campbell river JAZZ FEST
Campbell River’s Jazz & Blues Festival is a new free series of concerts taking place July 24-27, 2024. It will begin and end with outdoor headline shows at Spirit Square and Shoppers Row with multiple performances in between at several venues around town featuring a dozen local, regional and touring performers.
July 24 - 27, 2024
Venue: Spirit Square, SoCal Restaurant, Anchor Inn, Beach Fire Brewing, Match Public House, Eagles Lounge
Schedule
WED July 24, 2024 | 7:00PM
Venue: CR Live Streets Blues Night (1200 Shoppers Row)
Luke Blue Guthrie
Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Luke Blu Guthrie is a gem of the regional music scene. A charismatic performer with a soulful voice and an easy mastery of the guitar, Guthrie is also a fine songwriter, steeped in roots, rhythm and blues traditions.
WED July 24, 2024 | 8:00PM
Venue: CR Live Streets Blues Night (1200 Shoppers Row)
Garret T. Willie
Garret T. Willie is an old soul masquerading as an uncommonly wise, weathered, witty and world-weary 23-year-old and he's about to give rock 'n' roll a formidable 21st -century kick in the ass. Garret T. Willie hails from Kingcome Inlet, off the coast of British Columbia but while Willie’s Indigenous back story also gives him more right than most to sing the blues – and at heart, Garret T. Willie is a rock ‘n’ roller – he’d rather that not be the whole story. What he offers the world is something it has genuinely been missing for awhile: a contemporary take on hardscrabble blues and the purest and rawest rock 'n' roll to follow its teachings thereafter.
THU July 25, 2024 | 6:00PM
Vintage Velvet
Newly formed Vintage Velvet, a quintet of diverse and varied experienced, create a seamless blend of classic jazz elegance and contemporary innovation. Mesmerizing vocal lead, Mel McCutcheon, whose rich and soulful tones and charismatic presence captivate audiences from the first note, is supported by pianist Michelle Draper, guitarist Doug Anderson, drummer Greg Hill, and anchored by bassist Dave Stevenson.
THU July 25, 2024 | 6:00PM
Luke Blu Guthrie with Matt Menard
Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Luke Blu Guthrie is a gem of the regional music scene. A charismatic performer with a soulful voice and an easy mastery of the guitar, Guthrie is also a fine songwriter, steeped in roots, rhythm and blues traditions.
Fiddler Matt Menard is a recent addition to the Comox Valley music scene. Born in Quebec and raised in Florida, Menard’s impressive musical resume includes playing with Nashville greats like Rascal Flatts and the late great Charlie Daniels
FRI July 26, 2024 | 3:00PM
Doc Fingers w/ Blaine Dunaway
Bruce Gallagher was nicknamed the Doctor of Fingerology while playing keys with the Ronnie Hawkins Band in the 1970’s and the name stuck. Doc has been treating audiences to good boogie woogie blues, jazz, rock and roll and good times for over 50 years.
Blaine Dunaway is a composer, conductor, teacher, and improviser on the violin and trumpet who has recorded and toured with many of western Canada’s finest big bands throughout his career.
FRI July 26, 2024 | 5:00PM
Ali Romanow
Ali Romanow is a fiddler, guitarist, singer-songwriter and music educator, with a particular passion for country swing music, and a deep commitment to building diverse, supportive and safe musical communities for where everyone is welcome to play. From a very early age, music has led them all over the world, and back again to their home in the Comox Valley.
FRI July 26, 2024 | 6:00PM
Danny Boy Phelan
Danny Boy Phelan plays piano, harmonica, mandolin and later added guitar to his musical arsenal, but the banjo was his first serious instrument. The native of St. Catherines, Ontario specializes in delta blues, old time roots & ragtime jazz with a dash of electric blues guitar that offers an experience of a golden era of American music.
