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THE DEBUT OF DOWNTOWN JAZZ | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
In 2012, after many months of behind-the-scenes work with the City of Vancouver, Coastal Jazz unveiled a new location for the Jazz Festival’s free opening weekend. “Building on the success of the location during the 2010 Olympics, the free event – dubbed Downtown Jazz – will be held outside the Vancouver Art Gallery and at
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The phrase ‘what goes around, comes around’ typically refers to the universal law of karma, as in - what you reap, you sow. It can also refer to the cyclical nature of trends, as in - "those flared jeans Kendrick Lamar wore during the Super Bowl were so 2000." From programming to venues to state
STILL PUSHING MUSICAL BOUNDARIES | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
This week’s Flashback takes us to 2010 and another major milestone of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival - the 25th anniversary. In the opening pages of the program guide, Artistic Director Ken Pickering tried to explain how integral Coastal Jazz had felt to its legacy and connection to Vancouver. “For 25 years, Coastal Jazz has built
WANNA BE STARTING SOMETHING | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
You wouldn’t think Michael Jackson would be the talk of the 24th annual Vancouver International Jazz Festival, but news of his untimely death on June 25, 2009 - the day before the festival opened - was everywhere. Michael Jackson and jazz music may seem like an unlikely connection, but his roots are in Motown. Still,
JAZZ BECOMES LEGEND | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
In June 2008, the global economy was teetering on the edge of its seat amid fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis. But we're still months away from September, when the Lehman Brothers' largest bankruptcy filing in history shook the stock market, so let the music roll! The 2008 Vancouver
Young Headliners Come In Hot | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The resurgence of jazz music in the 2000’s resulted in a new breed of headlining acts for jazz festivals at large. Sure, there were still plenty of living legends around, like the 76-year old Sonny Rollins who kicked off the 2007 Vancouver International Jazz Festival at the Orpheum Theatre. Downbeat called him the “greatest saxophone
THE WONDERFUL CHAOS OF JAZZ | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
As time passed the middle of the “aughts” in 2006, you could say Coastal Jazz and the Jazz Festival had achieved a kind of permanence in Vancouver. The 20th anniversary was now behind them. Thousands of people worked and volunteered their time for it each year. Thousands of artists performed at the event, while hundreds
JAZZ FEST PROVES ITS STRENGTH | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
In 2005 the Jazz Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary, its second year with TD as the title sponsor. There was much to be proud of as Artistic Director, Ken Pickering, noted in the program guide. “Jazz connoisseurs often say this Festival has one of the most adventurous, balanced programs in the world.” As he explained,
JAZZ MUSIC HAS A MAJOR MOMENT | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By 2004 jazz music was having a major crossover moment into the mainstream. Ken Burns’ deep dive documentary Jazz came out in 2001. Norah Jones had cleaned up at the 2003 Grammy Awards with her album Come Away With Me that would go on to sell 27 million copies. UK artist Jamie Cullum’s allbum Twentysomething
The Show Must Go On | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
In the midst of 2003's major news headlines like SARS, the US-led, post-9/11 invasion of Iraq, and the first same-sex marriage in Canada, the Vancouver Jazz Festival began with its own breaking news. On the eve of the festival, the Coastal Jazz offices were broken into and the phone lines cut as 1,700 artists were
WAS 2002 PEAK FESTIVAL? | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By 2002 the Jazz Festival had blossomed into "one of the continent’s finest annual musical events" (The Wire, UK). The Vancouver Sun called it “Ten Days of Heaven.” Welcome to peak jazz fest. The sheer volume of programming seemed to explode from the previous year, which had drawn 415,000 visitors to its shows. Coastal
TO THE BEAT OF – JAZZ? | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The summer of 2001 turned out to be the second hottest year on record, and that may have had something to do with that year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival, which continued to impress. “VIJF reinvents itself with fusion and funk,” wrote The Vancouver Sun, referring to bands like Metalwood: Vancouverites Brad Turner keyboards, trumpet and
A BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The year 2000 - or Y2K, if you’re old enough to recall - saw Coastal Jazz celebrate its 15th festival. It kicked off with a cover story in The Vancouver Sun titled, Sound Festival - The du Maurier International Jazz Festival Vancouver has evolved into a model North American cultural event in just 15 years
AHEAD BY A CENTURY | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
As the 20th Century drew to a close, 1999 opened with a few major events that would leave a lasting mark on the world. The year began with the introduction of the euro currency, easing trade and investment across European countries. The Columbine shooting (and the copycat killings it inspired) brought school safety and gun
