UNE 19 TO 28 Van-

couver clubs and con-

cert venues froth forth
maximum jazz to reach crit-
ical mass.

Michael Becker
RECORD REVIEW

The syncopation nation’s annua!
rite of summer, the du Maurier
Utd. international Jazz Festival
‘Vancouver, is just around the cor-
ner. Making the scene: more than
550 performers fram 16 countries.

Freebies: Gastown Jazz, Satur-
day, June 20, Sunday, June 20;
Jazz at the Plaza, Saturday, June
27, Sunday, June 28.

Along with the varied jazz-R&B
programming in between, music
buffs have the fabled makings of
true sonic adventure.

Name dropping: The Staple
Singers, Strunz and Farah, Marcus
Roberts, Pinetop Perkins and the
Demons, Babayaga, Oliver Jones,
Yomo Toro, Barbara Dennerlein

Trio with Ray Ramsay, Creatures of ©

Habit, Oliver Gannon Trio,
-Mahlathini and the Mahotella
Queens, Johnny Griffin Quartet,
Yellowjackets, Otis Clay, Jazznost.
Music Now recently spoke with

John Orysik, marketing and pro-
motions director, Coastal Jazz &
Blues Society. .
Music Now: { was woadering if
you have soine sense of 2 de-
veloping jazz audience out
there?
Orysik: ‘‘I think what the festival
dees is that it invents an audience
because the music is not properly
dealt with by the music industry,

. commercial radio and television.

* The whole (mainstream) industry is
basically run by people who hate
music. They are bottom-line peo-

ple, mostly men who want to build —

empires and they’re looking after
themselves. So obviously for a
type of music that requires a cer-
tain amount of introspection,
which is jazz — it makes you
think, it makes you feel — they're
not interested in that. So they are
purveyors of music which is very
base, very simple and they control
the market and the agenda.”
Music Now: So is jazz doomed
to be forever marginalized?
Orysik: ‘‘1 don’t think it’s doom-
ed to be marginalized. § think it’s
organizations like ourselves who
take it into our own hands and
stop complaining and do some-
thing about it. That's why the
Coastal Jazz & Blues Society came
into existence. We come from all

TERMS: CASH ONLY

: HOURS: Tues-Fri. 9:30-3:00, Sat. 9:30-2:30

an
* photo submitted

CATCH KOKORO Dance and Kane/Taylor Explosion ‘‘Bats’’ at the

1992 Du Maurier Jazz Festival.

walks of life. and we have a thread
that connects all of us -— jazz. We
decided to do something about it
instead of constantly lamenting the
lack of live music and the lack of
opportunities to hear the music.
We've discovered that people
have really responded fvorably to
what we're doing. If you do some-
thing with a love and a passion
and put honesty into it, it connects
with people and they are reward-
ed with great performances.”
Music Now: Regarding this no-
tion ef global musical cultures
informing jazz, is it across the
spectruns or do you see certain
specific cultures dominating?
Orysik: “Jazz is a music that's
always been democratic and
always open to various cultural in-
fiuences. [ think that what has
happened is now it has become a
global music. it’s a language that
has picked up on so many dif-
ferent cultural orientations, you
know the Latinthing. It's also big
on European intluences, the so-
cafled third stream where they br-
ing in European classical influ-
ences.”

Music Now: Who’s on the
leading edge in this year’s fes-
tival line-up?

Orysik: “Maggie Nicols — she’s
one of the most daring vocalists
and irene Schweizerwitzer is con-

sidered one of the most respected
free jazz piano improvisers in the
world. They're performing
together, and that’s always going
to be interesting.”

Music Now: Have you thought
about taking the festival

beyond of Vancouver?

Orysik: ‘No, because | don’t
think it would be a festival. It’s
very important to maintain a core
geographic area. The whole idea
of the program is to stagger the
times of the concerts. You make it
easy for people to go from one
venue to another. That’s what a
festival is all about, to sample ali
this stuff as much as you can. It
has worked for us, and if it ain’t
broke don't fix it.”

Music Now: Do you have 2
sense of the hot tickets this

year?

Orysik: Lean tell you right now —
Marcus Roberts, Oliver Jones,
Strunz and Farah, Otis Clay and
Johnny Griffin.

Music Now: What made you
decide to open with the Staple
Singers and John Hammond?
Orysik: “Well, we've always
wanted to do a gospel evening to
capture the roots of the music. We
weren’t necessarily planning it as
an opening night, but it turned out
that way so we said sure, why not
open with a gospel night.”’

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