well as thematised walks.

Guelph Jazz Festival

Relive or discover the artists and groups that animated downtown Guelph as part of the 2019 Guelph Jazz Festival, 11-15 September. Stroll in the vicinity of various downtown venues to hear musical clips as well as commentary by those at the helm of the organisation.

Thursday, 12 September, 2019, 10:30pm

From the festival brochure:

"It is a rare privilege to encounter as original a musician as Toronto’s Ryan Driver. The Titillators is a new band underpinned (almost literally) by Ryan’s extraordinary street-sweeper-bristle bass, an actual tine of metal that he flicks off the side of a wooden block in a bewildering approximation of jazz bass playing. Add three percussionists (Germaine Liu, D. Alex Meeks, Philippe Melanson) playing all manner of things strewn about a colourful carpet, as well as a pair of synth players (Tania Gill and Thom Gill, who also whistles!) to play jazz  in ways that is whimsical, experimental, psychedelic, and consummately joyful."

10C Shared Space, Fourth Floor, 42 Carden Street

https://titillators.bandcamp.com/album/your-kind-of-music

The Titillators, "Alpaca" (Ryan Driver, from 'Your Kind of Music,' 2019)

The Titillators: 10C Shared Space, Fourth Floor

Saturday, 14 September, 4pm

From the festival brochure:

"Jen Shyu is an extraordinary composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, and vocalist whose polymath talents are deftly synthesised in the ritualistic solo performance, Nine Doors. At the heart of the multi-faceted narrative is a wayang kulit shadow puppeteer’s daughter from Indonesia who, in the face of tragedy and trauma, is empowered through encounters with female legends from Timorese and Korean folklore, for instance. As she voyages through time and space to meet them, they offer her guidance, strength, and solace. Astonishingly, Shyu sings songs in eight languages, dances, and plays Taiwanese moon lute, Korean gayageum, piano, Japanese biwa, and Korean soribuk drum to tell this transformative, uplifting story."

Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre, 35 Woolwich Street

https://jenshyu-pi.bandcamp.com/album/song-of-silver-geese

Jen Shyu: Door Nine: Contemplation (from Song of Silver Geese, Pi Records 2016)

Jen Shyu, Nine Doors: Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre (2/2)

Friday, 13 September, 8pm (double-bill with Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey & Hank Roberts)

From the festival brochure:

"For decades, Toronto’s field of creative music has thrived on the energy of a handful of uncompromising voices. Saxophonist Brodie West is unquestionably one of them, and his Quintet recording, Clips, is both his most achieved work and one of the best Canadian jazz records of 2018. West’s smart, varied composing blends quirky post-Coleman bebop chromaticism, agitated rhythmic investigation, and rough-hewn lyricism inspired by his work with The Ex and legendary Ethiopian tenorman, Getatchew Mekuria. West and pianist Tania Gill share a wonderfully lateral imagination and are spurred on by the off-kilter swing of the two-drum rhythm section: Evan Cartwright and Nick Fraser, plus bassist Josh Cole."

Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre, 35 Woolwich Street

https://brodiewest.bandcamp.com/album/clips

Brodie West Quintet, "Clips" (from the 2018 record of the same name)

Brodie West Quintet: Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre (1/2)

Saturday, 14 September, 8pm (double-bill with Tomas Fujiwara's 7 Poets Trio)

From the festival brochure:

"We’ve been excited by the musical news from Buenos Aires through the work of pianist Paula Shocron and drummer Pablo Díaz. Their SLD Trio, with bassist Germán Lamonega, released the splendid Tensegridad on Hatology in 2017, a shimmering selection of originals, group improvisations, and smartly chosen standards, displaying Shocron’s gifts for melody, rhythmic impulse, and invention. In Guelph they launch Diálogos, a new collaboration with expat clarinetist, Guillermo Gregorio. He is a senior figure in Argentinian avant-garde music, who contributed to Fluxus musical experiments in Buenos Aires in the sixties before eventually settling in the US to work in the intersections of improvisation and composed new music."

Guelph Youth Music Centre, 75 Cardigan Street

Shocron, Díaz, Gregorio, "Walking Down" (from 'Diágolos,' Fundacja Słuchaj 2019)

Paula Shocron, Guillermo Gregorio & Pable Díaz: Guelph Youth Music Centre (1/2)

Sunday, 15 September, 2019, 12pm (double-bill with Erwan Keravec & Hamid Drake)

From the festival brochure:

"Malcolm Goldstein is a violinist emeritus of experimental music who came of age with the Judson Dance Theatre, the influential 1960s collective of New York artists. His bona fides are summed up neatly by the fact that both John Cage and Ornette Coleman wrote pieces for him! Now in his eighties, his playing remains like quicksilver, a sensuous engagement with the total sound resources of the violin and an almost vocal spirit of melody. Montreal-based Rainer Wiens is an ideal partner whose prepared guitar and kalimba (thumb-piano) playing demonstrate an exceptional timbral and rhythmic acumen."

