2024 Ottawa Jazz Festival touts female artists, younger musicians

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This summer’s Ottawa Jazz Festival will see Confederation Park brim with the sounds of earthy New Orleans music, a jazz-rock guitar hero and, above all, female vocalists and singer-songwriters.

The festival, which for years has striven for gender parity in its programming, is showcasing on its main stage Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards (June 25), the potent Boston-based band Lake Street Dive that includes Rachael Price as its lead singer (June 27), the young Icelandic sensation Laufey (June 28), folk-jazz star Norah Jones (June 29) and jazz singer Veronica Swift (June 30).

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These and other bookings continue the festival’s “conscious push” to book female musicians, says Petr Cancura, the festival’s interim executive director and longtime programming manager.

“It is inspiring to see how many more female artists are active on today’s music scene, artists who are creating some unified music representative of the times,” Cancura says.

The festival runs from Friday, June 21, to Sunday, June 30, although all of its stages will be dark on Monday, June 24.

The festival’s opening-night headliner on June 21 in the park will be the funky New Orleans hornman Trombone Shorty, while the staunchly traditional Preservation Hall Jazz Band is to play in the park on June 23. Veteran guitarist Al Di Meola, renowned for his high-velocity playing with Return to Forever in the 1970s, is to play Confederation Park on June 26. A headliner for June 22 is still to be announced.

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As in recent years, the festival’s indoor concerts at the National Arts Centre feature the most unadulterated jazz, with helpings of forward-thinking and groove-forward music, and especially unfettered avant-garde performances.

The NAC’s Azrieli Studio will be home to a strong and diverse series of shows, starting with contemporary big band Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society on June 21. Trumpeter Tom Harrell is to bring his unsurpassed post-bop quartet to the studio on June 22, while Chris Potter, perhaps the most fluent saxophonist in jazz, will lead an acoustic trio during his June 25 in the Azrieli Studio.

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Cancura, a jazz saxophonist who lived and played in New York before joining the festival’s staff in 2011, cited Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, which plays June 26 in the Azrieli Studio, as a hidden gem that he used to go hear in New York.

“There are a lot of hidden gems,” he added, citing several artists who are giving concerts exclusively in Ottawa, while eschewing other festivals on Canada’s late June jazz-festival circuit. One such exclusive show is the June 28 Azrieli Studio performance by cutting-edge drummer Ches Smith and We All Break, a large-ensemble project inspired by Haitian music and Vodou. The concert by Vancouver native Argue’s Grammy- and Juno-nominated big band is another Ottawa exclusive.

Genre-stretching guitarist Charlie Hunter will take part in two performances at the festival. On June 26 in the Azrieli Studio, Hunter will play with Cancura and drummer Scott Amendola. The next night in the Azrieli Studio, Hunter is joining forces with the stellar vocalist Kurt Elling for their funky SuperBlue project.

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“Charlie is not only virtuosic, playing the part of a guitarist and bass player all at the same time with mind-boggling ease,” says Cancura, who has recorded two albums with Hunter. “Besides being an incredible musician, he is one of the most inspiring and important people on the scene today.”

For years, the jazz festival has fought the stereotype of jazz being music from the 1950s and ’60s played for grey-haired audiences. This summer will be no exception, with an abundance of Millennial and Gen Z musicians meant to attract listeners from the same demographics.

Most notably, Laufey, who this year won the Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album, is a 24-year-old with a massive, youthful fanbase.

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Saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, who plays June 30 in the Azrieli Studio, has played with Alicia Keys and Missy Elliott. U.K. drummer Yussef Dayes, whose funky, soulful band plays the OLG Stage on June 30, is a 30-year-old darling of London’s groovy jazz scene. Aja Monet, who plays June 29 in the Azrieli Studio, is a poet and exhilarating spoken word artist.

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Cancura cited Benjamin and Monet as “important artists that have an important place in the current jazz realm.” Overall, the festival features “a healthy range of seasoned artists to younger visionaries,” he said.

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For more information, passes and tickets, go to ottawajazzfestival.com.

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