I recently got the pleasure to meet Andrew Jackson, the Artistic Director of this years Jazz Fest. For those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure, Andrew is a trombonist and composer born and raised in Halifax, and he has been helping Jazz Festivals come to life for 7 years! I picked Andrew's brain about what to expect from this year's Jazz Fest, upcoming artists, free venues to check out this year, and more! Let's take a closer look into our chat:
Picture of the TD Jazz Festival Stage
What goes into finding artists for each new Festival?
Since it's an international festival we have people coming from all over, which is exciting. It is also a year long event (meaning we start to organize for the next year's festival a year ahead of time). For us, being here on the East Coast, we rely on a lot of touring networks so that artists can play a bunch of different shows in Canada on their way to the East Coast, for example the artist Killer Mike can play a lot of Canadian dates and end here on the East Coast. That is an important piece of the puzzle for us to coordinate around. We get together every fall to connect and share ideas of who could come join us. We also have a volunteer group and consult with friends and other experts in the field to listen to new ideas or suggestions for the performance.
Is there someone in particular that you are excited to see at this year's festival?
I can’t choose favorites since my role is working on the bookings for the festivals, but I am generally most excited for this festival in particular in the sense that every day there is something different to discover. You could have hiphop one night and a folk artist the next.
What are you going to bring to this year's festival that we have not yet seen in the past?
A lot of the wide range of artists we are bringing this year is larger than the past. At least speaking from my experience, since starting these festivals there are so many artists that are performing in different languages this year. We have Iraqi performers, Ukrainian performers, Venezuelan performers, and overall people are coming all over to perform bringing a wide range of cultures to the stage.
A performer he has asked/would love to come to Halifax that hasn’t?
Lots of people. There are artists that I have tried to get and it just doesn't work out so sometimes you just get lucky. Some people I have been looking forward to have been Lake Street Dive, The Roots, Herbie Hancock, overall lots and lots of people that I would love to have.
Do you have a favorite performance that you have seen at Jazz fest?
There are definitely highlights, when it comes to booking something you never know how it is going to go prior to performing. Sometimes it exceeds your expectations and on occasion it doesn't meet your expectations. There have been many performances over the years and one performer that completely blew me away was Sheila E. She was a longtime collaborator with Prince. Overall there is something every year that blows me away.
Now as someone (such as myself) who doesn't listen to Jazz regularly can you tell me what this festival brings and why people all over Atlantic Canada come to see these performances from artists around the world?
This music festival is very unique if you look at a majority of the programming for the festival. If there isn't a genre you are super familiar with, there are daytime performances of the festival that are free to attend! From Weds-Sat of the festival there is free programming on the festival mainstage, and it features some amazing Jazz acts to get introduced to it. We also do a series of concerts at St. Matthew's United Church and we have some of the best guitarists in the world coming. We have an amazing guitarist Julian Lage and an amazing pianist named Emmet Cohen. I am almost certain that anyone that goes to see those shows, even if you aren't familiar with the genre, will find that it’s really amazing. Emmet Cohen, for example, is pretty classic Jazz but it will be a very upbeat and fun show to checkout.
Is there anything you have noticed from how the festival has changed ?
It has definitely evolved, we now have much bigger acts we wouldn't have before and the festival really has developed into Halifax’s premiere music festival. It’s changed because we obviously had a large change from the pandemic with online performance, so now we're really seeing the change and it's been interesting to see the difference from what we were before the pandemic to now. I feel like especially last year and hopefully this year the energy to get outside and see shows is really high, and I feel like people have a very positive outlook on live music now, so that's what I've seen and it's been very different.
What was the reason why you steered away from solely Jazz music?
Happened more organically. I think with the growth of the festival being the biggest festival in the province today, it is inclusive of people offering that wide variety of the festival but we wouldn't ever change the name of the festival because at the core of it its jazz music and we wouldn't want that to change. Also lots of people have different ideas on what Jazz is but as a genre it's so wide and expansive that it can include different genres of music. I think we are always including hip-hop which is black music and you can always trace the lineage to the original African American music which is Jazz so it's important to recognize that history.
Since starting out, what have you learned and taken away from these festivals?
I don't get as stressed as I used to. At the end of the day we put out our best efforts to make the festival as great as we can and the rest we can't control. I have learned to be even keeled about it and at the end of the day it doesn't do anyone any good freaking out while trying to organize. I play music and perform as well, and working for the Jazz Festival has taught me a lot about that side of the music business and what it takes. I see all of these artists' contracts and what they need to get ready to make a great performance so I can take that back to the bands I work with and bring that professionalism to my own music as well.
Where are the outdoor venues this year!
Weekend series in the Hydrostone Market on the Saturday and Sunday of the festival. People come out with lawn chairs and can sit and it's awesome, it's lots of fun. We also have a series in Dartmouth at the alderney ferry park. We do a park stage and this year are partnering with the African Nova Scotia Music Association running alongside the farmers market. It will start at 10am and go on until 3pm. There are kid friendly performances and it’s a lot of fun.
And there you have it, a taste of what the Jazz fest will look like through Andrew’s view. If you are inspired to learn more about the programming and getting tickets click here!
Can’t wait to see you all there and see some of Andrew's hard work come to life!
