You don't have to be a hardcore jazz nut to appreciate the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival (June 21 to July 1). Somewhere in the midst of its 300 performances (more than half of which are free), opportunities abound for the jazz novice and expert alike to tap into a throbbing, thumping, pulsating hive of round-the-clock musical activity.
As one of its founders and its current media director, few are as qualified to ruminate on the 28-year-old TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival as John Orysik. The festival's success, says Orysik, can be attributed in large part to the fact that the jazz umbrella covers so much musical terrain.
"Jazz and blues are the foundation for all of contemporary music, and there are a lot of hybrid things going on right now where jazz musicians are working with hip hop musicians, and musicians from other cultures are working with jazz musicians or even taking up jazz themselves," said Orysik.
These trends are reflected in the festival's programming. For us, jazz is truly an international music and an intergenerational music and an intercultural music."
What Orysik is starting to see is the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the city it calls home becoming almost interchangeable, particularly for large numbers of tourists who plan their visits to Vancouver to coincide with the jazz festival each year. These tourists want their jazz with a big dose of Vancouver (and their Vancouver with a big dose of jazz).
"We're trying to create Vancouver as a cultural destination using the jazz festival because they come here to experience all of these different musical expressions, but they love the city and they love the people who live here and they keep coming back," said Orysik.
Out-of-town musicians who play the festival carry that message, too. "They say, 'wow, we played Vancouver, and what a great experience it was. The city is beautiful, the audiences are fantastic, and we just had a great time.'"
And now that the festival has moved its opening weekend celebration from Gastown to the heart of downtown (Robson Square, the area around the art gallery, and a portion of Howe Street), Vancouverites can access those near-magical feelings of community, engagement and compulsion to dance in the streets that they might have felt during the Olympics. "We want to build on that legacy and show that the jazz festival can be an event that attracts that same kind of audience that wants to come together and celebrate around music", he said.
Last year, the weekend party drew more than 100,000 people to the downtown core.
While Orysik is reluctant to speculate on what the future might hold for the jazz festival, he's eager to hear the music that's coming down the line. "There are all kinds of bands that haven't even formed yet that are just a glint in somebody's eye," said Orysik. "What excites us is that we will be able to present those bands and those artists to future audiences in Vancouver."
