Jazz fest spreads out across RMTC stages

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This article was published 13/04/2023 (959 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg International Jazz Festival will revisit some old stomping grounds when the 2023 edition begins in June.

They include the John Hirsch Mainstage at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, which returns to the jazz fest fold when it hosts trumpet virtuoso Keyon Harrold and his show Jazz and the Birth of Hip Hop on June 14, the opening day of the festival.

Joining Harrold onstage will be MC and producer Black Milk, percussionist Chris (Daddy) Dave and multi-instrumentalist Georgia Anne Muldrow in a concert that will follow hip hop’s 50-year path and explore the way jazz has affected the popular musical genre.

Harrold has jazz cred from the New York nightclub scene and has become sought after to accompany hip-hop and pop artists such as Beyoncé, Rihanna and Jay-Z, among many others.

“This show he has created is about the intersection of jazz and hip-hop. It’s truly a musical hybrid show unlike anything else we often have a chance to present,” Jazz Winnipeg programs manager Zachary Rushing says of the Harrold concert, which will be opened by local hip-hop group Super Duty Tough Work. “That show will appeal to a lot of people.”

The RMTC mainstage will also host two Juno Award winners, Rêve and Preston Pablo (2023’s dance recording artist of the year and breakthrough artist of the year, respectively) on June 15.

The music shifts down Rupert Avenue to the Tom Hendry Warehouse stage for two more concerts: the Emmet Cohen Trio (June 16) and the Sun Ra Arkestra (June 20).

The addition of the two RMTC stages will give the jazz festival a similar footprint to the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, which takes over the Exchange District in July.

“It’s directly across from Old Market Square and the walkability factor of our festival is what we’re really focusing on,” Rushing says.

Prior to Wednesday’s press conference, Jazz Winnipeg announced African jazz-fusion artist Angelique Kidjo and Postmodern Jukebox, a band that performs jazz versions of contemporary hits, as festival headliners to play at the Burton Cummings Theatre June 17 and 18, respectively.

Local francophone jazz and gospel artist Kelly Bado will open for the Benin-born Kidjo, a singer Bado first listened to when she was a teenager in Cote d’Ivoire, another west African country.

It’s an exciting opportunity she first thought was too good to be true.

“When they called me I thought, ‘I hope this is not a prank.’” she says with a laugh. “I would have gone even if I wasn’t opening, because in Winnipeg you don’t see a lot of artists from an African background.

“I feel my sound is really taken from her, and maybe it’s from all those years listening to her. There’s an African vibe there, but then you also have this North American sound, and that’s what I’m trying to grow into as an artist. She’s definitely a role model for me.”

The Pyramid, which will host blues shows during the festival, will join other familiar jazz haunts such as the Royal Albert and Old Market Square, where free shows at the Cube will return in 2023.

A new venue in one of Winnipeg’s oldest landmarks, the Fort Garry Hotel, will host the Spirit of ’73 concert series, in which Winnipeg acts will put their spin on famous records that came out in 1973.

The shows will take place in the hotel’s Club Room, which is also the home to Yuk Yuk’s new Winnipeg comedy club location and where Jazz Winnipeg recently began hosting Sunday and Wednesday evening gigs.

The first two in the Spirit of ’73 series will feature the Apollo Suns performing Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album, and Vox Populi reliving the songs from Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions.

Rushing is in talks to add two more shows in the series, and with the likes of Elton John, Marvin Gaye and Sly and the Family Stone among those who had hit albums in 1973, the possibilities are endless.

“It’s an incredible year in music, a lot of amazing records,” Rushing says. “Ed Durocher, who leads the Apollo Suns, loves that Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon record, and we’ve been trying to find the right musician for the right project across that series.”

Jazz fest runs from June 14 to 24. Tickets for the RMTC concerts go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at showpass.com; those for club series shows go on sale May 5. Tickets for Kidjo and Postmodern Jukebox are available at tickemaster.ca.

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall