This year the TD Vancouver International Jazz festival is returning in the summer to bring us 52 free streamed concerts and workshops for its 35th Anniversary from June 25 to July 4, and yes, I said free! Last year, due to the pandemic, the highly anticipated festival was cancelled, and with Vancouver continuing to be in a quasi-lockdown, no one expected the exciting news! 

(Coastal Jazz/Facebook)

The line-up of the free program is bursting with talent like Dawn Pemberton, Krystle Dos Santos, Bonnie Northgraves Quartet, Eli Davidovici, and much much more.

Vancouver is rich in culture and history, and the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society works to

 “establish Vancouver as a centre for the creation and exchange of sounds and ideas between the local, national, and international music communities.”  (Coastal Jazz and Blues Society)

 

Obviously, nothing beats an in-person live jazz performance. Still, the virtually based festival events can provide jazz listeners from all over a soulful experience of four free daily concerts streamed out of Vancouver, from Granville Island and Railtown.

No matter where you are, at work, studying or dancing alone around your kitchen, you can enjoy Vancouver’s jazz and music scene! And check out what puts Vancouver on the map!

The festival anticipates, and we all certainly hope, that guidelines set down by the Provincial Health Office should relax by mid-summer. In that case, the jazz festival plans to have limited capacity in-person events, in restaurants, outdoors and other venues.

Each year Coastal Jazz provides free workshops, this year they will be streamed from Tom Lee Music Hall at 3:30 pm on Zoom. With lessons, from acclaimed pianist Roisin Adam, guitarist Ayla Tesler-Mabe and more!

All of these resources and culture are at your fingertips! And I’ll say it again, for free! There’s no reason to pass up these opportunities this summer.

Here you can stream the performances live. Next to each video on this playlist is when it’ll be streaming live, so mark off your calendar!

Let’s get jazzy, groovy and funky this summer!