JAZZ FEST IS A SMASH | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By 1998, the accolades for Vancouver’s Jazz Festival from around the globe were hard to ignore. It had consistently delivered “the most concentrated week of creative music on the planet.” Each year artists, music fans and artists sought out to experience it themselves. “Your festival is justly considered by everyone to be one of the
A TURNING POINT FOR COASTAL JAZZ | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By Karen Dar Woon & Meredith Bates Board Co-Chairs As you may know, Coastal Jazz lost its title corporate sponsor in 2022. The effects of this loss, compounded by the global pandemic and declining national arts and culture funding, have created significant challenges for our organization. Today, on Giving Tuesday, a day where the world
THE DAWN OF DAVID LAM PARK | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The 12th annual du Maurier International Jazz Festival landed June 20 - 29, 1997. That year had a memorable impact on the nineties, giving birth to not one but two massive entertainment icons - the first book in the Harry Potter series and the movie Titanic. Streaming books, movies and music was still quite a
GO BIG AND GO GLOBAL | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Eleven years in, the Vancouver Jazz Festival was in a zone. It had just passed the ten year mark.Audiences were coming out in droves. There had been plenty of accolades and worldwide media attention, but as the year kicked off, the team at Coastal was likely more interested in the music – and for good
The Business of Branding a Festival | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By 1988 the brand of the du Maurier International Jazz Festival was starting to take root. One of the most beloved tools for navigating any festival as an audience member is the printed festival program guide. The guide has everything you need - maps, schedules, calendars of events, artist bios. For the truly faithful, their
A FEST FOR THE CURIOUS LISTENER | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
In 1995 the Vancouver Jazz Festival celebrated a major milestone with its tenth anniversary. In just under a decade, Vancouver had become so synonymous with jazz that Gastown would be referred to as Bourbon Street North, a nod to the Festival’s free opening weekend performances that drew thousands to the neighbourhood's streets. In 1994, total
THE BIG DADDY OF WEST COAST FESTIVALS | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
This week’s flashback takes us to 1994, a year that goes down in the annals of history as a pretty darn eventful one. It was the year NAFTA was established. The year a massive earthquake shook parts of Los Angeles to the ground. Woodstock turned 25 and the World Series was cancelled. In June 1994,
THE JAZZ FEST CIRCLE OF LIFE | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Eight years in, the du Maurier International Jazz Festival was widely regarded as one of the best throughout North America, "an achievement which contributes to the outside perception that this is an exciting musical place with a lot of talented jazz musicians living in a really stimulating environment.” (Where Vancouver) And it was, thanks to year
WHAT IS IT ABOUT JAZZ? | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By 1992, Vancouver’s appetite for jazz music appeared to be insatiable. Perhaps people were still reeling from the loss of Miles Davis, whose death in September 1991 had given the genre a boost in the minds of music lovers. With attendance increasing year over year for seven years, the Festival had proven it could draw
THE FESTIVAL FINDS ITS NICHE | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
In 1991 the onset of a new decade was still looking rough around the edges, proving change can be hard. While the economy was strong and it marked the official end of the Cold War, other conflicts were igniting, as Canada sent troops to support the Gulf War against Iraq. With the release of Nirvana’s
VANCOUVER’S FIRST DANCE PARTY IN THE STREETS | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
It's fitting that the cover of the 1990 jazz festival guidebook featured an image of artists playing instruments atop a cityscape background. In just five years, the annual music fest had exploded to new heights. The previous year's event drew about 100,000 people - a 30 percent jump over 1988 - and the team
VANCOUVER HAS ITS FIRST DANCE PARTY | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
It's fitting that the cover of the 1990 jazz festival guidebook featured an image of artists playing instruments atop a cityscape background. In just five years, the annual music fest had exploded to new heights. The previous year's event drew about 100,000 people - a 30 percent jump over 1988 - and the team
COASTAL CREATES A MUSICAL UNIVERSE | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By 1989, Coastal Jazz had four jazz festivals under their belt - three with du Maurier sponsorship - and had made an indelible mark on Vancouver’s cultural scene. Vancouver Magazine wrote, "In just five years, they have brought the music out from its bohemian shadows and into the big time, with an annual jazz festival
PROGRAMMING THE FESTIVAL WITH PURPOSE | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
As we tread slowly towards the festival’s 40th anniversary, we’re revisiting each one in a flashback. (Click here if you missed our first few.) Let’s fast forward to June 1988. Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics in February. The Soviet Union had just collapsed. The movie Die Hard was not yet considered a Christmas movie.