FRI July 26, 2024 | 7:00PM
Venue: Spirit Square (1101 Shoppers Row)
Longhand Trio with Tyson Naylor
DLonghand is the Vancouver-based co-operative trio of drummer Kenton Loewen, bassist Russell Sholberg, and guitarist Tony Wilson. They are joined by Tyson Naylor on keyboards who lives in Berlin and has family ties to the Discovery Islands. Longhand has a varied repertoire ranging from high energy free improv to melancholy tunes with beautiful melodies. Along with original music, Longhand offers their unique interpretations of jazz, blues and classic Motown tunes.
FRI July 26, 2024 | 7:00PM
Ralph Barrat Trio
Ralph Barrat is a very busy pianist and vocalist from the Comox Valley who plays up and down the Island, in Vancouver, on cruise ships and abroad. In the classic style of Nat King Cole Barret’s trio is comprised of local music veterans Dave Stevenson on bass and Greg Hill on percussion.
FRI July 26, 2024 | 8:00PM
Blue Kats
Blue Kats is a blues R&B band started in the 1980’s by singer and guitarist Don Utley who were part of the blues revival in Victoria at the time. Utley retired to Quadra Island in 2007 reforming the band locally with Matt Hodson on drums, Dave Blinzinger on organ, and Dylan Alps on bass.
SAT July 27, 2024 | 2:00PM
Nico Rhodes w/ Rivercity Sidemen
Nico Rhodes is a genre-jumping, multilingual musician who collaborates with other artists and artforms to experience and explore music in as many styles as possible. Growing up touring around the globe surrounded by artists and the world of theatre – he is equally comfortable playing jazz, classical, funk or roots music, orchestrating a symphony, writing musicals, and conducting choirs. He is also a teacher, and for this special performance will team up with some of his proteges drummer and pianist Willum Ashurst and Jake Elias on saxophone, along with Athanasios Wees on bass aka Rivercity Sidemen. Just barely out of high school, the Sidemen are turning heads in playing music that is well beyond their years.
SAT July 27, 2024 | 2:00PM
Barbara Fisher & John Hyde
Barbara Fisher is a pianist, composer, arranger and vocalist whose long career has taken her across the country and around the world picking up a Banff Centre scholarship, Canada Council composition award and a Juno nomination along the way. Her repertoire spans jazz, blues, and folk canons as well as her original compositions.
Bassist John Hyde was born in Edmonton and began performing at the age of 15. He studied jazz and classical at Grant MacEwan and McGill universities and went on to teach and perform professionally in both genres for over three decades. In the late 1970s, he began teaching at Grant MacEwan, freelancing as a jazz and classical bassist. He has played on countless recordings including several leading his own ensemble.
SAT July 27, 2024 | 4:00PM
Jazz on the Rocks
Quadra Island’s Jazz on the Rocks will thrill you with the smooth sounds of classic Jazz standards. Marnie Younger’s sweet vocals along with Hal Douglas’s suave guitar playing, Tom Younger’s groovin’ bass runs and Dave Blinzinger’s sophisticated sax solos will both serenade and delight your senses.
SAT July 27, 2024 | 5:00PM
Danny Boy Phelan
Danny Boy Phelan plays piano, harmonica, mandolin and later added guitar to his musical arsenal, but the banjo was his first serious instrument. The native of St. Catherines, Ontario specializes in delta blues, old time roots & ragtime jazz with a dash of electric blues guitar that offers an experience of a golden era of American music.
SAT July 27, 2024 | 7:00PM
Venue: Spirit Square (1101 Shoppers Row)
King Cardiac
King Cardiac drapes heartfelt songwriting in a technicolour dream coat of unbridled horns and brooding rhythms. The genre bending ensemble features singer-songwriter and guitarist Gabriel DeSantis uniting with Toronto heavyweights; Paul Metcalfe, Sam Petite, And Phung, Tom Richards, Lowell Whitty and Alan Zemaitis to explore matters that rule the heart with hard grooves and brooding vibes.
SAT July 27, 2024 | 7:00PM
Tightrope
Tightrope is an electric tribute to the blues. Their energetic performances have been felt around Vancouver Island performing at festivals and local venues. You’ll hear Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and other great blues artists. Tightrope is comprised of Marc Goyan on guitar, Dave Stevenson on Fender bass, and Greg Hill on drums.
