TD Ottawa Jazz Festival’s OLG After Dark Series Bites Its Thumb at the Curfew
Nestled right within Confederation Park, the longest days of the year aren’t privy to what goes on after dark. This year’s Jazz Festival, brought to us by Toronto Dominion, is having again this year its 10:30PM shows for the OLG After Dark Series at their Laurier Avenue Canadian Music Stage. To celebrate, Beau’s Brewery has released the limited edition After Dark Ale, which will be the key for contestants to win tickets to this year’s Beau’s Oktoberfest.
Sweet shows have already begun! Those of us who can’t manage our schedules properly have already missed DJ Rekha, Austra & Snarky Puppy on the first three nights of the festival. Tonight Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society will massage our senses with approximately a 17-person big band!
Tomorrow is the very exciting Socalled, a producer, composer, singer, songwriter from Montreal who grew up in Chelsea, QC will make some of his funk hiphop come to life for us (minus the digital effects, but probably with a few anyways).
Wednesday we’ll see Jazz Festival veteran Bill Frisell with his amazing project Go West. With the assistance of talented musicians Greg Leisz, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wooleson, he will be mapping out a 1925 Buster Keaton film titled Go West with their percussion, bass & guitars. Thursday the 26th we’ll have the classic big brass band from New Orleans, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, celebrating their 35th anniversary as a musical entity. Friday the 27th we’ll witness the pop ensemble Lake Street Drive after dark touring their third LP release, Bad Self Portraits. This American quartet has some sweet R&B and jazz background to their upbeat & wonderfully sung tracks.
On Saturday the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, which needs no introduction other than the video below, will play into the night of the week, follow by reggae rock & irish violin from singer/songwriter Michael Greilsammer on Sunday, and Irish punk (!) from The Mahones on Monday!
Thus ends the After Dark Series, but the final day of the festival will see it into Canada Day. Indeed, this series is but a taste of the entirety of the Jazz Festival’s programming. The beautifully simple full schedule is here. You stay jazzy Ottawa!