Winnipeg’s Exchange District is about to become the temporary home for tens of thousands of music fans, as the TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival takes over the city’s downtown, centred around the Cube stage in Old Market Square.
The festival’s programs manager Zachary Rushing told Global Winnipeg the area is getting prepped for 11 days of live entertainment, kicking off Wednesday evening at both Old Market Square and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s John Hirsch Mainstage.
“Indoors and outdoors, across the whole thing, we’ll probably service about 40,000 Winnipeggers over the course of the festival,” Rushing said.
“We’re here at our historic home at Old Market Square for our outdoor free programming, but we’ve also moved back indoors at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre venues this year, which is new and exciting.
“We’re there for four shows starting this evening with our mainstage presentation and going through next Tuesday.”
Although nominally a jazz festival, the annual summer staple includes a much wider range of genres — everything from folk to hip-hop to soul and beyond — and, as the name suggests, there’s a decidedly international feel to the proceedings.
“We’ve got artists coming from all over the world for this festival, including one of our mainstage performers who’s at the Burton Cummings Theatre this Saturday, Miss Angelique Kidjo… who’s one of the most celebrated African artists of her time. She’s had an incredible storied, historic career,” Rushing said.
“Jazz is definitely an umbrella term that covers a lot of things, but at its heart, jazz is swing music, it’s improvised music, and it’s music where you should expect the unexpected — if you’re thinking you’re going to come and hear the same songs you’ve heard, the way you’ve heard them done before, you’re probably in for a surprise.”
Many of those surprises will come at Old Market Square, where the Cube stage will turn into what Rushing calls “your second living room for the week.”
One of the many local artists performing at the Cube is singer-songwriter Onna Lou, who originally hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
She told Global Winnipeg that although it’s her first time playing the festival, as a seasoned performer, she’s not nervous about her Friday night show — but she is excited about introducing a potentially new sound to Winnipeg music fans.
“I’m doing a new format with two cellists and my usual percussionist,” she said, “and I think I’m just going to be in the clouds.”
The festival kicks off Wednesday evening with a free concert by four local acts at the Cube: Casati, Leaf Rapids, Brandi Vezina, and Paige Drobot, along with Keyon Harrold’s Jazz + the Birth of Hip Hop, featuring MC Black Milk, Chris “Daddy” Dave, and Georgia Anne Muldrow, at the theatre centre.
Acclaimed Winnipeg live-band hip-hop group Super Duty Tough Work opens that show at 7:30 p.m.
A full lineup for the 11 days of music, plus ticket information is available on the Jazz Winnipeg website.
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