I spoke to Cory Weeds regarding the upcoming Jazz at the Bolt festival held at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts from Friday, February 14 to Sunday, February 16. It is the festival’s fifth year and artists from BC, Canada and the US will be performing. The opening evening show on Valentine’s Day is already sold out. Thirteen sets will be played on Saturday and Sunday, each lasting for an hour and fifteen minutes. Tickets are $140 for adults, $120 for seniors and students for a weekend pass, $80 for an adult day pass and $65 for seniors and students at www.jazzatthebolt.com.
Jazz at the Bolt has become an annual music festival that “celebrates diversity, community, and jazz music” according to the website.
Local performers include the John Lee Trio, Lache Cercel and the Roma Jazz ensemble, Kevin Romain, Trilogy, Feven Kidane, Dave Sikula, Bill Coon, Jon Bentley and Cory Weeds.
“There’s a lot of running around, but I have a good team of people. And the Shadbolt team, they do so much to help, it’s a finely oiled machine. It’s really about getting the festival booked and handing the logistics over to the team,” says Weeds.
“The concept of the festival was based around a Washington state festival, the Ballard Jazz Walk outside Seattle. They took a neighbourhood and booked music in a bunch of venues including non-traditional spaces like coffee shops and clothing shops. They brought in all these people for one day, so I looked into doing it. I am employed at Frankie’s but it wasn’t going to work there as there was too much noise from construction. I had a great relationship with the Shadbolt as I was already doing a monthly jam there, so I brought it to them and suggested we do it all right there”, says Weeds.
The first one-day festival was held in 2019 but then Covid hit, so the momentum was lost. It started up again as a 2-day festival with an opening night show.
“It’s a nice event, we wanted to make it accessible, have diverse programming and make it happen in a central area”, says Weeds.
When asked what acts are standouts, Weeds says “it’s hard to pick. It’s the first time we’ve had a conundrum as ticketholders may not get to see everything they want to see. We had the massive James Cowan theatre in the past but now it’s being rebuilt. When we were just starting, we never sold enough tickets for it to be a problem, but this year tickets are selling really well.”
According to Weeds, there’s a chance that ticketholders might get into half of the shows they want to see as there is less capacity than in previous years, between 375 to 400 people maximum.
Local pianist and three time Juno winner Brad Turner is playing an album he recently recorded, a follow up to the previous North Star with his trio and added percussion. Turner also plays trumpet, drums and composes original music.
Canadian Bria Skonberg, now based in New York plays two sets on the Saturday. The Juno award winning singer, trumpeter and songwriter has been described as one of the “most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation” by the Wall Street Journal. She has sung Aretha Franklin’s music with Michele Williams of Destiny’s Child, played with U2, Dave Matthews Band, Jon Batiste, and performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour. Her 2024 Cellar Music release What it Means features New Orleans Jazz recorded at Esplanade Records during the 2023 Mardi Gras.
Vancouver-born Seamus Blake, now based in New York performs the music of Eddie Harris, a legendary saxophonist and composer. Harris styles encompass bebop, soul, bossa nova, funk and avant-garde. Blake has released 16 albums and played on over 70 more as a sideman.
“Regarding planning the festival, the idea started with my record label Cellar Live to make it a retail event. Over the years that didn’t always happen. Some artists already had releases coming out and we ran out of people to perform. Now we are expanding the program to other artists. I am thinking ahead of the records coming out this year on the label. I start thinking about the next year in February and I’m always thinking about the next festival”, says Weeds.
In Cory’s show music of the Pacific Northwest, the band is playing an archival record by Shelly Mann with Brian Charette. Charette recently released a record called You Don’t Know Jack.
Through his many jazz endeavours, festival founder Cory Weeds has fostered relationships with musicians from all over the world, especially in New York City. Presented by Weeds’ record label, the Cellar Music Group, Jazz at the Bolt features many musicians from the Big Apple and beyond alongside Metro Vancouver’s talented roster of emerging and veteran artists. Weeds is proud to partner with Tim Reinert of Infidels Jazz to bring even more diverse programming to the festival. Will Chernoff assists with logistics.
