Calgary grooves to Big Easy vibe

The 30th Calgary Jazz Festival (aka C-Jazz) opened this week with a New Orleans style gala at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Roxanne Potvin gave a rollicking first act in the hall’s main foyer, where a substantial crowd lined up at the bar and mingled around cocktail tables. Others watched from the upper levels, leaning over the balustrade and shaking in time to the music.

A private reception hosted by TransCanada offered Louisiana style hot snacks and Mardi Gras beads, seen most notably on Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit Lindsay Blackett who delivered a lengthy but enthusiastic introduction to the evening’s main acts.

After a good dose of Potvin’s rockabilly/soul stylings and a few cold Big Rock beers in the lobby, guests made their way into the concert hall. Drinks were permitted inside the theatre for the occasion. Blackett then introduced The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and headliner Allen Toussaint.

“If you look across North America,” Blackett said, in reference to the festival’s thirtieth anniversary, “We have the best jazz festival in all of North America.”

The audience was loud, happy, and lightening quick in their reaction to the band. Straight from New Orleans, the Dirty Dozen had the audience on their feet, dancing and clapping to renditions of When the Saints Come Marching In and My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now.

Toussaint provided a slower groove, incorporating his classic Sweet Touch of Love (made famous again, he said, by a recent commercial for body spray featuring “a chocolate boy … very interesting”) and songs from his new album The Bright Mississippi such as the haunting Egyptian Fantasy, and the Thelonious Monk song from which the album takes its name. The 71 year old composer, pianist, and singer has not lost his touch; audience members marveled over his deft fingering and flourish.

The jazz festival continues until Sunday, June 28 when it finishes with a free outside concert in Olympic Plaza. Performers throughout the week include the renowned saxophonist Branford Marsalis, Calgary’s own Cumako, the legendary Halifax-based percussionist Jerry Granelli, King Sunny Ade and the African Beats, and PianOrquestra, a Brazilian group of five musicians playing one piano.

Guests at the opening gala included: Anne Green, director of WordFest, Ian Menzies, president of Meta4 Music Management, Syd Bosch, president of Nuvo Hotel and Suites, Laura Shewchuk, president of Urban Energy Executive Concierge, Michael Green, co-artistic director of the High Performance Rodeo Festival, Erica Mattson of Calgary Arts Development, and pianist Andrea Petrity.

Published in National Post, June 27 2009