"So...good jazz festival, eh?"
In a recent post about the upcoming US Bank St. Louis Jazz Festival, I suggested that the event might benefit from expanding its vision beyond the constraints of a two-day outdoor concert. Shortly after writing that post, I ran across this news story about another festival that incorporates some of the ideas I mentioned - a multi-day festival with more acts (37 in all) and multiple venues (seven, incuding clubs, concert halls and outdoor spaces) - as well as one idea I didn't think of, but should have: a jazz cruise.
(Wouldn't a jazz cruise be perfect for St. Louis? There is already an annual series of blues cruises which, by all accounts, does pretty well. I wouldn't think one or two jazz cruises, especially during a city-wide festival, would be stretching luck too much.)
The kicker is that this particular festival is in that well-known traditional hotbed of jazz, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Yes, it is sort of an eye-opener to think that a city otherwise best known for a big rodeo could outdo our city along the Big Muddy, home of Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Lester Bowie and many other jazz greats, in the creative programming of a jazz festival. But it does look like they have their act together.
There are some similarities - like St. Louis' jazz festival, the Calgary event has booked a mix of well-known jazz artists (David Murray, Terence Blanchard, David Sanchez), "crossover" acts representing other styles of music (Solomon Burke, Daniel Lanois), and various local bands. But there's also another big difference, financially speaking, in that the Calgary festival officials say that they're securely in the black. That's impressive, expecially in a time when not-for-profits face shrinking supplies of money from both arts agency grants and corporate sponsors. Could St. Louis learn from Calgary's example? Read the story, check out their festival's website, and then add your comments.
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