TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival Announces Innovation Series

Coastal Jazz & Blues Society announced today the Innovation Series - Ironworks, Ironworks Late Night, and Roundhouse Performance Centre at the 2019 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, which runs this summer from Friday, June 21 to Monday, July 1.

A limited amount of 3-show passes for performances taking place at Ironworks and Ironworks Late Night (235 Alexander Street) are available only by phone at 604.872.5200 ext.5 or 1.888.438.5200. This 3-show pass is priced at $54. Individual tickets will be available online at www.coastaljazz.ca.

A Roundhouse Performance Arts Centre pass, which allows access to all six shows taking place at Roundhouse Performance Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews) on June 29 and June 30, is available only by phone at 604.872.5200 ext.5 or 1.888.438.5200. This 6-show pass is priced at just $32. Individual tickets are $10 and will be available day of show at the door.

Here are the performances confirmed for TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival's Innovation Series:

IRONWORKS

Joshua Zubot and Strings

June 21 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

Before relocating to Vancouver in 2017, violinist/violist Joshua Zubot was a fixture in Montréal's vibrant music community for over a decade, working with Patrick Watson, Sam Shalabi, Ratchet Orchestra, and The Barr Brothers. He's now made himself at home in the genre-defying West Coast improv scene, where his omnivorous, idiosyncratic talent alights on jazz, classical, bluegrass, folk, musique actuelle, and the avant-garde's back-40. His Strings project harnesses conviction, emotion, and power with Meredith Bates on violin, Jesse Zubot on violin/viola, Peggy Lee on cello, and James Meger on bass.

Dálava

June 22 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

Led by vocalist Julia Úlehla and guitarist Aram Bajakian (Lou Reed, John Zorn, Diana Krall), the "utterly captivating" (Vancouver Sun) Dálava takes Czech folk melodies transcribed over 100 years ago by Úlehla's great-grandfather and places them in a compelling contemporary context. Cinematic and wide-ranging, the music of Dálava is beautifully rendered and hauntingly expressive. With Peggy Lee on cello, Colin Cowan on bass, Tyson Naylor on keys and Dylan van der Schyff on drums, the groundbreaking Dálava offers a "stunning fusion of Middle European melody, rock energy, and scratchy avant-jazz textures" (The Georgia Straight).

Cactus Truck

June 23 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

Based in Amsterdam, this fire-breathing improvisational trio of bassist/guitarist Jasper Stadhouders, drummer Onno Govaert, and American-born saxophonist John Dikeman (Shoji Hano, Keiji Haino) plays a high-energy brand of free jazz influenced by the likes of Albert Ayler and Peter Brötzmann at their most intense. Along their scorched path, they've collaborated with trombonist Jeb Bishop, trumpeter Roy Campbell, and NYC guitarist Ava Mendoza. With blistering speed, ferocious punk energy, no-wave sonic severity and unapologetic, ecstatically free relentlessness, Cactus Truck "play a brand of bar-clearing music that both repels and, ultimately, compels" (All About Jazz).

Ikue Mori Jim Black Duo
June 24 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

Ikue Mori is "one of the most singular musicians in modern music history" (Chicago Reader). Moving from Tokyo to New York in 1977, she co-founded the seminal no-wave band DNA, and through her pioneering and masterful work in laptop and electronics improvisation, Mori has consistently pushed the envelope. Her collaborators have included John Zorn, Susie Ibarra, and Fred Frith. Jim Black (AlasNoAxis, Tim Berne) is one of the rare musicians who influence so many others that a term like "post-Jim Black" can be a useful descriptor for emerging drummers. A singular expressionist, Black strikes "an elusive truce between bombast and finesse" in his far-ranging, kinetic, and conceptual playing.

*Gordon Grdina, Jim Black, Oscar Noriega, & Mat Maneri
June 25 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

This new quartet brings heavy-hitters from New York-based groups like Endangered Blood, AlasNoAxis, and Square Peg together with JUNO Award-winning Vancouverite Gordon Grdina (Haram, Peregrine Falls) on guitar/oud to channel intense, virtuosic power, and contemplative melodic excursions. Based in jazz traditions, but with equal parts rock, punk, and exploratory atonality, this group of next-level innovators take unexpected turns at every corner. With Mat Maneri (Ches Smith, Craig Taborn) on viola, Oscar Noriega (Banda De Los Muertos) on alto sax/clarinets, and drummer Jim Black (Nels Cline, Tim Berne).

