Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium 2023
The Third Decade: Forging a Legacy of Improvisation at the Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF)
September 14–15, 2023
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Amplifying this year’s 30th anniversary edition of The Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF), the improvisation community will gather to reflect on, share, and celebrate the significance and impact of this unique and award-winning world-class event. In this “third decade,” a nod to a 1984 recording by former GJF performers The Art Ensemble of Chicago—a group that has left its own indelible mark on the history of jazz—we pause to consider the vital role that this home-grown community-based event, the Guelph Jazz Festival, has played in shaping the Canadian (and, indeed, the international) musical landscape. We also consider the various ways the Festival has helped to usher in new ways of imagining and conceptualizing the power of improvisation as both a musical and a social practice. It is in this spirit that, for this year’s edition of The Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, we convene a series of special panels involving former and current GJF performers, affiliated researchers, jazz journalists, and community voices to recount their relationships and experiences with The Guelph Jazz Festival. How, these panels will ask, do we understand the Festival’s legacy, and how might we reimagine that legacy in the future? Beyond innovative and international programming and critically-acclaimed performances, the GJF has also significantly provided the foundation and fertile ground for expansive educative endeavours and initiatives—such as the Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium itself and the formation of international scholarly networks and institutions—that continue to benefit musical and scholarly communities worldwide. In this special retrospective edition of the Colloquium, we will curate four streams of panelists:
The Schedule
Thursday, September 14th
9:00–10:15 AM Panel 1
The Future of Jazz in Guelph | artists and scholars from the local community discuss their relationship with the GJF and what they imagine for the future
Joe Sorbara, Nick Fraser, and Karen Ng
Moderator: Jashen Edwards
@ImprovLab, University of Guelph
10:30–11:45 AM Panel 2
Writing Jazz | journalists and writers discuss their relationship with the GJF and the role it has played in the musical landscape in Canada and around the world
Stuart Broomer, Josef Woodard, and Sara Villa
Moderator: Alyssa Woods
@ImprovLab, University if Guelph
Friday, September 15th
9:00–10:15 AM Panel 3
Researching Jazz | researchers discuss their relationship with the GJF and the role it has played in helping to shape a new field of scholarly inquiry
Eric Lewis, Ellen Waterman, and Jesse Stewart
Moderator: Ajay Heble
@MacKinnon 103, University of Guelph
10:30–11:45 AM Panel 4
Playing Jazz | artists and performers (past/present) discuss their relationship with the GJF and the role it has played in the musical landscape in Canada and around the world
François Houle, Lori Freedman, and Douglas R. Ewart
Moderator: Brian Lefresne
@MacKinnon 103, University of Guelph
The Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium is presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) with generous support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Office of the Vice President (Research) at the University of Guelph.
