Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
Changing of the Guard at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
On October 23, Ted Nash – having toured the world playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass…
Vancouver International Jazz Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary this summer.
(Photo: Courtesy Destination Vancouver)During seven glorious days in June 1986, a fledgling jazz festival in Vancouver, Canada, burst into the consciousness of local and international jazz fans. The du Maurier International Jazz Festival had a stunning lineup: Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Ornette Coleman, Abdullah Ibrahim, Tony Williams, Jay Clayton, Roscoe Mitchell and many more sublime artists performed. As if that wasn’t enough to put the festival on the global jazz map, an infamous incident happened. Marsalis — with trumpet in hand — strode uninvited onto the stage during Davis’ concert. The Prince of Darkness sharply told Marsalis to leave, the much younger trumpeter complied, and the festival got a massive publicity boost.
Cole Schmidt missed all of it; he had a good excuse. “I was 1 year old,” said Schmidt. He was born five months before Coastal Jazz & Blues Society founders Robert Kerr, John Orysik and Ken Pickering presented — with help from some fellow music aficionados, but almost no funding — the modestly programmed Pacific Jazz & Blues Festival in 1985. So the renamed festival’s second edition in 1986, supercharged by a title sponsor, was a gigantic leap.
The festival took off from there, building in size and diversity and presenting memorable concerts: Sun Ra and his Arkestra (1989), Caetano Veloso (1999), Oscar Peterson (2004), Diana Krall (multiple years), Wayne Shorter (2003 and 2012) and many other epic shows.
Fast-forward to 2025. Schmidt is a key player in Vancouver’s bustling improvised music/jazz/DIY scene as a guitarist with a sonically absorbing palette. His main gig: Schmidt and Jeremy Page are co-artistic directors at the Coastal Jazz & Blues Society.
Their focus has been programming the 40th anniversary Vancouver International Jazz Festival, happening June 20 to July 1.
The anniversary is a meaningful milestone that Schmidt and Page approached with respect for the festival’s immense artistic legacy that Pickering and Rainbow Robert shaped, and an eye toward the future. “We’re definitely mindful of the legacy of the festival, and thinking about people who have played it and who are still involved, and making sure that there’s still a lot of excitement from the younger generation,” said Page.
At the 2025 festival, a marquee headliner will be the always-engaging Bill Frisell with his trio. It’s a hat tip to the past; the guitarist performed in the iconic 1986 edition and in other years. Another headliner: prodigious bassist Richard Bona, who will play with his Asante Trio.
Other international artists performing in ticketed and free shows include Makaya McCraven, Kneebody, Marquis Hill, Immanuel Wilkins with Poland’s Lutosławski Quartet, New Jazz Underground, Susie Ibarra (who will be part of an artist-in-residence program) and a collaboration in the improvisational spirit of mixing and matching the fest dreamed up over the years: Gerry Hemingway, Izumi Kimura and Vancouverites François Houle and Gordon Grdina.
While some additional international musicians will be in the festival, the overall list of artists from outside of Vancouver won’t be akin to the extensive lineups the annual event offered back in the day. There are hard realities behind presenting an international jazz festival on Canada’s West Coast these days. “It is stable, but challenging,” said Nina Horvath, Coastal Jazz & Blues Society executive director, about the festival’s financial situation. “The whole global temperature and climate right now is challenging.”
On top of coping with the past pandemic, the festival lost its title sponsor in 2022. The weak Canadian dollar hasn’t helped. Still, attendance at the 2024 festival was strong. An exception was a show at one of the city’s main theatres featuring rapper Killer Mike, which didn’t sell as well as expected and was scrutinized by some with an age-old question: Did it belong in a jazz festival?
Regardless of the challenges, the 2025 festival offers a lot, with a focus on Vancouver’s thriving local jazz scene at the heart of it. Shruti Ramani, Bruno Hubert and other musicians in the scene will perform. “We can definitely say that Vancouver is pretty activated right now, year-round, with all the gigs and all the venues and promoters helping the scene go, and we’re leaning into that,” said Schmidt. “So there are a lot of pieces honoring all generations of the scene right now that we’re trying to balance in the mix.”
Feven Kidane, a trumpeter and bassist who has emerged as one of Vancouver’s most compelling younger musicians, first played in the festival in 2021. Since then, she’s progressively had a bigger role in the event, including a show this year with her sextet. “It’s a great way to make art accessible,” Kidane said about the free performance. “I feel happy knowing that I can be like, ‘This is where I am, this is how I sound,’ and nobody has to worry about money to come see it.”
Tim Reinert — through his Infidels Jazz company — along with Cory Weeds, other presenters and Coastal Jazz & Blues, have provided enormous support for the local scene by providing countless playing opportunities. Reinert has sympathy for the festival’s adversities and admiration for its resilience. “The fact that people have always been willing to stand up and be part of this incredibly challenging, difficult experience is a real testament to how much passion this music brings up in people,” said Reinert.
Horvath: “It’s really uncertain times for all of us, and I think that’s when you want music and art the most, to connect people and to bring people together into community, and to honor the roots of jazz as an art form that’s grounded in protest and equity. I think that message is more important than ever right now.”
Given the uncertainty, which an unfolding U.S.-Canada trade war is exacerbating, one wonders if this could be the last Vancouver International Jazz Festival Horvath unequivocally said no. “And if you want to make sure that it’s not the last festival, I hope that you come on board and come to shows,” she said. “Come and celebrate what we are able to do.” DB
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