Across Canada, jazz festivals tend to fall into one of two categories: straight-up showcases of traditional jazz, or eclectic explorations that use the titular genre as more of a suggestion than a rule.
The Ottawa Jazz Festival falls nicely in the Goldilocks zone in between, bringing plenty of jazz to Canada's capital while also highlighting soul, rock, folk and even hip-hop artists across its 10 days from June 20 to 29.
Show tickets and full festival passes for the 45th edition of the annual festival are available now. Check out Exclaim!'s picks of the five must-see acts below.
Arooj Aftab
Singing in both Urdu and English, Grammy-winning Pakistani-American songwriter Arooj Aftab has dabbled in gorgeous ambient collaborations and her own folk-jazz solo albums. "It's always been really natural to just go against the grain and not give a fuck," she told Exclaim! last year — an attitude that lifted her to our list of the best songs of 2025 so far.
Broken Social Scene
Toronto indie rock collective BSS's festival sets are always a must-see, with a large band coming together to lead the crowd in rousing sing-alongs full of horns, multiple lead singers and cathartic rock anthems for 17-year-old girls and fully grown adults of all genders alike.
The Roots
Various groups have claimed to be the hardest working hand in showbiz — but the title should really be reserved for genre-spanning soul-rap group the Roots, who have been Jimmy Fallon's talk show band for more than a decade and a half while somehow managing to main their own career at the same time, with drummer/ringleader Questove even becoming a Oscar-winning director at the same time.
Allison Russell
Allison Russell was on the Exclaim! cover a couple years back, and she's continued her ascent since then, even winning a Grammy with her 2023 album The Returner. Join her in celebrating her "fierce, hard-won joy."
Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is 85 years old — and she's been a world-leading soul singer for nearly all of those years, having started as a teenager in the gospel group the Staple Singers, led by her father. More recent collabs with contemporary artists like Jeff Tweedy, M. Ward and Ben Harper have kept her evolving all these years later.