Vancouver Jazz Festival - Day 7

With the weekend coming up and a number of other factors causing me to be basically flattened, I figured I'd lay a bit low last night so I just went to the early show at the Van East to see Fredrik Ljungkvist & Yun Kan 5. If you saw the Nordic onslaught known as Atomic a couple years back, you're familiar with Fredrik and his approach to the tenor sax. Last night's set seemed to start off on the freer side of things... which tends to lose my attention pretty fast these days... but then the guys picked up some momentum and by the end of the show I was wanting more. Which works out really well, as you'll see if you check out the schedule below......

The Festival is firing on all cylinders tonight with concerts going on at all the major venues. The links will lead you to audio samples, artist bios, and venue information.

Shirley's already told you what's up at the Commodore tonight, so I'll continue from there.

Me? Well I'm a sucker for large and/or innovative and unusual ensembles, so I'll be at the Van East Cultural Centre yet again. This time to see the ZMF Trio open up for the François Houle Tentet.

And then, as mentioned above, I'll be off for my second round of Fredrik Ljungkvist & Yun Kan 5. This time at The Ironworks. If one were to get there between 8:00 and 10:00, which I definitely won't, they'd also get a chance to see Vancovuer vocalist Karin Plato, who will be opening the night.

The Orpheum is showcasing a couple of distinctive vocalists tonight with M. Ward opening up for headliners Norah Jones and the Handsome Band.

The lineup at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts is shit-hot. Formidable sax player Don Byron will be leading his band through a set of Junior Walker tunes right after past Festival favourites, the Kurt Rosenwinkel Group, make their triumphant return to Vancouver.

"Songs Etc." continues unabated at Performance Works with the second night of Sasha Dobson, Jesse Harris, and Richard Julian.

The outside sounds emanating from the Western Front this afternoon will be created by Saskatchewan native pianist/composer Jon Ballantyne. That one starts at 5:30.

And last but not least, there's free shows all afternoon and the club series all night.

Photo courtesy of leeechy.