Esperanza Spalding playing Ottawa Jazz Festival
By Peter Hum, The Ottawa Citizen
Photo courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen, by John Major
Bassist singer Esperanza Spalding, who notoriously bested Justin Bieber at the 2011 Grammy Awards, will play the Ottawa Jazz Festival in June.
Spalding, who won the best new artist Grammy last year, will play the Ottawa festival on June 27, her record label, the Concord Group, announced Tuesday. The label did not state which stage Spalding will appear on.
More on the Ottawa Citizen website: Esperanza Spalding playing Ottawa Jazz Festival
Winterlude 2012 will remember the War of 1812
Alicja Siekierska, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Feb. 3 will mark the start of Winterlude 2012, the 34th edition the city’s popular three-week long winter festival.
The National Capital Commission unveiled new details about the annual winter extravaganza Tuesday, which will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 as well as the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Coast Guard. There will be various activities honouring the anniversaries throughout the festival.
The NCC will work with more than 50 programming partners — more than ever before — to bring a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities to the event.
NCC CEO Marie Lemay says the increase in partnerships will not only make for a “bigger and better” Winterlude, but it will also bring more community involvement.
“We want the community to take ownership so it’s not just the NCC’s Winterlude,” says Lemay. “Community groups have really taken part in it, building it and taking ownership of it. So it’s everybody’s Winterlude.”
One of the new partners is the Ottawa Jazz Festival, which will launch the first annual Winter Jazz Festival with a series of concerts Feb. 2 to 4, most at the NAC’s Fourth Stage.
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: Winterlude 2012 will remember the War of 1812
Kellylee Evans to play Jazz Festival fundraiser Dec. 8
Dan Lalande, Ottawa Performing Arts Examiner
Looking to get away this winter?
Then your first trip should be to the Ottawa Jazz Festival’s annual fundraiser, December 8 at the Library and Archives of Canada.
The annual event, in which items of all kinds are auctioned off, regularly offers travel packages fit for a snowbird – not to mention getaways to Europe and New York. It’s a great way to bag a bye-bye bargain.
And if your winter getaway plans are already secured, no worries: there’s still the great food and good company of the pre-auction reception, plus the post-bidding concert by Ottawa’s own rising star, Kellylee Evans.
Read more on the Examiner.com website: Kellylee Evans to play Jazz Festival fundraiser Dec. 8
Kellylee Evans headlines Ottawa Jazz Festival benefit and live auction
[Source: Ottawa Jazz Festival]
Kellylee Evans returns to Ottawa for one of her first appearances since winning the JUNO Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the year. She performs at the Ottawa Jazz Festival’s annual benefit concert at the Library and Archives of Canada on December 8 at 6:30 p.m.
The 2011 Ottawa Jazz Festival benefit also includes a live auction of several travel and leisure lots overseen by special guest auctioneer Alan Neal of All in a Day, CBC Radio One 91.5 FM.
Visit: OttawaJazzFestival.com
Ottawa Jazz Festival’s Catherine O’Grady receives award for Festival work
Alayne McGregor, OttawaJazzScene.ca
Ottawa Jazz Festival executive producer Catherine O’Grady recently received a Women of Distinction Award from the Ottawa YWCA.
The biennial awards “recognize not only the amazing contributions of our nominees, but the incredible effect these women have on the people they serve, and the programs and activities to which they are devoted,” said Gail DiCintio, the chair of the 2011 awards committee.
At the ceremony on May 31, 2011, O’Grady received the St. Joseph Media Arts and Culture award.
Her award biography said: “Since Catherine O’Grady’s take over as Executive Producer of the Ottawa International Jazz Festival (OIJF) in 1996, the event has seen an audience increase of 300 percent. Her dedication and enthusiasm has emphased success for female jazz musicians – with the creation of Women in Jazz – and art administrators in apprenticeship roles in this typically male-dominated sector.
Read more on OttawaJazz.ca: Ottawa Jazz Festival’s Catherine O’Grady receives award for Festival work
Countdown is on to the Biggest Birthday Celebration in the Country
Celebrate Canada Day at the Capital’s official sites
[Source: press release]
Canada’s Capital Region ─ With one month to go until Canada’s 144th birthday, the National Capital Commission (NCC) is pleased to announce celebration details for two of the three official sites for Canada Day festivities in the Capital: Major’s Hill Park in Ottawa, and Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau. Celebration plans for the iconic heart of the party, Parliament Hill, with Their Royal Highnesses, Prince William and Catherine, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will be shared soon.
