Calgary’s jazz festival began as one afternoon outdoors, with a park and a stage. There was no ten-day schedule and no grand plan.
The Canadian Encyclopedia’s entry on jazz festivals says the Calgary festival began as a one-day outdoor event at Prince’s Island Park, held from 1980 to 1985. By 1987 it had stretched to ten days. Going from one day to ten in a couple of years tells you how many people were hungry for it.
The encyclopedia’s Calgary entry places the jazz festival’s start in 1980, the same year the Calgary Folk Festival began. That little island in the Bow River was a busy place. For the folk side of that story, our piece on how Folk Fest took over Prince’s Island Park pairs nicely with this one.
The national context is a nice bit too. In 1987 Westcan Jazz was set up as an umbrella group for jazz festivals, and Calgary was one of its five cities. Calgary sat on a western circuit of festivals sharing ideas and artists.
Festival leadership has changed hands often over the decades, according to the same source. That sounds like a headache, but it also means a lot of different people have had a go at shaping what Calgary hears.
These days a grassroots group called JazzYYC, founded in 2012, covers the year-round side. It calls itself Calgary’s guide to live jazz and says it has curated more than 950 events and presented 5,200 musicians since it began. Musicians, promoters and listeners run it, which feels right for a music that has always depended on people in a room listening hard.
Don’t wait for a festival week. Open the JazzYYC live music calendar, pick a small room, and go. You can filter by the kind of night you want, from dinner and a show to something more easygoing. For more on where Calgary music lives year-round, read the story of how one organ became Studio Bell.
Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia, Jazz Festivals; The Canadian Encyclopedia, Calgary; JazzYYC.
Keep going with Sled Island Faced a $200,000 Flood Loss and Came Back or CKUA Started in a University Basement and We Love It, whichever calls to you.
If this one hooked you, we think A Museum Where the Instruments Still Sing and Calgary Once Hosted an Organ Competition With Its Own Mall Concerts are a good next read.
Quick answers
The Canadian Encyclopedia says Calgary’s jazz festival began as a one day outdoor event at Prince’s Island Park, held from 1980 to 1985. By 1987 it had grown to ten days. The encyclopedia places its start in 1980, the same year the Calgary Folk Festival began.
JazzYYC is a grassroots group founded in 2012 that calls itself Calgary’s guide to live jazz. It says it has curated more than 950 events and presented 5,200 musicians. Musicians, promoters and listeners run it, and its live music calendar covers the whole year.
Open the JazzYYC live music calendar, pick a small room and go. You can filter by the kind of night you want, from dinner and a show to something more easygoing, so there is no need to wait for a festival week.
