This year’s festival season is rife with anniversaries, but one in particular is worth noting: ten years ago, l’OFF Festival de Jazz began in Montreal. The goal of l’OFF, running this year from tonight through June 27, has always been to promote local musicians who are often shut out of bigger festivals, but who deserve every accolade they get. This year, they’ve stacked the clubs to celebrate a decade of uncovering Montreal jazz talent the likes of SJPROJECT6, Byproduct, and the John Roney Trio.
Montreal is a jazz town and has a long history of identifying with jazz culture. The l’OFF Festival de Jazz de Montreal is a window into the world of local performers who simply won’t get exposure and who are known for composing and performing their signature works right here. It’s a lot less formal than the bigger fests out there. For one thing, all the shows take place indoors at local clubs, so you can easily get a blend of locally brewed beer and local jazz for a small cover ($10 – $20). For another, there isn’t much in the way of corporate sponsorship. Your ticket dollars are going straight to the musicians and club owners who open their doors to jazz performers not only during the festival season but all year round.
While many of the featured artists taking part in the festival have recorded CDs that you can download on your MP3 player, sometimes there’s nothing like listening to them live in a club ambiance. And you never know. You might run into a few surprises that you just can’t get on an album. Like Eric Hove performing with Rafael Zaldivar, or Norman Guilbeault, one of the festival founders, playing a tribute to Charles Mingus. Festival season means a dense calendar for many, so if you only go to a few shows at l’OFF this year, these are the ones you should not miss:
The festival opening featuring the premiere of Pierre Labbé’s Tremblement de fer, composed especially for the 10th anniversary and featuring 50 musicians at Hangar 16, Quais du vieux port, tonight June 18th.
The John Roney Trio tomorrow evening at Dièze Onze and fresh from having recorded a new CD; SJPROJECT6 featuring Stephen Johnson on Saturday June 20th at Cheval Blanc – and this is a freebie; Marathon, headed by saxophonist Adam Kinner and daring to mix jazz, post-rock and prog music at the Cheval Blanc June 21st; the klezmer-influenced The Youjsh, June 22 at Cheval Blanc; and the tango-tinged jazz of Marianne Trudel and Lévy Bourbonnais, at Lion D’Or, June 23rd.
The Al Mclean Quartet on June 24th at Dièze Onze: Al’s voice on the tenor is as big as he is and his tight quartet evokes a broad, elevated acoustic jazz sound. His album, Personal Transit, is reminiscent of Coltrane in the fifties, and going to see them perform will be as close as one can get to stepping into the heyday of jazz.
Mary Fatima Rudolf on June 25th at Dièze Onze: This complex and impressive pianist has a signature sound that carries you along with it and works with the playfulness and passion of a piano. The trio at once evokes the sensitivity of Bill Evans and the aggressive passion of free form.
The Jason Stillman Quintet on June 27th at Cheval Blanc: Jason has been developing his classic sound and has found a way of tightly weaving new and interesting elements into traditional jazz melodies. Jason’s tunes are intricate, swinging and burning all at the same time and audiences will get a kick out of his modern take on a traditional sound.
Every artist has music that can be sampled on the OFF Jazzfest website, www.lofffestivaldejazz.com/en/ and many of them have albums for purchase, recorded locally and sold at shows.
Photo of Norman Guilbeault, l’OFF founder.
