Festival News
T.U. Jazz Fest Returns for 10th Consecutive Year in 2024!
T.U. Jazz Fest has announced the full schedule and lineup for its return on Labour Day Weekend for a tenth year in Toronto.
Canada’s biggest jazz festival for emerging artists, T.U. Jazz Fest is celebrating its tenth annual festival at Mel Lastman Square on Labour Day Weekend.
A vital professional showcase for emerging musicians, the festival features two performance stages and a line-up that includes a feature performance by Juno Award-winner Kellylee Evans and Grammy Award-nominee Karl Silveira alongside established and emerging jazz performers. Enjoy over 40 local food and market vendors at the World East Market, which are available all weekend long. A masterclass featuring one of the most in-demand professional jazz musicians, Kellylee Evans, is also available at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the North York Centre Library Auditorium.
This FREE family festival runs from August 30th to September 2nd, 2024, at Mel Lastman Square, 5100 Yonge Street, North York.
For full T.U. Jazz Fest details, visit: www.tujazz.com
TU Jazz Fest Main Stage Schedule:
TJ & The Crew: 6 PM, Aug 30th
TJ & The Crew is a Toronto-based, ten-piece funk band here to emulate and evolve the sounds of Tower of Power, Earth Wind & Fire, and more. Playing original compositions written by their band leader TJ Campbell.
Angela Pincente Octet: 8 PM, Aug 30th
The Angela Pincente Octet is a jazz ensemble featuring the compositions and arrangements of Angela Pincente. This ensemble includes Toronto’s most notable young musicians and gives a platform for them to showcase their artistry.
Leo Codiga and the Southwest Corridor: 4 PM, Aug 31st
The Southwest Corridor is one of Montreal’s most exciting new groups, comprised of some of the city’s best young exponents of contemporary jazz. Codiga is also the recent winner of the Student Composer’s Prize at Montreal’s ODD Sound Jazz Festival, a collaboration between local labels ODD Sound and Effendi Records.
The Emmett Hodgins Cost Group: 2 PM, Aug 31st
The Emmett Hodgins Coast Group is a jazz fusion ensemble of performers from around the globe based in Toronto, Canada. Featuring Victoria, B.C.-born artist Emmett Hodgins, this band is also comprised of artists from Zimbabwe, Jamaica, and other parts of Canada such as Alberta. The group continues to create new and exciting original music, combining ambient classical, modern jazz, jazz fusion, funk, and free jazz into the sound they now represent.
Camila Lozada’s SINERGY: 6 PM, Aug 31st
Camila’s Peruvian roots provide a rich tapestry of musical influences that have shaped her artistic identity. As a Latin American woman in Toronto, Camila is eager to share her original songs, arrangements and diverse influences on stage.
Kellylee Evans: 8 PM, Aug 31st
Juno Award-winning singer, songwriter and motivational speaker Kellylee Evans is a high-octane, chameleon-like performer whose natural charm and improvisational vocal style embody jazz, soul, pop, and hip-hop. She has toured extensively, captivating audiences throughout the world and opened for artists like John Legend, Tony Bennett, Willie Nelson, and Erykah Badu.
Eunice Keitan: 2 PM, Sept 1st
Eunice Keitan, a Malaysian/Canadian singer-songwriter, intricately weaves her diverse international roots and eclectic influences into the rich fabric of her music. Blending neo-soul and world folk, her sound has been likened to the soulful tones of Emily King, Nai Palm, and Cleo Sol.
Andrew Wilcox Trio: 4 PM, Sept 1st
Originally from Boylston, Massachusetts, Andrew Wilcox studied with local education legend Dick Odgren, Rick Germanson, Orrin Evans, Stanley Cowell, and Ralph Peterson. Andrew is a regular member of the Haneef Nelson Quintet and Ed Byrne Quartet, among other groups and fronts his own trio and sextet that perform his original compositions and arrangements.
Sound Spaghetti: 6 PM, Sept 1st
Sound Spaghetti is a Toronto-based jazz fusion project formed by friends who met at Humber College. They love complex music and a lot of notes
Rodrigo Simões: 8 PM, Sept 1st
Latin guitar, Afro-Brazilian grooves and jazz fusion… The sound of Rodrigo Simoes’ ensemble delivers vibrant and joyful music. The full format is eight members (six musicians, one dancer and one VJ all improvising over themes).
The Simon Williams Sextet: 2 PM, Sept 2nd
With members from around Canada and the world, the Simon Williams sextet is a Toronto-based contemporary instrumental music project that plays originals and covers drawing from classical, jazz, fusion, rock, and ambient music. Their music maintains strong narrative cohesion while being high-energy, long-form, and improvisatory.
