The Saskatchewan Jazz Festival www.saskjazz.com centered mainly in Saskatoon but with performances throughout the province, is the second largest Jazz Festival in Canada. While Montreal is still the Jazz capital of Canada, Saskatchewan is rightly the Blues capital! Our jazz and blues roots run deep. If you want to hear country music youshould go to Alberta! It’s really not surprising that Saskatchewan has produced jazz/blues artists like Joni Mitchell and Colin James. Since the ‘Jazz Age’ at the turn of the century, when thousands of Americans emigrated here – people in this province have been moving their feet to the evolving sounds of ragtime, jazz, blues and rock’n’roll. The Saskatchewan Jazz festival in Saskatoon is a great place to catch a whole lot of that homegrown talent. I was only able to take in 2 days of the two week festival but was able to catch some great local and international performances.
The Oral Fuentes Reggae Band
Oral Fuentes’ musical experience began in his native Belize where he performed with a multicultural band called ‘Caribbean Jam’ – playing for local and country wide events. In 1989, he enrolled in the Academy of Performing Arts in Cambridge Ontario where he became involved in both a rock band called ‘The Warriors’ and a soul/blues band from the Academy called ‘Soul’d Out’. Oral moved to Saskatoon in 1992. I met him a few years back at a house party hosted by my friend Rev. Dave Nelson, an immigrant from the U.S. and now one of Saskatchewan’s great jazz musicians. These days, Dave Nelson has gone from fronting his own jazz groups to playing horn for Fuentes’ reggae band. Fuentes has combined reggae and soca styles with punta-rock and brukdown (styles originating in Belize) to create over 3 hours of original music in his performing repertoire. You can hear some great samples of his music at: www.myspace.com/oralfuentes or visit his website at: www.oralfuentes.com Noteworthy in the performance is the percussions of Joseph Ashong from Ghana. Joseph is nothing less than an athlete: his dynamic African drumming brings cohesion to the whole group and his performance is a wonderful thing to behold! Also worth a listen is Dave Nelson’s trumpet playing. Dave isn’t playing Miles Davis these days, but it’s still brilliant. Fun to watch: Jason Hattie and Zender Miller switching off on Drums and Bass – real rasta guys these!
The venue at the Odeon Event Center was billed as an ‘all night dance party’. I have no idea how long it went on – I was out of there before midnight. On the positive side, the venue attracted a lot of youth, which is great to see considering that most of the jazz festival is supported by an aging population. However, the Odeon Event Center is primarily a dance hall and there are no more than 40 good seats in the entire place. By the time we arrived there were no decent seats left in the house with a decent view of the stage. Our party sat upstairs in the balcony of the old theater where the view was terrible and the booming sound was worse. I chose to stand for a couple of hours and take in the show. For me, the dance floor wasn’t really an option – its been a lot of years since I could dance all night! I really enjoyed the music and I really loved the dance performances by some of Saskatoon’s top dance groups that included African dancer Kahmaria Pingue, Saskatoon Salsa, Defsol, Ritmo Latino, Group Maya and DJ Juan Valdez. In the end though, my feet hurt from all that standing around and I went home long before the festivities concluded.
Roy Sydiaha Quintet with Gillian Snider
I absolutely love the Free Stage in Kiwanis Park. Dubbed ‘Club Jazz’, the free stage hosted 34 performances over the 2 week festival. It was great to catch the Quintet’s jazz show amongst all of the blues acts that were featured on the week-end leading up to the big Buddy Guy show. Roy Sydiaha is a class act on the vibes with Sheldon Corbett on Sax (Sheldon also appeared as the music director for BC Read’s big Band) and Gillian Snyder pulling off some great vocals. Highlight: Gillian’s rendition of ‘Strait up with a Twist’ blending into Joni Mitchell’s jazz classic ‘Twisted’ for a finale.
