Edmonton International Jazz Festival countdown

Two smashing headliners, 47 performances, eight venues. If you’re looking to reduce the Edmonton International Jazz Festival to a simple shorthand, that’s it.

One of the first major summer festivals, the 10-day event kicks off Friday with a swath of intriguing North American talent that ranges from swing, fusion and avant-garde to gypsy jazz, hard bop, vocal jazz and world.

There’s a vast array of ticketed events featuring two of the most renowned names on the 21st century festival circuit – Herbie Hancock, the elder statesman of jazz and Esperanza Spalding, a celebrated prodigy and an international ambassador for the idiom.

Mixed with ticketed concerts are free performances at Works With Jazz, a part of The Works Art and Design Festival on Churchill Square that features local jazz performers.

In fact, three top-tier local musicians are in the Works. St. Albert guitarist Peter Belec, the driving force behind Jazz Thursdays at Ric’s Grill, performs with the Doug Organ Trio on Friday. Former St. Albert residents and much sought after drummers Thom Bennett and Sandro Dominelli provide support respectively for the popular Geo Metrics and the Andrew Glover Trio.

Working with a $700,000 budget, artistic director Kent Sangster is very conscious of the ebb and flow of the local listening jazz community and pushes hard to give people a choice.

The draws, of course, are the A-listers. For years, Sangster looked at landing Hancock, 73, a featured American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and composer. As part of the Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet, Hancock helped retool the role of jazz and was a primary architect of the post-bop sound.

The Chicago-born musician was also one of the first jazz musicians to embrace music synthesizers and funk music and has recorded many crossover hits. Over the years he’s kept company with jazz’s biggest stars including such players as Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett. A small part of the numerous accolades he’s collected include 14 Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for the original soundtrack for Round Midnight.

“He’s one of the hippest musicians I know – things like his harmonic control,” Sangster says. “He’s almost like a Quincy Jones or a Duke Ellington. He’s classy. He’s got lots of respect and there’s not too many musicians left of that historical importance that play at that high level.”

As for Spalding, 39, she is an American jazz bassist and singer-songwriter who made history in 2011 winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, defeating teen pop icon Justin Bieber. She was the first and only jazz artist in Grammy history to win that award.

Raised in a Portland ghetto by a single mother, the young prodigy of five had taught herself to play violin and was soon playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. She set her sights on playing cello, partially influenced by Yo-Yo Ma, but after discovering the bass at 14, it was a quick ascension through the jazz ranks.

“I’m amazed when people sing and play drums. But when you sing and play bass – a rhythmic and harmonic aspect of the band – it blows me away. She’s very complex,” Sangster comments.

Yes, the Herbie Hancocks and Esperanza Spaldings are the feature draws. But as he puts it, in between the world-renowned heavy hitters and the emerging artists is a stratum of talent that has honed their chops for 20 years with just a modicum of recognition.

“Sometimes a festival is not who you know, but who you don’t know.”

Take Gregory Porter, described by Sangster as a singer with an extraordinary voice and uncanny emotional delivery. The Grammy nominated vocalist is the opener for Spalding on June 25.

“When you leave the Winspear you will be astounded by him. His jazz vocals are somewhere between Marvin Gaye and Mel TormĂ©. They’re full of soul. They’re so broad.”

Alan Jones is another force to be reckoned with. After fighting for dual citizenship for 20 years, the American-based drummer-composer finally received a Canadian passport two years ago. Although his address has an American zip code, his family regularly vacationed on Salt Spring Island, and he often visited an uncle with a horse ranch near Edmonton. For a time, Jones also polished his technique playing Toronto clubs.

“I always wanted to play in Canada and put together a band uniquely from Canada. I wanted the best Canadian musicians that inspired me over the last 20 years. I’m proud to be Canadian and I want the world to recognize these musicians,” says Cole.

And so The Alan Jones Canadian All Star Sextet was born. Yes, they are all Canadian musicians, but five of the six live primarily in the United States. Jones and bassist Tom Wakeling are important to the Portland jazz scene. Tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen are leading names on the New York scene. Alto saxophonist Phil Dwyer makes regular forays into Canada and pianist Jon Ballantyne, who lives in Canada, has notched two Juno awards and three nominations.

“When we get together something happens synergistically. We’re like a family. We stay connected even if we’re not physically connected. We pick up our conversation quite easily. It’s an intuitive, improvised connection.”

Inspired by nature, Jones lives on a 25-acre piece of land on the Columbia River gorge with a gorgeous view of the Cascade Mountains. When not touring, writing or recording, Jones has mountain climbed in the Rocky Mountains, hiked over Greece’s white limestone and crossed Siberia’s frozen tundra.

Never one to let boundaries restrain him, the bandleader’s compositions reflect his nature – risky leaps, graceful passages and unpredictable improvisations framed with melodic passages.

Another loud voice on the jazz scene is Patricia Barber, an American jazz and blues singer, pianist and songwriter. Born to parents who were both professional musicians – her father is Floyd “Shim” Barber, a former member of Glen Miller’s Band – she was raised in South Sioux City, Nebraska.

Her music is centred on her singing. She has a voice with a fairly low register that was a hit on the Chicago jazz scene. Her newly released album, Smash, deals with life, death and loss and traverses the boundaries in between. It projects a mournful quality and no wonder. In the last two years, Barber lost five people she loved dearly.

“It was hard to get to the funerals and grieve. But the music was a release. I just didn’t know it would be so obvious,” Barber explains.

While many jazz singer-songwriters focus on love and relationships, Barber casts her net onto a meatier text.

“I just try to broaden the jazz category and add to its repertoire and make the bar higher than the way it was in the ’40s. There should be more harmonic complexity in music that what we’re seeing now.”

Another artist to recently release an album is singer-songwriter Chandelle Rimmer. The St. Albert resident is the new head of the vocal section at MacEwan University and her release is the 10-track Perspect-ism, a mix of traditional with contemporary jazz.

Performing about 10 gigs a year, and the jazz festival is one, the Berklee-trained performer has one unique characteristic. She scats, an innate ability to improvise through split-second decision-making.

“I think of the voice as an instrument and I feature improvisation. Not all jazz singers improvise. For instance Billie Holiday didn’t. It’s more associated with Ella Fitzgerald,” Rimmer explains.

One of the reasons there’s an adrenalin rush performing at festival in contrast to a weekend gig is the diverse audience checking out the different styles and repertoire.

“It tends to draw on a lot of possible jazz listeners and it tends to bring in a community of musicians. We rally around music and it brings us around a common theme. It brings a community of musicians and listeners and it allows us to be immersed together.”

For an in-depth look at artists, shows and an easy-to-follow downloadable calendar, visit www.edmontonjazz.com