Reach Quartet: 4 PM, Sept 2nd
The Reach Quartet is a jazz collective based in Montreal, founded by saxophonist Jeremy Sandfelder, guitarist Khalil Bouaziz, bassist Juno Hamilton, and drummer Loïc Du Sablon. The band performs a combination of compositions written by its members and original arrangements of modern jazz standards.
Matthew O’Halloran Quintet: 6 PM, Sept 2nd
The Matthew O’Halloran Quintet features five innovative improvisers from the University of Toronto Jazz Area. They perform a mix of Matthew’s originals and popular jazz compositions.
T.U. Jazz Fest Long & McQuade Stage Schedule:
Anise Russow: 1 PM, Aug 31st
Anise Russow confidence shines through in her stage presence, vocal delivery, and soulful tone while maintaining an intimate performance atmosphere. Deeply influenced by jazz, soul, and rhythm & blues, Anise works to build a bridge between the genres to create a collaborative and expressive experience between herself, her bandmates, and the audience.
PK 6TET: 3 PM, Aug 31st
PK 6TET originated from Peter Dong-Woo Kang’s third-year recital within the jazz program at the University of Toronto. Most of the arrangements are done by the band leader Peter Dong-Woo Kang and feature compositions by the great Pepper Adams, as well as tunes that Adams played during his phenomenal career as one of the greatest jazz baritone saxophonists.
Karl Silveira Quintet: 5 PM, Aug 31st
Karl Silveira is a Grammy Award (Hilario Duran 2023) nominated and JUNO Award-winning (Hilario Duran 2023) trombonist from Toronto. He is a regular member of the Sam Kirmayer Sextet, The Alex Dean Quintet, The Alex Brown Sextet, Hogtown Brass Quintet, The Harley Card Sunset Ensemble, The Noam Lemish TWELVE, and has performed with the David Braid Sextet, The Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra, and the Hilario Duran Jazz Orchestra.
Ori Dagan Quintet: 7 PM, Aug 31st
Grand Prize Winner at the 2023 John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Canadian jazz singer-songwriter Ori Dagan has attracted a dedicated and growing audience worldwide. Ori’s previous recordings, S’Cat Got My Tongue (2009) and Less Than Three <3 (2012), established his creative artistic voice. He has entertained thousands across Canada and has performed in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, Macedonia, and Germany.
Robert Lee Group: 1 PM, Sept 1st
Robert Lee is an emerging upright bassist, composer, and bandleader in the Toronto jazz scene. He has performed at various venues and festivals across Ontario and internationally, including the Toronto Undergraduate Jazz Festival, the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Newmarket Music Festival, the Kensington Market Jazz Festival, the Toronto Fringe Festival, Jimmy Glass Off Festival, MusicFest Canada, and the TD Toronto Jazz Festival (2023).
Marigold: 3 PM, Sept 1st
Marigold officially took its current name and identity in the summer of 2019. The band has grown, adding new members, and also creating its own unique voice of jazz fusion. Blending eclectic influences such as Pat Metheny, Roy Hargrove, Domi and JD Beck, Steely Dan, Weather Report, and more the band developed its own repertoire of original material.
Shanty Sweets Quintet: 5 PM, Sept 1st
Shanty Sweets is a neo-soul, roots reggae, jazz (with a mix of ska) performer from Toronto. Her versatile style, or “versatile,” shows through effortlessly allowing her to float through the many different genres mentioned with ease. She takes pride in giving her audience her all and strives to connect, spread wisdom, inspiration, and create an uplifting feeling through her music.
Groovy Turtles Band: 7 PM, Sept 1st
Groovy Turtles explores the realms of jazz, fusion, soul, and funk. They have across the city most recently at the Toronto Pavilion to an audience of over 1,000 people.
Funk10Tet: 1 PM, Sept 2nd
The Funk10Tet is a diverse modern jazz ensemble contributing original compositions and arrangements to the numerous popular music traditions of swing, R&B, and other contemporary pop music. In addition, the ensemble is heavily influenced by the rich Canadian traditional jazz ensemble works and wishes to honour the “Toronto sound” in a stunning and united way.
Victoria Malenfant Quintet: 3 PM, Sept 2nd
Victoria Malenfant is a French vocalist based in Montreal. Winner of the 2022 Emerging Artist Contest of the Sutton Jazz Fest, she also co-composed, in the same year, the music for the circus and magic show La Reine des Rats by Productions Old Charlotte. In January 2024, she independently released her first EP Live Session at Sud-Ouest Studio available on YouTube and on all the streaming platforms.
Japs Cunanan Quartet: 5 PM, Sept 2nd
The Japs Cunanan Quartet is a fusion of musical styles from different backgrounds. Each member brings their own musical heritage which creates this unique sound, almost like a dialogue between cultures. A kind of cultural harmony.
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