GETTING THE KEYS TO THE CITY | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By 1987, Coastal Jazz and Blues Society had set the standard for the presentation of jazz and blues music in the Pacific Northwest. They had made global headlines with the first du Maurier International Jazz Festival during Expo 86. The City of Vancouver officially commemorated the week of June 26, 1987 "du Maurier International Jazz
FESTIVAL TALES: INSIDER INFO with NOU DADOUN | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Originally posted June 6, 2020 As we begin to share the many hilarious, touching, profound, and silly stories you shared with us about the Festival, we thought we'd start with some of our insiders: our board members. Nou Dadoun has been around since Day 1, and here he shares how he first got involved. This
VANCOUVER LANDS ON THE WORLD STAGE | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Last week we initiated the first in a series of jazz festival flashbacks, highlighting the inaugural event in 1985. Let’s roll forward to 1986, shall we? Top Gun was the summer’s hottest movie. The band Boney M released The Best of 10 Years album, while a boy group called New Kids on the Block were
A Trip Down Memory Lane | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Imagine it’s August 1985. It’s the summer of Live Aid. SkyTrain’s Expo Line is still months away from opening. You can buy a home in the West End for around $200,000. The Canucks have recently lost in the Division Semi-Finals (3-0) to the Edmonton Oilers. Corey Hart and Platinum Blonde dominate the Canadian music charts,
Join the Coastal Jazz Board of Directors | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Are you interested in stewarding the future of Coastal Jazz? We are currently recruiting expressions of interest to join the Coastal Jazz Board of Directors for the 2024-25 anniversary season and beyond. Board members have the opportunity to lend their expertise to stewarding the mission and vision of the organization as we enter our 40th
More Must-See Free Shows | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By Tim Reinert There’s an old adage that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. This might be true, but thanks to our friends at Coastal Jazz, there is such a thing as a free Jazz concert. In fact, at this year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival, there are literally dozens of them. Artist Talks
Tim’s Picks – Must-See Free Shows | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By Tim Reinert The term “Free Jazz” has a specific meaning in Jazz lore, and it usually describes Jazz that is more adventurous, and less beholden to some of the rules that guide traditional Jazz forms. But today’s article deals with Free Jazz of another kind, and that’s the kind that is actually free. That’s
Festival Artists Who Defy Boundaries | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By Tim Reinert For decades, Downbeat Magazine has had the tagline “Jazz, Blues & Beyond” underneath their logo. Essentially, it’s a catch-all term to describe the music that doesn’t comfortably fit into existing or pre-approved categories. And that’s what we’re talking about today: the music that is at this year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival that
Festival Artists Reinventing the Jazz Genre | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By Tim Reinert Jazz evolves and it changes. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature. It’s one of the things this music is most known for, and it’s why there is endless debate as to what, exactly, Jazz is. This year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival lineup doesn’t pretend to know how to answer that question,
Improvisation is the Backbone to Jazz | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By Vanessa Tam While improvisation exists in every genre of music to a degree, with Jazz, it goes much deeper. Usually featuring a lead singer or instrumentalist, the ensembles compose melodies on the spot over a chord progression played by the rhythm section instruments. Built on their relationships as well as the countless hours they’ve
International Harmonies at The Festival | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By Tim Reinert Music is known as the universal language, but there are an unending amount of dialects, with every area of the world providing a plethora of different musical sub genres for us to disseminate. And as our world has gotten smaller over the last century through technology, our access to music has expanded
Sounds that Swing at the Jazz Festival | Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival
By Tim Reinert It’s time to talk about Jazz. Now, it might feel a little reductive to call out the fact that I’m going to talk about Jazz in my first article about this year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival. I mean…it’s an article about a Jazz festival…it’s a given that I’m going to talk about