OTTAWA—Ottawa's popular summer jazz festival celebrates its 28th edition this year. Running from June 20 to July 1, the showcase of talent promises to be "one of the strongest, most dynamic, diverse, and compelling lineups in the history of the festival," said executive producer Catherine O'Grady at the festival launch on Tuesday.
"Jazz ambassador to the world" Wynton Marsalis with his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra will open the 2008 TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival (OIJF) with a performance at 8:30 p.m. at the festival's Main Stage in Confederation Park.
The Concert Under the Stars Series—the festival's flagship series—includes an impressive lineup of artists extraordinaire.
This includes clarinetist Buddy DeFranco; singers Gladys Knight, Madeleine Peyroux, and Salif Keita; bass artist Charlie Haden and his Quartet West; and legendary jazz pianists Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, and Chick Corea with his Return to Forever bandmates Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, and Lenny White.
The Connoisseur Series will play in the afternoon at Library and Archives Canada (LAC). While the series focused on the piano last year, this year it will concentrate on string instruments, emphasizing the guitar and bass.
LAC will also serve as a venue for two special concerts featuring innovative Swedish jazz band E.S.T. and the Ytre Suløëns Jass-ensemble from Norway.
The National Arts Centre will host the late-evening Studio Series in the intimate setting of its Studio Hall, while its cozy Fourth Stage will host the Improv Invitational Series at 8:00 p.m., a relatively new but very successful series that features striking, evocative jazz improvisations.
The festival continues to take pride in Canadian talent "of the highest calibre," said OIJF Programming Manger Jacques Émond.
This year the Great Canadian Jazz Series both opens and closes with a local band—Servantes performs on June 20, while Impressions in Jazz Orchestra led by conductor Adrian Cho plays on June 30.
Concerts in this series play at 6:30 p.m. daily on the festival's Main Stage. Canadian "up-and-coming stars" training under the CBC's Galaxie Jazz Clinic All Stars program will perform on June 28.
The TD Canada Trust Jazz Youth Summit will again offer exceptional young Canadian musicians a chance to work with renowned artists at the festival. They will perform on July 1 in Confederation Park. All Canada Day concerts will be free.
There will be late-night jam sessions taking place at Crowne Plaza Hotel, and jazz lovers will also be able to catch free concerts daily at the Rideau Shopping Centre and World Exchange Plaza in downtown Ottawa.
Visit www.ottawajazzfestival.com or call the festival office at 613-241-2633 for more information.
Feeds