The Coastal Jazz and Blues Society (box office at 316 West Sixth Avenue, Central Vancouver, 604-872-5200 or 1-888-438-5200, www. jazzvancouver.com) has organized, promoted, and stuck by a jazz scene that has waxed and waned, but now appears to be relatively strong. The society is best known for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in late June.
Tickets for CJBS-listed events — listed in its quarterly publication, Looking Ahead — are generally available through Ticketmaster (604-280-4444), Highlife Records (1317 Commercial Drive, East Vancouver, 604-251-6964), and Black Swan Records (3209 West Broadway, Kitsilano, 604-734-2828).
A current hot spot for jazz is The Cellar Restaurant and Jazz Club (3611 West Broadway, Kitsilano, 604-738-1959), where jazz runs across the style spectrum. Credit local musician Cory Weeds, who helped to pull the city’s jazz out of a blue funk by opening the space a few years back.
A slightly older crowd frequently packs Rossini’s (1525 Yew Street, Kitsilano, 604-737-8080), which is otherwise something of a neighborhood bar-restaurant for musicians, writers, and related types. Rossini’s also runs a slightly fancier jazz joint (162 Water Street, Gastown, 604-408-1300).
Those who like their jazz progressive might head to the Western Front (303 East 8th Avenue, Mount Pleasant, East Vancouver, 604-876-9343, www.front.bc.ca). This rustic, rambling, and invitingly creaky all-wood building deserves a visit in its own right. Inside, you’ll find the Western Front Society, long a guardian of the avant-garde and political arts; it’s currently devoted to “the contemporary media arts and interdisciplinary practice.” You get the picture. Attend¬ance demands, well, open-mindedness — a recent performance involved a “giant grain elevator transformed into a musical instrument.” But the Western Front also hosts more accessible jazz performed by emerging young artists from across Canada, Europe, and beyond.
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