Festival Recaps

Brekky Boy Made It Well Worth the Trip

Ottawa Jazz Festival, June 29

PUBLISHED Jun 30, 2023

Definitely in the running for band who travelled farthest to get here, Sydney, Australia trio Brekky Boy righteously had one of the most we...

Jonah Yano Brought Fake Storms and Real Feelings to Montreal

Montreal International Jazz Festival, Montreal QC, June 29

PUBLISHED Jun 30, 2023

For years now, it seems like the Montreal International Jazz Festival has broadened the meaning of jazz, and opened the door to artists ope...

Léon Phal Brought Gallic Élan to Ottawa

Ottawa Jazz Festival, June 28

PUBLISHED Jun 29, 2023

Sponsored by the French Embassy of Canada, Champagne native Léon Phal played the smaller Fourth Stage inside the National Arts Centre on We...

Mark Guiliana Brought the Precision and Punctuality

Ottawa Jazz Festival, June 28

PUBLISHED Jun 29, 2023

Perhaps the most exclusive slot of the festival thus far, it was only with some effort that even the illustrious press were able to make th...

Borrowed Instruments and Soggy Skies Couldn't Keep the Mary Ancheta Quartet Down in Ottawa

Ottawa Jazz Festival, June 26

PUBLISHED Jun 27, 2023

Battling less-than-great air quality and some frankly unpredictable weather at the festival's 6:30 pm main stage slot, we were greeted by t...

Little Animal! Showed Ottawa Their Weirdo-Jazz Bonafides

Ottawa Jazz Festival, June 26

PUBLISHED Jun 27, 2023

Mercifully tented, the OLG stage was the place to be on a stormy Monday night; shielding from the elements, incubating the jazz. The 7:30 s...

Sled Island 2023 Was Everything It Needed to Be

PUBLISHED Jun 26, 2023

Once a year in Calgary, Alberta, as the carnival rides and truckloads of hay bales start making their way to town to mark the start of Stam...

Lawnya Vawnya 2023 Was a Lucky Number 13

PUBLISHED Jun 12, 2023

Quaint, steeped in history and welcoming as much for its salt-soaked aura as the good-natured hospitality of its people, St. John's require...