Guelph Youth Music Centre, 75 Cardigan Street

Malcolm Goldstein & Rainer Wiens: Guelph Youth Music Centre (2/2)

Saturday, 14 September, 2019, 11:30pm (also 13 September, as part of the Friday Night Street Music Party)

From the festival brochure:

"Montreal’s Urban Science Brass Band re-invents hip-hop classics with the intensity and fire of a guerilla street performance — a New Orleans-style brass band playing the likes of Dr. Dre to Kendrick Lamar. They host the Montreal Hip-Hop Parade, a yearly secret event that takes to the streets to surprise the public, a convoy representing Montreal’s hip-hop scene: MCs, other musicians, beat-makers, producers, DJs, graffiti crews, and more. Urban Science is a perfect addition to the Street Music Party!"

Market Square, 1 Carden Street

http://urbsci.com/merchandise

Urban Science Brass Band: Market Square (1/4)

Saturday, 14 September, 2019, 9pm

From the festival brochure:

"A local favourite, Minotaurs is a nine-piece band blending the churning funk of Fela-Kuti-style Afrobeat and the deliberate songcraft of indie rock. Led by Guelph’s own Nathan Lawr and featuring some of Guelph and Toronto’s finest players, Minotaurs feature material from 2017’s AUM, as well as a brand-new record due out by fall, about which Nathan has been tantalising us with news. The dynamic rhythm section is complemented by massive billows from the horn section; it’s a dance party, but a smart one where Lawr’s thoughtful, impassioned lyrics don’t take a back seat to the funk."

Market Square, 1 Carden Street

https://minotaursband.bandcamp.com/album/weird-waves

Minotaurs, "Echoes" (Nathan Lawr, from 'Weird Waves,' 2016)

Saturday, 14 September, 6:30pm

From the festival brochure:

"Way North combines the flexibility of classic Ornette Coleman Quartets with an embrace of gleeful melodies of popular music from New Orleans, the Caribbean, South America, and more. Toronto trumpeter Rebecca Hennessy, whose Fog Brass Band delighted the 2017 GJF audience, has a charmingly sweet tone and a playful turn of phrase, and her rapport with Ottawa tenor saxophonist Petr Cancura verges on the telepathic. New York’s Richie Barshay is an intoxicatingly swinging drummer who hooks up brilliantly with Toronto bassist Michael Herring. All four contribute tunes to this leaderless, family-vibe collective, one full of love and joy."

Market Square, 1 Carden Street

https://waynorth.bandcamp.com/

Way North, "Boll Weevil" (Cancura, from 'Fearless and Kind,' 2018)

Saturday, 14 September, 2019, 5pm

From the festival brochure:

"Before his untimely death from leukemia at 41, Thomas Chapin was a fearsome saxophonist and seasoned composer who left a trove of work for instrumentations including elaborate chamber-music ensembles. However, the core of his work is the jazz trio, and Montreal drummer Ivan Bamford has invested considerable energy and vision as one of the few to re-animate Chapin’s musical legacy. With phenomenal bandmates, Stéphane Diamantakiou on bass and Aurélien Tomasi on woodwinds (including Chapin’s own alto saxophone), Bamford brings Chapin’s funkily angular,
rock-intensity, and often very humorous music brilliantly
to life."

Market Square, 1 Carden Street

Eyevin Trio, "Anima" (from Hommage à Thomas Chapin, 2017)

Friday, 13 September, 2019, 1:30pm (on a triple-bill with chik white & Ben Grossman)

From the festival brochure:

"One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal-steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of jazz, 20th Century Classical, and world music. The Guardian writes, 'As an improviser and composer, Alcorn has proven to be visionary. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression.'"