The 2011 Canada Day activities will celebrate the Centennial of Parks Canada, the oldest national parks service in the world, the 120th anniversary of the Canadian invention of basketball and the 150th anniversary of the birth of its inventor, Dr. James Naismith, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National Ballet of Canada, and will highlight three of Canada’s Cultural Capitals for 2011, the City of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the City of Lévis, Québec, and the City of Vancouver, British Columbia. The day will culminate in a breathtaking fireworks display.
“Canada’s Capital is an inspiring reflection of the people, values and achievements of this country, and no day is that more evident than on Canada Day,” said Marie Lemay, Chief Executive Officer of the NCC. “On July 1, the Capital will undoubtedly be the ideal place to have a memorable, Canadian experience.”
Jazzfest revelations and speculations: Mehldau, Fleck, N’Dour Ottawa-bound this summer
Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
It’s around this time of year that I and other jazz fans are itching to find out who the TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival will bring to town this summer.
Not that the event wants us to know.
While the lineup has almost certainly been determined for the event’s 31st annual edition, which runs from June 23 to July 3, jazz festival folks are keeping their lips sealed until their April 13 launch.
Read full story: Jazzfest revelations and speculations
Win Tickets to see Omara Portuondo
Cuba’s sensational Omara Portuondo is unquestionably the quintessential voice of the golden age of Cuban jazz.
The sixth caller through to the Ottawa Jazz Festival office, 613-241-2633, to purchase tickets to Omara Portuondo on Thursday, February 17, 8pm will win two tickets to the Salif Keita concert on Tuesday, April 12, 2011.
Cuban singing legend Omara Portuondo heats up February in Ottawa
The Ottawa Jazz Festival presents Cuba’s sensational Omara Portuondo on Thursday, February 17, 2011, 8pm, at Dominion-Chalmers United Church, 355 Cooper Street, (corner Cooper and O’Connor). This is a rare opportunity to see this legendary Cuban superstar!
“Flowing in the present, but with deep roots in the past – the Cuban singer Omara Portuondo… is still impulsive onstage.” – New York Times
As a young artist, Omara toured extensively throughout the USA with her sister until the Revolution.
Under the Castro regime, she continued to tour internationally (except for America) and became known for her signature “boleros”. A living legend, Portuondo has been the subject of a documentary, Omara, which won an award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.
For more than sixty years Omara Portuondo has passionately exuded her country’s musical culture. The Cuban-born diva became synonymous with Cuban music after the instant success of the recording “The Buena Vista Social Club” and the band’s first international tour produced by Ry Cooder. Here she left her indelible mark alongside the legendary BVSC co-stars, Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo and Reuben Gonzalez.
Ottawa audiences will recall her two sell out performances with the Buena Vista Social Club and subsequently with the critically acclaimed Barbarito Torres. Omara is unquestionably the quintessential voice of the golden age of Cuban jazz.
Reserved tickets are $40. General admission is $32 and Student prices (11 to 25 years, with valid student ID) are $22 (HST included). Tickets are on sale at the Ottawa Jazz Festival office: 294 Albert, Suite 602, 613-241-2633 or through our website at ottawajazzfestival.com; Compact Music (2 locations); CD Warehouse (all 3 locations) and Ottawa Festivals – 47 William St. in the Byward Market.
Of spirit and song
In the case of Kurt Elling, divinity’s loss was jazz gain.
The Chicago-raised, New York-based vocalist was a degree shy of obtaining his master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School, when he set his studies aside to pursue music.
Singing had always been part of his life. His father was the musical director at a Lutheran church. But the jazz bug bit, and for the last 15 years he has dominated the ranks of male jazz singers, thanks to his unmistakable, four-octave baritone voice and performing flair. His last CD, Dedicated To You, won the Grammy Award this year for best jazz vocals album.
Elling, 43, performs in Ottawa on Monday, Dec. 13, with his group, as the star attraction at the TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival’s annual fundraiser. He spoke recently with the Citizen, discussing his forthcoming CD, The Gate, his path to jazz and the spiritual thinking that girds his music, even if he left formal religious studies behind.
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: Of spirit and song
