Sure, you must nurture, rely on the weather and do what you can to cultivate, but the land in which you plant something is perhaps the most basic, fundamental element behind its ability to flourish.
Perhaps that’s why the health of this city’s local music festivals can be gauged by the homegrown talent produced in the bed that is Calgary’s rich, vibrant music scene. Sure, most of the summer events put emphasis on bringing in talent from around the world, but all of them, to some degree or other, also pluck artists from the soil of the surrounding area.
Sled Island, which kicks off tonight and runs through Saturday at various locations around town, is probably the best example of this, considering 49 of the 200-plus acts featured at the fest are from this area code. First-year festival director Lindsay Shedden actually says local content is not only the “most important part” of the programming, but also the original seed for the event five years ago when it was founded by Zak Pashak.
“The whole idea that . . . this festival was based on was taking the amazing talent that comes out of Calgary and pairing it with the big international acts,” Shedden says. “That’s where Sled Island’s roots came from, where the entire idea came from.”
It’s why scanning the list of acts you’ll see a plethora of artists, who’ve built a reputation in the indie music scene and are creating a buzz even outside of the city, such as Ramblin Ambassadors, Miesha and the Spanks, Raleigh, Man Legs, Samantha Savage Smith, Smalltown DJs and former locals Braids.
And if the sheer numbers don’t prove the commitment to Calgary cause, there’s also the not-so insignificant symbolism of having Chad Van Gaalen’s mainstage performance Saturday night at Olympic Plaza introduced by Mayor Nenshi — an acknowledgment, Shedden says, of “two people that this city is especially proud of.”
Of course, Shedden also says that from established acts such as Van Gaalen to the freshest newbie on the scene, having such a deep well to draw from can be something of a Catch-22 when it comes to filling the Sled Island mandate. “There’s just so much talent coming out of this city and surrounding area — it makes it really easy,” she before adding, “but it makes it hard to choose.”
That’s even more true for Kerry Clarke, longtime artistic director for the Calgary Folk Music Festival, which has significantly fewer spots for performers, period, meaning fewer spots for local performers. This year, out of the 68 acts booked for the July 21-24 weekend at Prince’s Island Park, 12 of those are locally grown, including headliner k.d. lang and festival double-dippers Braids and Raleigh.
There will also be appearances by those winners of the fest’s annual songwriting competition, which itself shows the commitment to exposing and nurturing the community.
But while Clarke says that having spots for Calgary talent is important, ultimately she thinks it shouldn’t come at the expense of putting on the best possible event.
“My first two years of the festival I think I hired almost everyone local I’d heard of that I thought was sort of doing folk music,” she says. “And the after that I’ve become more — what’s the word? Picky? Or maybe selective. . .,” she says. “Now I try not to hire anyone locally who, that if I was at a festival in Regina or Vancouver, I wouldn’t bring that artist from Calgary to play. (The ones I book) are the same artists that I would recommend my colleagues to hire for Alberta. They’re as good as the other Canadian and international artists I’m hiring. It’s not a kind of lowering the bar so we can have some locals.”
Again, Clarke admits that’s not a problem as the acts she’s slotted in the past and continues to book — such as other 2011 acts Cutest Kitten Ever, Hollow Brethren and Matt Masters and the Gentlemen of the Rodeo — don’t have any problem holding their own during their side concert shows or when they take the stage with international acts for the afternoon workshops.
“I think it’s great, and I think it’s getting better and better, and I think there are some interesting up and coming musicians,” she says, noting that she pays attention to such things as buzz around the city, and recommendations from club owners and other artists. “Like the rest of the festival, every year I have a list of people I’d like to bring, and my local list is always longer than we have space for.”
Maurice Ginzer, producer of this year’s Calgary International Blues Festival which runs Aug. 4-7 at Shaw Millennium Park, has to contend with pretty much the same difficulties as his folk fest counterpart, with the added bonus of having even less spots and a much smaller pool of artists to draw on. While there’s no denying the skills of the player’s in town, their numbers aren’t nearly as large as, say, the indie rock scene or even the folk scene, which is made even greater by the broadening of the definition.
Still, on the headliner side of things the city is well represented by local legend Ellen McIlwaine, and Tim Williams, or Calgary’s “guru of the blues,” as Ginzer calls him, will be hosting a singer-songwriter workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 3 before the fest kicks off proper.
While two may not seem many, the number of Calgary players involved actually swells when you add in the area musicians that some of the international acts tap on the shoulder to fill out their bands — a common practise to avoid the high costs of touring (travel, hotel, food, etc.) with too many members. Headliner Debra Power, a former Calgarian who now lives in Newfoundland, will be using all local people, says Ginzer, and Johnny Tornado will also be using mainly local musicians, a fact that the producer says the city should view with pride.
“Any of the big horn bands, when it’s too expensive to travel, they’re going to pick up local talent,” Ginzer says. “Without exception any time these guys have picked up local horn players — and I’m not just talking about guys from Saskatchewan or Manitoba, but guys from the States, too — they’re always, always super complimentary about how good these sidemen are. They’re blown away. They can’t believe that in a so-called backwater like Calgary that we have such great sidemen.
“It’s says something. It’s a testament to the development of the scene here in Calgary.”
Of course, that same can’t be said for the development within the jazz scene, which undoubtedly suffered a huge hit when the plug was pulled last year the day before the local festival was to kick off. True, there still is a sizable and local following in the city, and venues such as Beat Niq and downtown lounges and restaurants still host regular jazz nights, but the loss of a festival has lowered the music’s profile and that of the players.
Talks are underway between a number of different groups to get an event of some sort back up and running in 2012, but to fill in the void this year, the Jazz Is Society is holding a pair of concerts this weekend, which would traditionally be the festival time, as part of a Jazz Celebration. The two headliners for the Friday and Saturday night shows at Central United Church are out-of-towners — the Marc Atkinson Trio and trumpeter Gary Guthman, respectively — who are out this way on the Canadian jazz festival circuit.
But, again, although it is on a much smaller scale, Calgary’s community will get representation with local Gypsy jazz act The Bow Djangos, who will open the first night, Guthman will be sharing the stage with the Resident Artists Ensemble, Jazz Is Society (RAEJIS), a small core of city players who back up visiting artists.
Cindy McLeod, publicist for Jazz Is, says that just as it’s important to keep some sort of profile for jazz during the absence of a festival, it’s equally imperative that local players are seen and heard.
“I think it’s really important,” says McLeod, who’s also a veteran of the local jazz scene. “First and foremost jazz does thrive in Calgary. There is a core of great artistry and a good sized audience for jazz. And I think perhaps most remarkable is the jazz audience . . . because in spite of the ups and downs of the festival scene that fan base continues to go and support jazz. . . . Jazz is alive and well and healthy in many, many ways.”
Of course it is. This is Calgary. Which, for music anyway, is very fertile ground indeed.