*Additional Performance: June 24 • The China Cloud @ 11pm (Grdina/Dunn/Maneri) • $15 at door only

Endangered Blood

June 26 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

"A head-rush of aggressive improvising" (Seattle Times). Brooklyn's Endangered Blood is a rare blend of fiery interplay, compositional complexity and intense soulfulness. Endlessly inventive and thrillingly unpredictable, the beating heart of traditional jazz is always at the group's core, no matter how far it pushes the sonic envelope. With cutting edge jazz innovators Oscar Noriega (Tim Berne's Snakeoil) on bass clarinet/alto sax, Chris Speed (Uri Caine, Claudia Quintet) on tenor sax/clarinet, drummer Jim Black (Nels Cline, AlasNoAxis), and bassist Trevor Dunn (Mike Patton, John Zorn, The Melvins).

Darius Jones, Angelica Sanchez, Peggy Lee & Dylan van der Schyff
June 27 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

Called "the most visceral and distinctive alto saxophonist of this era" by The New York Times, Darius Jones' incisive work "poses big questions about the relationship between the African-American tradition of spirituals, blues and gospel, and now" (The Wire). Pianist Angelica Sanchez "likes building structures and breaking free of them" (New York Times). Eschewing decoration, Sanchez focuses on meaningful gestures, "acutely aware of the implications of a phrase" (NYC Jazz Record). Equally artful in melody and madness, cellist Peggy Lee has "an ability to make music that is simultaneously adventurous and warm" (The Georgia Straight). Multi-dimensional drummer Dylan van der Schyff "has a gentle touch and a malleable way with time" (JazzTimes).

*Farmers by Nature

June 28 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

Embracing risk, fostering trust, renouncing easy convention, and letting fly with fire and feel: these are the hallmarks of the most vital free jazz. The phenomenal trio of renowned master improvisers/composers/leaders Gerald Cleaver on drums, William Parker on bass, and pianist Craig Taborn "move with a fearlessness borne from seasoned virtuosity and uncompromised vision" (DownBeat). From blue(s)-tinged abstractions, to luminescent melodies and almost-orchestral chordal texturing, to rhythmic explorations that range from pointillist to pulsing, Farmers by Nature always retain a compelling narrative arc.

*Additional Performance: June 29 • Kris Davis/Craig Taborn Duo • Roundhouse Performance Centre @ 5pm • $10 or $32 weekend pass Craig Taborn

*Irreversible Entanglements

June 29 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

"Irreversible Entanglements wakes the frozen body to move, the dead mind to react, and the mute mouth to scream resistance" (NPR). Driven by poet Camae Ayewa's (aka Moor Mother) searing narrations of Black trauma, survival and power, Irreversible Entanglements brings first-wave free jazz's tradition of resistance acutely into the present. As creative and adventurous as any contemporary avant-garde jazz, Irreversible Entanglements offers listeners no abstractions to hide behind. This is music that both honours and defies tradition, speaking to the present while insisting on the future. Featuring saxophonist Keir Neuringer, bassist Luke Stewart, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes, this is "one of the most powerful and relevant works of art you'll encounter this year" (The Quietus).

*Additional Performance: June 30 • Roundhouse Studio (Keir Neuringer Workshop) @ 4:30pm • Free

Jaimie Branch, Jeremy Page, Luke Stewart, Tommy Babin, & Tcheser Holmes

June 30 • The Ironworks @ 9:30pm • $25

"Fly or Die" trumpeter Jaimie Branch "wrings poignant, melodic order from turbulent chaos before inevitably decaying into turmoil again," (JazzTimes). In this first-time meeting of next wave improvisers from both sides of the Canada/U.S. border, Branch is joined by Chicago stalwarts and Irreversible Entanglements members Luke Stewart on bass, Tcheser Holmes on drums, and two of Vancouver's most empathic and engaging players: Tommy Babin (Haram, Benzene) on bass, and Kids' Table Quartet tenor saxophonist Jeremy Page.

www.coastaljazz.ca