The Corvairs
Got to love those hard driving roadhouse blues. This Saskatoon band can really punch them out. Between Blair Finley’s brilliant guitar work and Dave Cummine’s keyboards (note the bright red Nord Keyboard – that thing delivers a sound like a full grown Hammond!) this band can handle covers from Robert Johnson to the Allman Brothers and keep you rockin’ all night long. Of course, as vocalist Dave Hicks admitted – starting at noon was a tad bit early for a blues band that’s used to getting up around then. However, it was a hot, bright summer day and while the growing audience chilled in the beer garden, sipping Great Western Pilsner whilst tour boats drifted by on the lazy Saskatchewan river, Dave belted out the blues. Perfect! Thank you Corvairs for providing a memorable event in this year’s Jazz festival. Highlight: covers from ‘Omar and the Howlers’ – I’m a big fan and Dave Hicks can handle those lyrics like no-body’s business.
Curiously enough, Whiteboy Slim appears to be the only white boy in his current band lineup. Whiteboy hails from my old hometown of Moose Jaw. What with all of the hype these days of billing Moose Jaw as Saskatchewan’s little Chicago, maybe it’s about time we started seeing more blues musicians coming out of there (south hill of course). It was obvious that Whiteboy Slim owes much of his incredible stage sound to his current lineup. As he said: “Every time I come out on stage these guys amaze me!” Whiteboy (some people called him Maurice) anchors the band with some solid songwriting and guitar work and it just takes off from there. Charles ‘L.O.R.D. Funk’ Taylor produced one of the most dynamic sounds I’ve ever heard coming from a bass guitar. This cat picks a snappin bass lead, often with thumbed bass counterpoint (where does he stash that pick?). I can’t even begin to describe the overall effect – you really gotta take in this show to appreciate it. On the other side of the stage, Gregory Edmunds on sax really rocked, taking the band into a whole new dimension that an additional guitar or a keyboard could never touch. C.C. McGhee on drums held it together with impeccable rhythm. Highlights: Robert Johnson’s ‘Walkin’ Blues’ and Whiteboy Slim’s own song, ‘You’re Perfect, I love you, Now Change’. I bought Whiteboy Slim’s CD: A.K.A Whiteboy Slim (autographed no less). It was my one CD purchase of the Jazz Festival and after several listens, I really recommend it. You can check out the website at www.whiteboy-slim.com and follow the media link to listen to some of Whiteboy Slim’s tunes (free downloads – wow). If you ever get a chance to take in a live show – I would highly recommend it. This was one of the best shows at the festival when stacked against a lot of great imported and homegrown talent. You rock Whiteboy!
I’ve been a big fan of Jack Semple ever since I saw this bluesman from Regina Saskatchewan step out onto the Ness Creek stage (when was that anyways? sometime long ago in the nineties) and blow us all away with his amazing guitar. Things have changed a lot since back in the day. If you can believe it (and I would not have believed it possible at the time) I now think that Jack has got a lot lot better! These days Jack’s guitar work is downright pyrotechnic. It explodes in a thousand different beautiful ways. It thunders on the highest peaks of rock anthem and drifts dreamlike and smooth on bluesy and flamenco melody. Jack is a great songwriter and has a beautiful melodic voice. He also has this stage persona of being one of the nicest people on the planet. Is this what separates Saskatchewan musicians from rock gods in the rest of the world?
I got a real sweet deal this year at the Jazz Festival: I caught two of Jack’s shows for the price of one. Like I mentioned earlier, I really love the Free Stage in Kiwanas Park. At his show on Friday evening, Jack put on two 45 minute sets and I loved every minute of it. O.K. I admit it – this was the real reason why I never got a good seat for the Oral Feuntes Reggae Band. Jack’s Saturday show at the Bessborough Gardens was only an hour long. The Jazz Club show was way more fun, but both performances were great and the party that I was with, who had never heard of Jack Semple, were duly impressed. We had a debate about which of Jack’s albums to purchase, as we were unfamiliar with them. Jack solves this problem on his website: www.jacksemple.com Just click on Music. Jack currently has 8 albums for sale including two acoustic albums and a great blues Christmas album. You can sample tunes from all of the albums and then, for heavens sake, buy one! A Jack Semple CD should be an indispensable part of any good blues collection.