Royal City Mission, 50 Quebec Street

https://susanalcorn1.bandcamp.com/album/and-i-await-the-resurrection-of-the-pedal-steel-guitar

Susan Alcorn, "Healer (for Diane Keeler)" (Mystra Records 2016)

Thursday, 12 September, 8pm

From the festival brochure:

"Recent years have been a purple patch of creativity for Montreal clarinetist, Lori Freedman, whose staggering talents as a soloist-interpreter of contemporary music’s most challenging material reached new heights on two solo recordings, Excess and Solor. Lori conceived this project with her partner in Mercury, bassist Nicolas Caloia, and Amsterdam’s Ab Baars (clarinet & shakuhachi) and Ig Henneman (viola) with whom she worked in Ig’s stellar Sextet. The program features a first set by two separate duos (Duo Baars Henneman and Mercury) and a second by NAIL, four vital players in a new international chamber improvisation quartet."

Royal City Mission, 50 Quebec Street

https://musiquerayonnante.bandcamp.com/album/casa-del-popolo-2019

NAIL, "From Casa del Popolo 2019" (live recording)

NAIL: Lori Freedman, Nicolas Caloia, Ig Henneman & Ab Baars: Royal City Mission (2/2)

Saturday, 14 September, 11am (double-bill with John Kameel Farah)

From the festival brochure:

"The sound of Erwan Keravec’s Breton bagpipes, an instrument similar to Scottish highland pipes, is riveting. He combines a thorough grounding in traditional Breton music with difficult-to-fathom technical extensions that expand his instrument’s already formidable expressive range. Keravec is equally at home in contemporary notated and freely improvised music contexts, but the power of his original musical vision is directly accessible through his all-acoustic solo performance. Keravec shares this ‘pipe-themed’ bill with John Kameel Farah, playing St. George’s Cassavant organ, one of the finest of its kind in the region, along with synthesisers."

St. George's Anglican Church, 99 Woolwich Street

http://www.erwan-keravec.eu

Erwan Keravec: St. George's Anglican Church

Saturday, 14 September, 2019, 11am (double-bill with Erwan Keravec)

From the festival brochure:

"Brampton-born, Berlin-based composer-improviser John Kameel Farah is a singular exponent of keyboard instruments whose extraordinary scope combines elements of Renaissance, Baroque, and contemporary repertoires, Middle Eastern musical traditions, and electronic music. His performances – often involving various acoustic and electronic keyboards – are orchestral in magnitude while based fundamentally in open improvisation. It will be a treat to hear John’s magisterial musical vision in two contexts: A combination of electronics and the Cassavant pipe organ at St. George’s Church, one of the finest organs in Southern Ontario, as well as an intimate harpsichord solo at Silence."

St. George's Anglican Church, 99 Woolwich Street

https://johnkameelfarah.bandcamp.com

John Kamee Farah, "Slithering Descent" (excerpt, recorded live in Berlin 18 October 2020))

John Kameel Farah: St. George's Anglican Church (2/2)

Saturday, 14 September, 2019, 2pm

The 'GJF Around Town' program complements the rest of the festival program by giving (primarily downtown) businesses the freedom to book music for their customers. Petr was already in Guelph to play with the co-operative quartet, Way North, at Market Square, and added a beautiful solo tenor saxophone solo concert as part of the 'Around Town' program.

From his website: "Born in Eastern Europe, brought up in the wilderness of the Great White North, and later thrusting into the urban jungle of New York City, it is no surprise that Petr Cancura’s musical pallet is as wide as it is. A saxophonist with a vast knowledge of Jazz, Balkan, African and American folk traditions, Petr performs on banjo and mandolin as well as on the medium format black & white camera… all of which influences each other into a Roots Song & Improvising music machine with a visual sensibility."

Red Brick Café, 8 Douglas Street

Petr Cancura: Red Brick Cafe (GJF 'Around Town' Program)

Saturday, 14 September, 2019, 9:30pm

The 'GJF Around Town' program complements the rest of the festival program by giving (primarily downtown) businesses the freedom to book music for their customers. Our long-time sponsor and stalwart downtown pub, The Wooly, booked GUH, an excitingly eclectic band with a three-decade history and strong Guelph connections. From the 2019 website:

"GUH is a band that has managed to defy conventions and categories for the length of their 28 year long bizarro career. The Toronto (as well as now Guelph and Belleville) collective has operated with a dedicated core group of musicians as well as a revolving door membership system since it’s beginning, acting as a place to roll around for the city’s more experimentally bent players. Their genre-bending songs have been described as jazz-rock-reggae-pop-latin-polka-bop and “what-was-that?” We call it GUH! The core group of musicians is Brian Cram (trumpet), Jason Baird (alto sax), Henry Muth (bagpipes), Scott Good (trombone), Colin Couch (tuba), Jason Clarke (guitar), Julian Brown (guitar), Craig Barnes (bass) and (drummers) Blake Howard, Jesse Baird and Andrew Henry."

