Peterson Festival Brings True Jazz to Ontario
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A18 | NEWS G THE GLOBE AND MAIL | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2018 Peterson festival brings true jazz to Ontario A who’s who of it was going to be held,” Rosnes says. “But when Niagara-on-the- performers play Lake came up, it seemed to be inaugural event in the right place. wine country, evoking Boosting off-season wine- country tourism helped local genre’s golden afterglow business get on board. “A lot of of the 1960s and 70s people think wineries close up in winter when, in fact, it’s a won- derful time for visitors to get a PETER GODDARD deeper, more thorough perspec- NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONT. tive,” says Suzanne Janke, estate director for Stratus Vineyards, host site for a pair of concerts. e’ve come to expect little So, yes, this was that kind of from jazz. jazz festival – the Bordeaux-sip- W Mostly the sound- ping, dreamy ballads kind, some- track for septuagenarian nostal- thing of lovely social fantasy not gia these days, jazz makes only far in spirit from that evoked by occasional appearances in ads for the “dear gentle folk of New- luxury products, none affordable port,” as sung in That’s Jazz by to its performers then or now. Bing Crosby in the 1956 film High And then there’s George Clooney Society. In broader terms, here still thinking he’s Frank Sinatra. was a reminder of jazz’s golden So who can be prepared when afterglow in the 1960s and early the real deal comes along in all 70s, when the music still made its sweet and sad glory, as it did money, when compact festivals last weekend at Niagara-on-the- from Newport, R.I., to Juan-les- Lake, Ont., for the debut of the Pins on the French Riviera, were Oscar Peterson International Jazz well-curated at the start. Support Festival? from Playboy Magazine, Holly- Who ever expected to hear live wood and designers such as Yves The Peacocks (A Timeless Place), a Saint Laurent brought an autum- rare and mysterious ballad from nal richness to jazz’s surface. self-effacing accompanist Jimmy At Niagara-on-the-Lake, one Rowles? Who could have imagin- saw what might be called the On- ed it so effortlessly, breathlessly tario jazz society – white folks for performed at the opening Friday the most part, well turned out concert by Cécile McLorin Sal- and hitting their stride. The look vant? Only 28, she’s already Ella and feel of success glided effort- Fitzgerald’s heiress apparent. less from day to day, hour to “We wanted something differ- hour, from the trays of buttery ent,” says Kelly Peterson, the late Oysters Rockefeller passed pianist’s widow and festival pro- around at a Saturday evening re- ducer. “The summer has so many ception at the Stratus’s glass-clad festivals, so we wanted one in winery – it could stand in for a The Oscar Peterson International Jazz Festival, held Friday to Sunday, followed the musical model of the winter. And remember, this is space station in a movie – to late- Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts organized by Norman Granz from 1944 to 1983. ALEX HEIDBUECHEL Black History Month. But the afternoon Sunday, when Ed Bick- idea was to do more, not to have ert, the wry Toronto guitarist, er again, its recording of the at the Quintet’s core. Green also jazz festival “goes far from jazz, it every concert as a tribute to accepted the inaugural Canadian night destined only for the vaults set the high bar for piano playing creates confusion in the music.” Oscar. It’s our intent to present Jazz Masters Award. of the festival’s own archives. Yet that was leaped over with ease One might assume that the ra- true, swinging jazz. This is a jazz The festival’s musical model is this group might well be men- with the Saturday afternoon two- cism and violence Granz famous- festival.” the Jazz at the Philharmonic tioned in the same sentence with piano pairing of Rosnes and her ly fought with the JATP, insisting The festival has its beginnings (JATP) concerts organized by the now legendary 1953 Jazz at husband, Bill Charlap. One- on non-segregated concerts, was in a series of 2015 recordings ses- American impresario Norman Massey Hall concert and one or upmanship, a great jazz staple, in jazz’s past. Saxophonist Jimmy sions she organized. An A-list of Granz from 1944 to 1983, with two Boss Brass blowouts over the was certainly in the festival air. Greene’s very presence on stage jazz pianists were invited to play Oscar Peterson being a rising star years, led by Rob McConnell. Rosnes’s contemporary Cana- Friday sadly refuted that, coming on Peterson’s Bosendorfer grand from 1949 on. (Granz died in 2001 (The late Toronto trombonist dian JATP