The Ottawa Jazz Festival kicked off the city’s summer concert season with nine days of a musical diversity unrivaled by any other!
The festival’s OLG Main Stage first week opened with Ottawa’s own BLAKDENIM bringing their genre-blending hip-hop and funk collective energy before headliner Wyclef Jean drew fans old and new to hear and sing along to hits from his Fugees catalogue and his solo career.
Ottawa was also on display on Friday, with local blues and soul force Angelique Francis, who got the audience dancing before the celebrated Toronto ensemble, BADBADNOTGOOD, closed the night with their jazz-inflected hip-hop sophistication. Saturday night offered a unique study in contrasts, with Ottawa pianist Peter Hum‘s Sextet setting up the evening before Jurassic Park star, Jeff Goldblum, delivered a night of Hollywood-themed laughs and charming brand of American Songbook showmanship with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Sunday ran a similar dynamic, with jazz elder statesman Bob James taking the stage before celebrated virtuoso pianist, Hiromi, brought Sonicwonder took things somewhere far more percussive and kinetic.
Week two on the OLG Main Stage opened with New Orleans funk institution GALACTIC and vocalist Jelly Joseph, followed by the young and ferocious DOMi & JD Beck the next evening. Cree-Salish singer-songwriter, Fawn Wood, welcomed all to Friday’s main stage before headliner WILLOW pulled programming into decidedly alternative territory. The penultimate night belonged to a powerful, marquee performance by St. Vincent alongside the National Arts Centre Orchestra, with the singer-songwriter’s catalogue reimagined with full orchestral backing. Ibrahim Maalouf closed the entire run on Sunday, bringing his French-Lebanese trumpet work and Middle Eastern harmonic palette to the final night.
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Jazz Festival’s Elgin St. Stage brought a similarly diverse set of programming that included Daniel Caesar collaborator, 646yf4t, the Juno-winning TOBi, Toronto brass collective Big Smoke Brass doing their all-instrumental reimaginings of pop and rock standards, celebrated drummer Larnell Lewis and his band with steelpan player Joy Lapps, blues and gospel singer Jermaine Holmes, and Toronto-based experimental R&B and electronic artist, Witch Prophet.
With the Ottawa Jazz Festival complete for another year, the music fans of Ottawa look ahead to the beginning of RBC Bluesfest this week, and CityFolk in September!
For more photos from the festival, head to our Facebook page!