Happy 142nd, Canada!
I made my yearly Canada Day sojourn down to Granville Island for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. The Taphouse held a trio who was fairly generic. It was the kind of music that you would hear in a nice lounge, except instead of Manhattans and calamari, there was beer and jerky. Granville Island Brewery’s seasonals were the Belgian Wit (a hefeweizen) and a bitter. Two beers in me before 1:30 makes me start feeling like a few drunkards I know. Good thing I went early though; the lineup began around 1:30 and didn’t subside at all for the afternoon shows.
Afterwards I wandered over Railspur Park and took in The Colorifics. They had a pretty unique sound, a nice blend of Latin, jazz and bossa nova. They also managed to get a big band feel on some of their songs, despite having no horns; not a big band SOUND mind you, because you can’t have that without horns, but it just had that feeling of a big band dance type of thing. The bass lines grooved and the lead vocalist had just that little bit of sass that makes female jazz leads so good watch. The music was also just so damn FUN to listen to. I tried to get a CD afterwards, but unfortunately they didn’t bring enough. Hopefully that e-mail list brings some info on where to get it, because honestly, MySpace blows.
Next up at Railspur Park was Dalannah Gail Bowen and Straight Up. She’s a blues singer backed up by a pretty good blues band. Doing some hits from B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix, she rocked the house. The guitarist was unreal and the tenor saxophonist played dirty and loud. It was pretty awesome. Bowen was no slouch herself; it was hard to believe she is 63 years old. Another quickly sold out batch of CDs later, I was left to the Internet to tell me if I could buy her CD online. Only from CDBaby unfortunately, which is American and would require customs and non-cheap shipping. I might have to check out Golden Spike Days, since she’s performing there too, and try to be closer to the front to nab a CD.
Oh I should mention that I went to go see The Contemporary Lovers a couple weeks back. Good show it was, aside from the clarinet player that almost certainly had a cracked reed. It was like beginner band all over again with the squeaks on high notes. Yeesh. The rest of the set was good though. First time I’ve ever heard a soprano (and this was freaking HIGH soprano) sing jazz well. Most female jazz vocalists I’ve heard are in the mezzo soprano range, deep enough to get the lower, sexier tones. Venue was in an old hall though, so the balance was off by a lot. Still a good show though; if you’re interested in modern jazz, you should check them out.