It’s that time of year again.
The Vancouver Jazz Festival starts this Friday, and i’ll be playing a few shows there, and elsewhere.
Friday June 20th i’m playing with Sun Killer, a new band led by guitarist Tom Wherret, with Pete Schmitt (bass) and Dan Gaucher (drums). We’re opening for Yamantaka//Sonic Titan at the Fortune Sound Club.
On Saturday June 21st, I’ll be at the Vancouver Art Gallery improvising with the NOW Orchestra (Lisa Miller, piano; DB Boyko, voice; Coat Cooke, sax; Skye Brooks, drums; Chad Macquarrie, guitar; and James Meger, bass) for Family Fuse from 1-4pm.
Sunday June 22nd is a three gig day; starting with a performance by Haram (Gord Grdina, oud; Francois Houle, clarinet; Jesse Zubot, violin; Chris Kelly, sax; Tim Gerwing, darbuka; Liam Macdonald, riq; Emad Armoush, voice/ney; Tommy Babin, bass; and Kenton Loewen, drums) at the Dragonboat Festival on the World Beat Stage from 3:30-4:40pm.
Then i’ll be heading over to Ironworks for two Jazz Fest shows. The first concert (9pm) is Brooklyn-based saxophonist Michael Blake’s Komagata Maru Blues project, with Peggy Lee (cello), André Lachance (bass), Ron Samworth (guitar), Chris Gestrin (keyboards) and Dylan van der Schyff (drums).
After that (11:30pm), also at Ironworks, i’ll be heading into interstellar space with Sun Ra’s Star System (Dan Gaucher, drums; Tony Wilson, guitar; John Paton, saxes; Chad Makela, baritone sax; Colin Cowan, bass; Tyson Naylor, keys; Skye Brooks, percussion; David Sikula, live full-band effects processing). Space is indeed the place, if you haven’t heard.
Also, in other news, i’m fired up to watch Buffy Sainte Fury (aka Karlene Harvey) and Vancouver’s Terminal City All-Stars at the ECDX Roller Derby Tournament in Philadelphia this weekend (June 20-22). They’ll be taking on Montreal and Boston. Buffy will also be suiting up for Team Canada for the first time against Team USA in an exhibition bout on Sunday night. All these games will be streamed live on WFTDA.TV. Go TCRG!!
Ok, back to the music.
I’m back at it on Wednesday June 25th at the Emerald with guitarist Tony Wilson and his Day’s Life Band, with Jesse Zubot, Peggy Lee, Russell Sholberg and Skye Brooks. Excited to be playing this music with these guys again.
And finally, i’m heading out of town to play the Tall Tree Music Festival in Port Renfrew, BC, with Dan Mangan + Blacksmith on Friday June 27th.
You might be like, that’s only 8 days, and 7 shows! What the hell??!! And i’d be like, chill dudes. It all starts tonight, Wednesday June 18th, at Jeff Younger’s CD Release concert for his new album Devil Loops Vol. 2 at the Orpheum Annex. I’ll be improvising with Jeff, Chris Gestrin and Dylan Van Der Schyff in the evening’s second set.
Truly so much to see and do as we enter the summer here in Vancouver.
See you out there. JP
JP Carter 