The Gibsons Landing Jazz Festival — just one year shy of its 30th anniversary — will kick off next month by living up to the motto it amended to its name two years ago: “and beyond.” The annual music festival features performances at venues from Winegarden Park in Gibsons to Hackett Park in Sechelt.
The festival weekend — June 13 to 15 — is preceded by a week of local artists in performance at venues ranging from Sunnycrest Mall to the Gumboot Cafe. The annual celebration of music is organized by the non-profit Sunshine Coast Jazz and Entertainment Society.
A performance at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church on June 13 will feature a singer acclaimed as the finest jazz vocal improviser in Canada: Jennifer Scott. Scott appears alongside bassist and producer Rene Worst. The pair earned a lengthy ovation at last year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
“It’s just magical,” said festival producer Paul Hood. “I worked with Rene in the early 1980s, and he’s one of the top bass players in Western Canada. He’s married to Jennifer, who is one of the most sought-after vocalists as well.”
The duo (Scott also plays piano) will inaugurate a full weekend of ticketed and public performances. At a double-header show in Hackett Park on June 14, the Creek Big Band returns to the festival’s traditional swing band slot, following last year’s exuberant appearance by the Brooks Secondary School jazz ensemble from Powell River.
The Big Band will cede the stage to a nine-piece group from Vancouver that specializes in New Orleans-style melodies: the Big Easy Funk Ensemble. BEFE was founded in East Vancouver and includes a three-piece horn section.
BEFE returns that night for a ticketed dance party at the Gibsons Legion. “We’re hoping that people will get a little taste of them and want to go later — to really dance,” said Hood.
One of the festival traditions now extending 15 years, a jazz brunch on the morning of June 15 will re-unite Coast songstress Trudi Diening with perennial keyboardist Miles Black (himself a longtime collaborator with local jazz legend Nikki Weber).
A second day of public concerts, this time in Winegarden Park, will feature the Juno-nominated Jon Bentley Quartet and a quartet led by Canadian-Filipina keyboardist Mary Ancheta. Tenor saxophonist Bentley has recorded over 30 albums as a leader and sideman. The Mary Ancheta Quartet, which recently returned from performances in Sydney, Australia, has been invited to represent Canada at the Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan just weeks after they serenade audiences in Gibsons.
“[Ancheta] has got a lot of really nice electronica,” said Hood, “but at the same time the sax and bass player and the drummer are all solid jazzers. So it’s jazz, but it’s jazz with a different flair.”
The Sunday concert will conclude with an appearance by the Tumbling Tumbleweeds, a western swing ensemble from Vancouver specializing in styles from the 1930s and 1940s.
During the lead-up to the jazz weekend, the festival resumes its Youth Open Mic Night on June 7. Live event dynamo Scotty Collison will host musicians aged 25 and under playing 15-minute sets.
A performance especially for families takes place at Banditry Cider on June 8: children’s entertainer Graham Walker will play with his Jazzy Barn Cats (Kaia Nielsen and Heidi Kurz). Two days later at Tapworks, Kiki Connely — who stunned listeners at the Artesia Coffee House earlier this month with her soulful vocals — appears with her R & B band The Understory (Bernie Arai, Heather Anderson, and Anna Lumiere). Lumiere plays the following day with her husband, reed virtuoso Graham Ord, at the Gumboot Café in Roberts Creek.
“There’s such a wide variety of stuff that there really is something for everybody,” said Hood.
The full list of 16 performances scheduled for the Gibsons Landing Festival (and Beyond) is available online at coastjazz.com (the site includes links to ticket sales for paid concerts).
