Curating a Festival Line-up that Pushes Boundaries and Creates Connections
Dave Quinn, Co-Founder & Artistic Director
Pulling together a festival line-up is no cakewalk, but Festival Co-Founder and Artistic Director Dave Quinn curates remarkable line-ups for the Odlum Brown Fort Langley Jazz & Arts Festival year after year. This year’s festival features just over 40 bands at seven venues throughout the Village. Dave works hard to enrich the programming with various genres and subgenres, local, national and international performers from diverse backgrounds, and a range of musical instruments – some of which you may not expect.
His work goes above and beyond finding fantastic performances that satisfy our commitment to artistic excellence and innovation. Not only is it the Festival’s mandate to educate and inform audiences of the many styles of jazz, Dave's drive to inspire musical discovery means that festival goers get a truly unique experience, especially when exploring a handful of personality-infused stages.
"Many people might think that curating a line-up is just about pulling bands together, but it's so much more complex," says Executive Director Karen Zukas about Dave's work. "It's like piecing together a very large puzzle, but it's a puzzle that takes a long time to build. Ensuring all the pieces come together perfectly is an incredibly intricate process."
Dave combines his musical education, experience as a jazz musician and festival-goer, and deeply rooted passion for jazz to craft a world-class program.
Feven Kidane, who will be performing at the CN Stage for Young & Emerging Artists, Saturday, July 22, 12:30 pm
Selecting Music: Discovering talent is a constant exercise
Dave is always on the lookout for emerging and well-established artists. He discovers some new ones through the Festival's submission process (available from October through December), Jazz Festivals Canada, other festivals, social media and word-of-mouth. "When I find a band I'm interested in, I research them, listen to them, watch their videos, find out where they're playing locally, and may even go to hear them play. It's a constant, year-round exercise," says Dave.
He spends a serious amount of time liaising with artists, band managers and agents, negotiating performance fees, preparing offer letters and contracts, arranging the music equipment required for each band, obtaining bios, photos and videos for marketing purposes, and so much more.
Once the bands and musicians are decided, each band gets sorted based on their genre and the stage or concert Dave believes they're best suited for: one of the two stages at the ticketed Cool Blues Show, one of the four unique stages at the free Festival, the opening jazz concert, the big band community concert or the gospel-soul show at the Sunday jazz vespers called Jazz AWE.
Supporting underrepresented musicians, including BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Colour) and female-led groups, and providing opportunities for local bands and young and emerging artists is also a key part of the puzzle.
"I also look for diverse and innovative artists who write original music," says Dave. "I want there to be something for everybody, but I have to be able to fit the artist into the flow of the Festival. That's where the puzzle part comes in."
Staying within budget is also key, especially as a non-profit organization. Artist fees and production costs are some of the biggest expenses and Dave has to manage these budgets very carefully (and has so far always come in on budget!).
Creating Flow: Crafting new experiences from hour to hour
Scheduling each of the selected artists requires careful consideration. Not only is Dave's goal to ensure that every stage has a logical flow to its performances, but he also contemplates how attendees might move through the Festival throughout the day.
He focuses on creating contrasting experiences from performance to performance and stage to stage and wants the Festival's program to encourage attendees to explore.
"I envision every part of the Festival happening simultaneously," says Dave. "I want to create an experience where each person, no matter when and where they move, gets to hear as much variety as possible within the time they're here. It's all about putting together experiences from hour to hour."
Jasmine Jazz who will be performing on the Community Hall Stage, Sunday, July 23, 11:00 am
Injecting Diversity: Upholding a rich tapestry of influences and sounds
The diversity of the program isn't just limited to an assortment of genres from artists of varying ethnicities, genders and experience levels. Dave also strives to highlight an incredible range of instruments and compositions.
"People don't often see string instruments combined with wind and brass instruments in a jazz concert. I want to give people an opportunity to experience that," says Dave.
Instruments like the saxophone, trumpet, double bass and trombone are traditional to jazz. Dave tries to ensure they get equal representation throughout the program; however, he's also enthusiastic about mixing in the unexpected.
"Most people probably haven't been to a Jazz-Chinese fusion concert with traditional Chinese and jazz instruments," says Dave. "I want to make it possible for people to experience a concert with instruments like these combined with the ones they're familiar with, like the flute or upright bass. I want people to be able to hear the combination of jazz with world music and world instruments."
The free Community Hall Main Stage will showcase Jasmine Jazz – a blend of Asian and Jazz instruments with the Jodi Proznick Jazz Trio and the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. Jasmine Jazz is about musical conversations, an east meets west experience, full of beauty, harmony and mutual respect. The repertoire is a beautiful mix of songs pulled from jazz and traditional Chinese folk music and original composition by members of the ensemble.
The Art of Jazz Stage will also unveil some of the awe-inspiring and unique music that merges jazz with sounds from around the world, including Latin- and Indo-Jazz fusions.
International jazz pianist, Gabriel Palatchi, who will performing at the Community Hall Stage, Saturday, July 22, 11:00am
Breaking Boundaries: Connecting audiences and artists from around the world
"Discovering new artists is one of Dave's biggest passions. It's really exciting when the artist is new to the audience, and the audience is new to the artist," says Karen. "Dave bridges the gap between musicians and the community. He provides an opportunity for artists to connect with audiences and audiences the chance to discover new bands."
When the puzzle pieces come together, and Dave sees the artists and audiences connecting, it brings him immense joy. "I just feel over the moon," he says. "It's also really fun when I reach out to headliners to ask if they're available to perform, and they tell me they've heard of the festival and compliment what we're doing. It makes me feel good because I know our reach is out there.”
Check out the free 2023 line-up here. Weekend passes and single-day tickets to the Cool Blues Show are on sale here!