20th Vancouver International Jazz Festival

June 24th - July 3rd, 2005 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada The promotional claptrap of the public relations world is always off-putting, so to read that there are 1800 musicians participating in 400 performances at 40 venues for an audience of 507,000 people is certainly not the reason to attend this festival. Fortunately there is more to be heard than described by this simple-minded propaganda. Although the big name acts are local superstar Diana Krall and Cesaria Evora, the usual headliners with Dave Holland, Bill Frisell and Terrence Blanchard among them, and ten nights of get-down boogie music at the Commodore Ballroom — which interestingly enough had a night of David Murray with the Gwo-Ka Masters whose energy even the deaf sound engineer could not ruin — there is, among all this mostly routine fare, music of interest. A series of three concerts featuring the clarinet began with another of Ken Vandermark's tribute projects. This time Free Fall — which claims in the program to reflect Jimmy Guiffre's music, a detail that eluded me — had Ken playing only clarinets. Expecting some relationship to the marvelous original Free Fall trio, there was a disappointment that this trio had none of the delicate beauty of its namesake. There were some terrific pieces, in particular "Still Life" dedicated to painter Willem de Koonig and "Past Soon" for pianist Bill Evans, both of which were rather simple melodic compositions that enabled the bell like spacial clarity of the trio to prevail. The third group of the evening (leaving the premier event for last) was the chamber music trio Queen Mab, which featured the bass clarinet of Lori Freeman with her companions, fellow Canadian Marilyn Lerner (piano) and Dutch violist Ig Hennemann, who performed at The Ironworks, a superb new club venue, situated in a slightly dangerous warehouse neighbourhood. This trio, with improvisation among its formalities, just sparkled, integrating the two concepts into a pliant mature exciting assemblage. Lori Freedman had had a busy night as previously she, alongside Evan Parker, had been the reed section in François Houle's commissioned composition "Twenty", which was dedicated to Steve Lacy. Sitting in the balcony we were treated to the added delight of the visual display of the somewhat unorthodox orchestration which included musicians from many disciplines, and a perfect view of the very energetic conductor, Giorgio Magnanesi, whose mad professor hair-do and bright red stove-pipe trousers added to the hilarious musical riot that occurred. The music was loosely composed, seemingly in various combinations of improvising blocks, each grouping as directed, repeatedly producing brilliant music. A nice middle-class perfumed lady sat directly in front of me tried unsuccessfully to persuade her friends to leave. She had tried stuffing her fingers in her ears, then ear plugs and even a walkman, but nothing could shut out the joyful noise emitting from the stage. Eventually she alone left the building. Over the ensuing ten days there were numerous stimulating events, but the difficulty of too much music obliterating previous details is a problem, so the choices have to be narrowed into selective listening. There are the free concerts that bracket the festival, outdoor events for the general public which for the most part are to be avoided. The one exception was the Dutch Orchestra Bik Bent Braam which could be imagined as loony tunes Count Basie, bonsaiing 26 small pieces, 2 for each member, to cue, in a personal manner, as they wish. A series at Western Front, an old wooden building with superb acoustics, seem rewarding, featuring as they do informal improvising groupings. George Lewis with his partner Miya Masaoka, cellist Peggy Lee and flautist Michelle Mitchell, and the quartet of pianist Paul Plimley, Mark Helias, Gerry Hemmingway and Dutch violist Oen van Geel, both held much promise and had frequent moments of excellence, especially as individuals, although occasionally missing satisfying endings. The finest in this series of concerts however was a bass duet. The Marks Brothers. The two Marks — Helias and Dresser — having a long friendship, produced an intimate synchronicity, organized conversations joined at the "very" hip, their rhythmic and melodic structures projecting the joyfulness of their fellowship. Time for a new CD of these mates. This festival is well known for its abundant Canadian content, especially from the superb local scene. Long time companions "singer" Kate Hammett Vaughan and guitarist Ron Samworth disguised as Cheap and T'audrey were introduced - "without further delay", causing Ron to comment — "shit, delays are half my stuff". They were definitely not Tuck and Patty. Following guitarist Tony Wilson about one day led me to a lunch-time concert with Saul Berson's mixed music quintet, an afternoon concert in duet with Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode and another fine evening at The Ironworks with Dutch cornetist Eric Boeren's guitar band which also included Samworth. This club became a popular late night venue with an interesting array of local bands of all disciplines, among them a fine quartet under the leadership of NOW saxophonist Coat Cooke. The second half of the festival introduced the British visitors, and one of the main reasons for us being in attendance was the wonderful Dedication Orchestra, with its program of material associated with the Brotherhood of Breath, from which a number of other projects were garnered. An evening of Evan Parker utilizing some of them, with local talent incorporated, in a series of trios and quartets; the UK Sextet led by Louis Moholo — a miniature Brotherhood, and finally the 23 piece orchestra in all its glory. This was an evening filled with fantastic memories of those wonderful Brotherhood tunes written by Dudu Pukwana, Chris McGregor, Mongezi Feza and Johnny Dyani: "MRA", "B My Dear", "Andromeda", "Blues for Nick", "Traveling Somewhere"… the cream of the British avant garde swinging like the clappers, catching the spirit of anthems from the homeland, with Louis, the only survivor, spurring them on. After this evening of potent ecstasy there was no room left in our hearts for more music, regretfully causing us to miss the opportunity of hearing the Roscoe Mitchell Quintet. There were also a number of Outreach Programs featuring daily workshops with Dave Holland, Wolter Wierbos and Michiel Braam among the musicians, Bill Shoemaker conducting a blindfold test with Louis Moholo, a talk by Hazel Miller and a jazz journalists panel. A 10 day series of workshops at the Vancouver Creative Music Institute, which included in its faculty Evan Parker, Mark Dresser, Mwata Bowden, George Lewis and Miya Masaoka, introduced to 30 participants the possibilities of what can be achieved in improvised music under the tutelage of master musicians. So There you have it the 20th anniversary of the Vancouver festival suitable for jazz casuals and aficionados alike. An edited version of the above appeared in Signal to Noise - issue 39.