Jazzipino

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This article was published 11/06/2024 (810 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Royal Albert Arms will be a hub of community building, CanCon and culturally-inspired music during this year’s TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival, which kicks off Friday.

This weekend, the Albert Street venue hosts the festival’s Pinoy Jazz Series featuring local Filipino artists and bands playing original tunes and jazz standards.

Friday’s lineup includes Hera, Not Your Ordinary Hooligans and Tricia Magsino Barnabé and the Boyz.

“To see Filipino representation at the (festival) will be such a cool experience,” says Rein Cabalquinto, who performs as Rein and takes the stage alongside Jovelle Balani and Feelgood on Saturday.

“A lot of these performers I’ve known for quite a while and it’s pretty neat to see that they also have an inkling for jazz.”

Cabalquinto, 24, comes from a musical household. His parents play guitar and piano and karaoke was a frequent family activity. Popular Pinoy music from the Philippines was often blasting in the living room.

In high school, he developed a love of jazz through various choirs and bands. Cabalquinto took a break from music to focus on college, but started writing his own songs amid the pandemic.

“I had some bottled up feelings,” he says with a laugh.

While he takes inspiration from famed jazz artists such as Chet Baker, Cabalquinto’s music also draws from his Filipino heritage. He recently released his first single in Tagalog, a “cheesy” bossa nova-style love song, called Ikaw Lang, which he wrote as an anniversary gift for his parents.

“I finally got to incorporate my heritage and my language into a genre that I’ve loved for so many years,” Cabalquinto says.

Jovelle Balani’s love of jazz started in 2018 when she moved to Winnipeg from the Philippines and began collecting vintage vinyl records. Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald inspired her to enrol in voice lessons and pursue a professional career as a jazz singer.

Balani, 27, describes herself as an old soul on a mission to share jazz with a younger generation through live performances and social media.

“There’s something about jazz music that’s so nostalgic and so raw; I think it’s really beautiful and underrated. My goal as a jazz artist is to introduce it to my fellow Gen Zers,” she says.

“There’s something about jazz music that’s so nostalgic and so raw; I think it’s really beautiful and underrated. My goal as a jazz artist is to introduce it to my fellow Gen Zers.”– Jovelle Balani

She’s also passionate about sharing Filipino music with a wider audience. Recently, she’s started dabbling in “Jazzipino,” which blends American jazz and blues with Filipino contemporary, pop and folk music.

Balani, who performs during Saturday’s Pinoy Jazz Series, is excited to see her community represented at one of Winnipeg’s signature music festivals. Last year, during her first-ever Jazz Fest performance, she says she felt out of place as one of the few Filipino artists in the programme.

“I was hoping Jazz Winnipeg would be able to diversify the lineup this year and I’m glad they did. There’s so much Filipino talent in the city that needs to be recognized.” she says.

The Albert also hosts this year’s Canadian Jazz Showcase from June 20 to 22, which features contemporary jazz artists from across the country — many of whom also pull musical inspiration from their cultural backgrounds.

Next weekend, Ilya Osachuk returns to his hometown to close out each showcase with a late-night jam session. The 27-year-old bassist and recent Juilliard School graduate lives in New York City, where he’s become a rising star in the North American jazz scene.

“We’re trying our best to bring jam session-culture to Winnipeg from an authentic place, especially having experienced it in New York, where it’s very prevalent. You just play all night and anyone who wants to can come play, it’s amazing,” Osachuk says.

When he moved to the city, jam sessions were a way to network with other musicians. Those connections have led to residencies at New York’s Carlyle Hotel and gigs at iconic national jazz venues such as Birdland, Smalls and Blues Alley.

Osachuk encourages musicians of all stripes to take part in the free jam sessions at the Albert, which run from 11 p.m. until late.

“It can be a really intimidating thing to go and play with a bunch of strangers, so I’m trying my very best to create an environment where we can support those who are of varying skill levels,” he says.

The events will open with a performance of Osachuk’s original compositions, played with a backing band made up of fellow up-and-coming jazz prodigies Niall Cade, Kyle Cobb, Evan Miles and Tetyana Haraschuk.

His growing songbook is heavily influenced by his Ukrainian-Canadian identity. Growing up in Winnipeg, he was surrounded by traditional choral music during church services.

“My big goal … is to elevate Ukrainian fine art. I’m trying to combine elements of (Slavic) music and tonalities with a jazz esthetic that’s simultaneously modern but very much informed by the history of jazz.”– Ilya Osachuk

“My big goal — as a composer, as a musician — is to elevate Ukrainian fine art. I’m trying to combine elements of (Slavic) music and tonalities with a jazz esthetic that’s simultaneously modern but very much informed by the history of jazz,” he says.

That so many young musicians are infusing the genre with their own background comes as no surprise to Jazz Winnipeg programming director Zachary Rushing

“Jazz is a music that came from immigrants,” Rushing says. “It’s a great continuation of the jazz traditions, which has always been based around the expansion of musical ideas as contributed by people who immigrated to North America and brought their musical and cultural traditions with them.”

Visit jazzwinnipeg.com for a full schedule of the 2024 Jazz Festival, which takes place across nine venues in downtown Winnipeg and features a range of free and ticketed shows.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @evawasney