edition, led by saxo- only two days after the tragic piano in the Peterson home for at the age of 83.) These were the McConnell received a Jazz Master phonist Mike Murley, although school shooting in Parkland, Fla. the three-CD set, Oscar, With Love. original supergroups, the model award, as did Oscar Peterson out-famed by the American, Greene’s own daughter, Ana After Regina-born pianist/arran- for the all-star unit Rosnes orga- himself.) proved to be down and dirtier. Grace Mârquez-Greene, was ger Renee Rosnes arrived for her nized for the all-American Friday Indeed, the lineage of Rosnes’s Examples of the JATP film leg- killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook turn, the talk between the two kick-off concert at the FirstOnta- “International All-Star ‘Jazz at acy were screened Saturday, at St. Elementary School shooting. She women turned to festivals, par- rio Performing Arts Centre in St. the Philharmonic’ ” led directly Mark’s Anglican Church, as was only six years old. ticularly those based around a Catharines, and the Canadian all- back to that legendary Massey smoky jam sessions shown on “Everyone understood,” single musician, such as the star wrap-up Sunday afternoon Hall Quintet. Trumpeter Jon Fad- grainy film contrasted with Rosnes explained. “I don’t think James Moody Jazz Festival in at Stratus. dis hit some screaming high vibrant colour shards of the sun it changed the dynamic. It’s good Newark, N.J., where Rosnes now St. Catharines heard a band – notes that only Dizzy Gillespie, piercing the stained glass of the to be an artist. Jazz is the art of lives. The pianist was soon Christian McBride, bass, drum- his mentor in the Quintet, might 1792 church. Film host and long- improvisations. It’s living in the appointed the Peterson Festival’s mer Kenny Washington, to give have comprehended. All-Star time Granz confidant Jacques moment.” artistic director. an idea only of the rhythm sec- pianist Benny Green, a musical Muyal felt the Peterson fest “had “At first, we didn’t know where tion – unlikely to ever be togeth- cubist, channelled the hard-bop soul” but warned that when a Special to The Globe and Mail Message delivered: Tarragon to premiere long-awaited play BRAD WHEELER prodigal playwright re- turns. One of the two world Apremieres among the seven plays of the Tarragon The- atre’s 2018-19 Toronto season is The Message, a long-in-the-works look at the Canadian media guru and “the medium is the message” theorist Marshall McLuhan, from playwright Jason Sherman. The Message deals with the last year of the life of McLuhan, who died in 1980. The play was sched- uled to be part of Tarragon’s 2003- 04 season, but the production Richard Rose was waylaid when the McLuhan estate threatened legal action. A tour to Banff, Alta., Iqaluit and planned reading at Harbourfront the National Arts Centre in Otta- Centre during the city’s World wa. The production (described as Stage festival was cancelled. an “Inuit Odyssey”) is performed Sherman is Tarragon’s current in Inuktitut with English surtitles. playwright-in-residence, a posi- The season opens in Septem- tion he held to much applause for ber, 2018, with a revival of Harlem most of the 1990s – the fertile pe- Duet from Governor-General’s riod which produced The Retreat, Literary Award winner Djanet Patience, An Acre of Time and three Sears. Conceived as a Harlem-set plays helmed by current Tarragon prequel to Shakespeare’s Othello, artistic director Richard Rose: It’s the 1997 drama was the first play All True, Remnants and 1994’s at Stratford Festival by a black Three in the Back, Two in the Head, writer, with a black female direc- which received the Governor- tor and an all-black cast. General’s Award for Drama. Besides The Message, the sea- Since his residency, Sherman son’s other world premiere is has concentrated on writing for Guarded Girls, written by Char- television and radio, including lotte Corbeil-Coleman. The dra- the CBC Radio series Afghanada ma deals with the psychological (2006-11). With his latest effort, destruction brought on by soli- Sherman is reunited with Rose, tary confinement. who will direct The Message. Other plays include Norman In a media statement that Yeung’s Theory, a topical story accompanied the announcement about a young professor who of Tarragon’s forthcoming pro- tests the limits of free speech by gramming, Rose noted the diver- encouraging her students to con- sity of the season’s stories and tribute to an unmoderated dis- storytellers. “We will present a cussion group. Making its Toron- culturally rich season of plays to premiere is New Magic Valley that reflects our country’s history, Fun Town, a Cape Breton story engages with contemporary Can- from Daniel MacIvor.