Charles Spearin and the Happiness Project band The last night of the jazz festival featured the final of drummer Jerry Granelli’s four 70th-birthday shows and Toronto musician Charles Spearin’s The Happiness Project at St. Matthew’s. I caught the last few songs of the Jerry Granelli Trio’s (Granelli, Dani Oore, Simon Fisk), which were accompanied by […]
Halifax Jazz Festival
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Keren Ann at the Lord Nelson ballroom
Keren Ann and the haunted chandelier I first heard French/Israeli/Dutch/New Yorker/globetrotter singer and guitarist Keren Ann in my little sister’s bedroom while home from university one time, so it felt odd seeing her live for the first time in such a comparatively refined atmosphere as the Lord Nelson ballroom Thursday night. I walked in a […]
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Elisapie Isaac’s makeshift cabaret
Elisapie Isaac Performing to a sold-out Company House, Montreal-based singer Elisapie Isaac seemed even more soft-spoken onstage than in our interview, but no less charming and engaging. Speaking in mostly Franglais to the audience, with the occasional Inuktitut term thrown in, she played two sets with a break in between (I hear this is how […]
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Elisapie Isaac
Some singers sing, others take listeners out of this world into spiritual beyond. Montreal-based Inuk songstress Elisapie Isaac stole this year’s Halifax Jazz Festival. Anyone who was lucky enough to be at last night’s sold out show could attest to this. Both darling and daring, Isaac is one of the most understated voices in this […]
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Shauntay Grant
Curating a Jazz Festival can be an incredible opportunity to showcase a plethora of artists from an array of genres. The melding of music is inherent to jazz. Presented by Word On The Street, local poet and performer Shauntay Grant‘s Wordrhythm fuses spoken word, melody and heart. Her collection of guest performers at last night’s […]
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Jill Barber shines
It’s not all big hair and costume changes, Jill Barber‘s grown into a bona fide jazz diva. A sweetheart and a chanteuse who Halifax adores, she’s got splashes of all the greats—Edith Piaff, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday. More importantly, these days she’s all Jill Barber. Part persona, part performance, all heart. Barber had stars in […]
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Crofts/Adams/Pearse and The Unsupervised at 1313 Hollis
Crofts/Adams/Pearse Local experimental whizzes Norman Adams, Tim Crofts and Lukas Pearse performed as their trio Crofts/Adams/Pearse at a calm and only slightly overheated 1313 Hollis, performance space of the Jazz Festival’s home base, on Sunday night. Though sometimes an acoustic piano/cello/bass trio, the set was electronic this time, creating an ultra-minimal sound much of the […]
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Doris Mason, Preservation Hall Jazz Band
For those with a curfew, the Halifax Jazz Fest free concerts are a perfect way to spend an afternoon. Sunshine, a cool breeze and Ella Fitzgerald tribute—Doris Mason‘s Ella-vation made for a swoony Sunday. For anyone who adored the original First Lady of Song, Doris Mason is a pretty good make-shift Ella. One of the […]
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The Pharcyde
Halifax holla’d back. As a last minute line up change, The Pharcyde trumped Jazz Fest’s opening weekend on the waterfront with their 90s throwback. High energy, dynamic and dance-party inspiring, what else could a humid summer’s night in Halifax call for? Los Angeles’ Pharcyde offered up a refreshing spin on the jazz fest’s roster. The […]
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Colin Stetson’s lonely sax
Colin Stetson’s solo sax brought loneliness to a busy St. Matthew’s
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The Bad Plus: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
The Bad Plus incites riotous applause with a cover of Stravinsky’s riot-inducing Rite of Spring
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Yaron Herman Trio and The Bad Plus
Jazz Fest’s opening night kicked off with Tel Aviv’s Yaron Herman Trio, a fusion of pop, jazz and classical music. Not only did their rendition of Nirvana‘s Heart Shaped Box make the ’90s seem glamorous, Courtney Love could almost be deemed classy. As the cotton candy pink sunset over the harbour, Yaron Herman Trio serenaded […]