Ndidi Onukwulu with Madagascar Slim
This is my pick for ‘Best Performance’ of all of the groups that I took in at the 2007 Saskatchewan Jazz Festival. As Ndidi herself put it, with regards to playing before larger groups like The BC Read Big Band and Buddy Guy: “We are two, but we are mighty!” Yes indeedy (that’s how you pronounce Ndidi in case you were wondering). Ndidi came on stage following Jack Semple’s guitar pyrotechnics with a mighty voice that easily challenged Jack’s sonic range. Her stage presence is riveting. This woman is powerful, witty and beautiful. I am lost for an adequate comparison. Ndidi is a performing artist and songwriter who brings her own unique vision of singing the blues to the stage. The other amazing thing about this show, apart from Ndidi herself is that there is only one instrument on stage with her – the most powerful guitar of the great Madagascar Slim. Together, this duo packs enough power to supply the electrical needs of a small Saskatchewan city for an entire winter. I highly recommend that you check out Ndidi’s myspace site at: www.myspace.com/ndidionukwulu for a listen to a couple of her tunes and check out her touring schedule to see if she will be appearing at a venue near you. You can also check out her website at: www.ndidi.ca where she’s got a few more tunes to listen to as well as info on purchasing her new album ‘No I Never’. While you’re at it, check out the official website of Randriamananjara Radofa Besata Jean Longin aka Madacascar Slim at: www.madagascarslim.ca for a great bio about a kid who grew up playing the dance music of Madagascar called Salegy until his life was irrevocably changed by hearing Jimmy Hendrix on the radio singing ‘Hey Joe’. Madagascar Slim has a few great African guitar pieces on his website that are well worth a listen. Most importantly, if you ever get a chance to take in Ndidi Onukwulu with Madagascar Slim in concert – they will give you one of the most unforgettable experiences of your lifetime. No shit!
The BC Read Big Band 
Saskatoon performer BC Read gave us all a taste of that big fat sound of the blues with a good horn section. The horn section lead by Sheldon Corbett (also playing with Roy Sydiaha to name but one other of the many venues this guy participated in over the 2 weeks of the festival) was punchy and solid and I have to mention that Sara Griffith has got to be the classiest trombone player on the planet! Then of course there was that delightful Tuba from Brent Longstaff on an old Segal Schwall classic ‘Good Woman’. Saskatchewan born blues musician Big Dave Mclean brought his harps and joined BC for what was mostly pretty good though I thought it was a mistake to drop the horn section in the middle of the show in favour of Big Dave’s harmonica. That little harp sounded mighty thin in the wake of them big beautiful horns! I’m looking forward to catching BC Read’s show at Ness Creek. I hope those horns stay on the whole time because this group really rocks when it’s in full Big Band Mode. You can find out for yourself at: www.myspace.com/4bcread where BC Read has posted two really great tunes or check out the website at www.bcread.com
The BC Read Big Band will be touring around the province of Saskatchewan this summer so if you get the chance – catch this one!
Update: I just talked with a friend over the weekend who said that Big Dave Mclean avec harmonica was her favourite part of the BC Read show – so there you have it.
It has been a privilege and an honor, in my lifetime, to have witnessed the performances of so many of the great 20th century musicians whose lives took them from the poverty and struggles of early 20th century rural America to the pinnacle of stardom. You can visit Buddy Guy’s websites at http://www.buddyguy.net or at http://www.buddyguys.com to read about the sharecropper’s son who moved to Chicago and became a world renowned guitar legend. What you won’t read about is the story that Buddy Guy told us at his concert at the 2007 Saskatchewan Jazz Festival. As he told it, he was driving a tow truck in 1967 when he did some concerts in Canada that were so well received that it convinced him that he might be good enough to launch a career as a solo artist. Forty years of fame and fortune later, Buddy Guy came back to thank Canada for the initial boost that helped make that career possible.
If you’re a Buddy Guy fan – you were probably there. If not, you missed one of those concerts of a lifetime. Buddy’s guitar and vocals were a delight to behold. This is the man who inspired Eric Clapton. Buddy came backed by a band who were an inspiration in their own right. Young and dynamic, with a guitar player who easily matched the blazing leads of his Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame band leader, this was a show that rocked. Thank you Buddy Guy!
Boreal Performer 