Halifax Jazz Festival expands programming ahead of 40th anniversary

CITYnews halifax / By Steve Gow

Organizers say music fans can expect even more at this year’s TD Halifax Jazz Festival as the event celebrates its 40th year.

The full schedule for the festival was announced earlier this week, which included expanded programming, much of it free to the public. Big names in music like Tower of Power, Bahamas, Broken Social Scene, and Nova Scotia’s own Rose Cousins are scheduled to play the festival main stage.

However, the festival’s artistic director says that with the city’s ties to jazz throughout the decades, organizers also wanted to ensure that legacy was celebrated as part of its milestone celebrations.

That includes a planned exhibition set up on the waterfront featuring archived photos connected to 40 years of great music in the city.

“We have so many photos in our archive that we have digitized,” says Andrew Jackson. “We’re going to have a memory lane photo exhibit on the waterfront that people can check out to see all of the history that we’ve got with the festival and the musicians here.”

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The festival will also feature three stages on the waterfront all week long that will allow the public to enjoy free music in the evenings, as well as its TD Main Stage set-up, which will spotlight musicians throughout the daytime.

Jackson adds music will return to Hydrostone Park on the festival’s weekend, and there will be free all-ages jazz labs that offer a behind-the-scenes look at making music.

The 10-year artistic director says one of the special events planned specifically for the 40th anniversary will be a Big Band Commission celebrating four decades of music in the city.

“It is being composed by local musician James Shaw,” says Jackson, noting many may recognize him as the saxophonist in Rankin MacInnis’s popular Winter Warmer series. “He’s writing a special commission that reflects the history of jazz and music in Halifax, so he touches on a few different historical points throughout it (and) we’ll be presenting that on the opening night and the closing night of the festival.”

The TD Halifax Jazz Festival runs from July 7 to 12.