Organizers are hoping a preview show will help kick this year’s Jazz Fest off with a bang, and believe the festival’s diversity will bring out more concert-goers. 

The 20th annual Groove-FM Jazz Winnipeg Festival’s preview show will feature the Derek Trucks Band on June 23. The band offers a unique sound that melds classic jazz with blues, rock and world music.

Paul Nolin, executive producer of the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, is optimistic that the preview show, a new component of the festival this year, will whet the musical appetites of Winnipeg audiences.

“Hopefully [the preview show] will excite a packed Pantages about the rest of the festival and get a great kickoff,” Nolin said by phone.

The 10-day festival, which runs from June 26 to July 5, will feature over 100 local, national and international musical acts that cover the vast landscape that is jazz music.

“I am really proud of our lineup this year in particular,” said Nolin. “I think we have got something fairly distinct here.”

But does the diversity of the musical line-up appeal to Winnipeg audiences, or is the festival straying from what jazz purists see as “classic jazz?”

Nolin expressed hope that the variety in musical performances will encourage Winnipeg audiences to broaden their conception of what jazz music is.

“ If we can keep growing our audiences and breaking down those perceptions as to what jazz may be…that is what would thrill me the most.

Paul Nolin, Jazz Winnipeg Festival executive producer

“I think there is at times a certain stigma in the general public around the notion to what jazz is,” he said. “Jazz is such a broad thing. If we can keep growing our audiences and breaking down those perceptions as to what jazz may be…that is what would thrill me the most.”

Musician Jeff Presslaff of The Jeff Presslaff Trio has been involved with the festival for 10 years as both a performer and member of the board of directors. He agreed that the diversity in music presented at the festival has always been integral to its philosophy.

“Every year the mix changes but I don’t think the philosophy changes,” he said. “We have always had at least one or two really great old school players and we have always had some avant garde…and a number of acts that were on the fringe side of jazz,” Presslaff said.

With the exception of the new preview show, the structure of the festival will remain fundamentally the same as in past years.

The Theatre Series will feature more widely known musicians such as Al Greene, and The Branford Marsalis Quartet, and will be held at a number of large theatres around Winnipeg including the Centennial Concert Hall and Pantages Playhouse.
The Club Series will feature a variety of musical performances in local bars including the Pyramid Cabaret and Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, and the interactive Jazz Labs will provide aspiring musicians with a chance to interact with professional performers.

The festival will also feature free lunchtime performances both at Old Market Square and the CanWest Global Stage. A three-day free Wrap-up Weekend in Old Market Square will close the festival.

“The three day free weekend is very popular and a lot of fun,” said Nolin. “[It is] a great opportunity to expose Winnipeggers to free music.”

Published in Volume 63, Number 28 of The Uniter (June 18, 2009)