The Wooly Pub, 176 Woolwich Street

https://guhmusic1.bandcamp.com/album/unearthed

GUH, "Adagio for Swings" (Unearthed, 2009)

GUH: The Wooly Pub (GJF 'Around Town' Program)

At the Farmers' Market, an important commons for Guelph residents (but not a GJF venue), Kathe Gray, President of the GJF Board of Directors, reflects on the organisation in its 26th year as well the 2019 festival, the first by the collaborative curatorial team of Scott Thomson and Karen Ng.

Guelph Farmers' Market, 2 Gordon Street

*forthcoming* Commentary: Kathe Gray on the GJF organisation: Guelph Farmers' Market

Artistic and General Director Scott Thomson talks about the 2019 Guelph Jazz Festival program, including some of the outstanding Market Square artists *not* featured during this sound walk.

Guelph Jazz Festival HQ, 202-6 Dublin Street South

Commentary: The Rest of the Market Square Program, Scott Thomson: Guelph Jazz Festival HQ (Boarding House Arts)

Friday, 13 September, 2019, 5:30pm

From the festival brochure:

"Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph met as 14-year-olds in a Chicago drum shop. Ever since, their shared love of rhythms and musics of the world have seen them travel globally to perform together with Fred Anderson, Don Cherry, Yusef Lateef, Pharaoh Sanders, and Hassan Hakmoun. As Drake reflects, 'I have been developing a hand drum concept on the drum set while Adam says he is developing a drum set concept on his hand drums. We understand one another.' Karuna delves deeply into the world of rhythm, the music of two master percussionists in total sympathy."

Silence, 46 Essex Street

https://drakejonesrudolphkaruna.bandcamp.com/

Karuna: Hamid Drake & Adam Rudolph, "Ibak" (Imaginary Archipelago, Meta Records, 2018)

Karuna: Hamid Drake & Adam Rudolph Duo: Silence

Artistic and General Director Scott Thomson comments on a distinct part of the programming, the 'Around Town' Program.

Commentary: Scott Thomson on the 'Around Town' Program: Baker Street

Artistic and General Director Scott Thomson talks about the 2019 Guelph Jazz Festival program, including some of the outstanding Ticketed-Concert artists *not* featured during this sound walk.

Commentary: Scott Thomson on the rest of the Ticketed Program: Cardigan Street

Artistic and General Director Scott Thomson reflects on the distinctive 'pipe-themed' programming at St. George's Church: Breton piper Erwan Keravec and Brampton-born Berlin-based keyboard virtuoso John Kameel Farah, on the St. George's Cassavant pipe organ, one of the finest in the region.

Commentary: Scott Thomson on Pipes: River Trail

Along Old Quebec Street, a hub of Guelph life (but not a GJF venue in 2019), Artistic and General Director Scott Thomson reflects on the range of unconventional instruments featured during the 2019 GJF, including Breton bagpipes, harpsichord, pipe organ, hurdy-gurdy, pedal steel guitar, jaw harp, and more.

Commentary: Scott Thomson on Unconventional Instruments: Old Quebec Street

A pause for a very worthy cause: Thanks to the funders and sponsors that made the 2019 festival, as well as this sound walk, possible.

Commentary: Festival Funders and Sponsors

Stroll through Downtown Guelph to relive or discover the artists who have performed at the Guelph Jazz Festival.

Guelph Jazz Festival 2019

23 ECHOES

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The Echoes

The Titillators: 10C Shared Space, Fourth Floor

Jen Shyu, Nine Doors: Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre (2/2)

Brodie West Quintet: Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre (1/2)

Paula Shocron, Guillermo Gregorio & Pable Díaz: Guelph Youth Music Centre (1/2)

Malcolm Goldstein & Rainer Wiens: Guelph Youth Music Centre (2/2)

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Guelph Jazz Festival 2019

room 23 ECHOES

DOWNLOAD OUR APP TO DISCOVER THIS TOUR AND MANY OTHERS.

The Echoes

The Titillators: 10C Shared Space, Fourth Floor

Jen Shyu, Nine Doors: Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre (2/2)

Brodie West Quintet: Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre (1/2)

Paula Shocron, Guillermo Gregorio & Pable Díaz: Guelph Youth Music Centre (1/2)

Malcolm Goldstein & Rainer Wiens: Guelph Youth Music Centre (2/2)

Discover more geolocated content in our apps.

Are you a creator?

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23 ECHOES