Nanaimo Jazz Festival celebrates 10 years with more than a dozen shows in September

Jazz is in the air as the Nanaimo Jazz Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with a host of performances from local and international musicians through September.

Festivities will kick off with free music performances in Maffeo Sutton Park on Saturday, Sept. 12 and Sunday, Sept. 13 followed by two more weekends of performances at venues around the city, including Nanaimo’s first jazz show in a parkade.

Nanaimo Jazz Festival executive director Kim Smythe said reaching the 10 year anniversary is a feat given the challenges music festivals across Canada face when it comes to funding and rising costs. Some festivals, such as Rifflandia in Victoria, have had to cease operations entirely in recent years. 

Smythe credits a “well-managed board” and support from Vancouver Island’s live music and jazz fans with the festival’s success. 

“We’re really proud that we’ve been able to make it to our 10th year and have a fairly positive future ahead of us,” Smythe said in an interview with The Discourse. “That’s why we’re celebrating extra hard this year.”

Smythe said this year’s festival includes music from various genres including country, hip-hop, electronic, big band and more. He noted that sometimes people say they don’t like jazz, but they do enjoy music with jazz influences, making this festival accessible to people with many different tastes.

“[Jazz] pokes its head into all of these different little corners of music,” Smythe said. “I think that factor alone attracts a broad enough crowd who won’t stand up and say, ‘Yeah, go jazz,’ but they’ll stand up and say ‘Yeah, I love this.’”

Artists to take stages around the city

This is the second year the Nanaimo Jazz Festival has held its free concerts in Maffeo Sutton Park. Previously, the free shows would take place along Wesley Street but Smythe said the park offers more exposure to the broader public and allows for more people to attend the festival.

The park also attracts a natural crowd of people who are already visiting the park. Last year, Smythe said many people enjoyed what they heard from the performances and ended up sticking around for more.

“We’re exposing ourselves to new audiences and new listeners and are educating people about the diversity of jazz music,” Smythe said.

Performances in the park will run from approximately 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Snuneymuxw Knowledge Keeper Dave “Spirit Wolf” Bodaly will lead a cultural welcome at 10:30 a.m. before festivities begin on Saturday. 

There will be food trucks and artisan vendors at the park throughout the weekend.

The following two weekends in September will see performances at various venues across Nanaimo including The Queen’s, The Vault Cafe, the Coast Bastion Hotel and the Vancouver Island Conference Centre’s Shaw Auditorium. The festival will also host Nanaimo’s very first parkade jazz concert located at 1515 Dufferin Cres. with jazz-liminal duo project, The Meating.

Smythe said he calls the first weekend of free concerts the “weekend sampler” where people can come and go and decide what they enjoy and want to stick around for. Meanwhile, the shows at theatres and other venues will offer slightly more intimate experiences in different environments.

“I think we’re covering a lot of different bases here,” Smythe said. “I’m hoping that this approach works and that lots of people come out and give [jazz] a listen and see if they like it and we build some new fans.”

Local and international artists showcased at Nanaimo Jazz Festival

Festival-goers will see a mix of local and international artists playing through September, including Grammy Award-winning Alex Cuba and Dee Daniels, who has won several international awards.

“It’s interesting to see the local homegrown acts playing next to the guys who have been playing on the world stage for decades and see how they all mesh together and come off sounding incredible,” Smythe said.

Nico Rhodes is a multilingual, multi-instrumentalist, genre-jumping performer from Nanaimo who will be the first to take the stage on Saturday, Sept. 12. He has previously performed at the festival and Smythe said they are fortunate that schedules have aligned for him to perform again this year.

Also performing on Sept. 12 is world-renowned violinist and composer Lache Cercel who will have a Roma jazz ensemble with him. His music blends traditional Eastern European melodies with swinging jazz music in the tradition of legends such as Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.

The quintet Slim Sandy’s Atomic Cocktails will perform on Sept. 13 with swing blues and tunes from the 1920s to the 1950s at Maffeo Sutton Park. Later that day, a 12-piece show band called The Midnights will bring its distinctive choreographed Motown, soul, pop, funk and blues to the festival.

A highly-requested performer this year was Winnipeg-based, JUNO Award-winning guitarist Jocelyn Gould.

“A lot of people called me up and said ‘you gotta listen to her and you need to bring her back as part of the jazz festival,’” Smythe said. 

While he couldn’t afford to fly her whole band out here and house them, he asked if she could still come and perform. Smythe said she agreed and told him she’ll build a West Coast band.

“I was like, ‘How cool! She’s hiring Nanaimo and Vancouver artists to be part of her group,’” Smythe said. “I think that expresses what the festival is all about: these artists have their pick of the crop of West Coast and Island players who can stand on stage beside them and do right by them.”

For more information about the festival schedule, tickets, performers and more, visit nanaimojazzfest.ca.