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1th only two weeks
to go until the
opening of the
third annual du Maurier International Jazz Festival,
public interest and ticket
sales are heating up, so
now's t.he time to plan your
festival itinerary if you want
to avoid missing out on some

Off Beat
ALEX VARTY
of the most soulfully creative
music ever heard around
these parts. To help you pick
out a schedule, here are capsule summaries of some of
the "don't miss" events that
the festival has in store.
Certainly you won't want
to miss the gala opening on
Friday, June 24 at the Expo
Theatre: ex-Weather Report
leader Joe Zawinul's aptly
named Zawinul Syndicate
should be explosive, with
rhythm demons Cornell Rochester and Gerald Veasley
driving a band that's primed
to cover all the bases, from
bebop to 21st-century funk;
while Senegalese singer
You■aou N'Dour has one of
the finest bands to emerge
from the Third (or any other)
World, plus an impassioned,
often heartbreakingly beautiful vocal delivery.
Three under-appreciated
pianists should provide some
of the festival's finest hours:
veterans Aadrew Hill and
Horace Tap■oott and r1.-!-

woman, a New York resident, festival. With New Yorkers straightforward is calling
adds elements of the Afro- Samm Bennett, Ned Rothen- you, hear the Horace ParCuban tradition to her simi- berg, and Elliott Sharp on lan/Archie Shepp duet inlarly complete understand- board, their influences run stead (also on July 3, but at
ing of the jazz piano. She's a the gamut from Japanese the VECC at 8 p.m.). Shepp,
sparklingly powerful soloist shakuhachi music to Yoruba one of the '60s jazz radicals
and for this tour has drumming to Jimi Hendrix. who came up in Coleanan's
assembled an equally bright Perversely humorous and in- wake, has mellowed remarkband, featuring saxophone finitely inventive, their ably,andalongwiththerlchlions Gary Thomas and Greg range and scope has boosted sounding pianist Parlan,
Osby, bassist Lonnie Plax- them out of the improvising now flexes his considerable
ico, and the prodigious underground and onto the saxophone capabilities on
young drummer Terri Lynne avant-punk record label vintage blues, gospel, and
Carrington, all members of SST, where they can be Bird numbers that sing and
the new generation of New heard stretching out on swing with warmth, humour,
York-based jazz extenders. music that's radical, rhyth- and quiet fire.
At the Vancouver East Cul- mic, and memorably melodTwo bands led from the
tural Centre on June 30.
le. Multi-instrumentalists rhythm section but long on
In only three years the Rene Lussier, Jean Derome saxophone talent will exdu Maurier festival has al- (from Montreal), and Toni plore the modern approachready, established a world- Cora (from New York) will es to the jazz tradition at tne
wide reputation as one of the open with a set that's sure to VECC on June 29: local
places to hear the Jazz avant- be similarly Intense and sur- drummer Claude Ranger
garde, and three concerts in __erising.
will lead a three-horned
that idiom that should not be I The Vancouver band Lunl quintet (Perry White, Rob
missed are Georlfe Lewis's ar Adventures, arguably this Frayne, and Phil Dwyer will
solo recital at the Western city's most interesting "fu- blow, Skywalk's Rene Worst
Front (June 27), the double- slon" ensemble, will unleash will bass) that could be
bill of Semantics with the Its spiky chops as a fitting mightily Impressive, while
Lu■■ier/Derome/Cora trio
appetizer for the latest edl- ex-Ornette bassist Charlie
at the VECC (July 1), and the tion of Ornette Coleman's Haden, one of the world's
Ornette Coleman/Lunar controversial Prime Time j most musical human beings
Adventure■ package at the
outfit, which now apparently and a poetically beautiful
Commodore on July 3.
includes a tabla player, but player, will work with exLewis is an outstanding will be without flash bassist Rolling Stones sax sideman
trombone technician, a Jamaaladeen Tacuma, out Ernie Watts, pianist Alan
master of contemporary ap- on the road with his own Broadbent, and drummer
proaches to his instrument, band. Ornette is always in- paul Motian in an ensemble
and also a pioneer in the un- teresting-whether you that should, theoretically, be
charted waters of computer think he's a genius or not- able to do just about anymusic. When he puts the two and our consensus is that he thing from the deep blues to
together, the results can be is. There's no denying that the most abstract poinbizarrely unpredictable, or few other artists can match tillisms.
blissfully lovely, but always his scope, from acoustic
And, finally, for more mageminently musical.
quartet jazz to avant-funk to nificent African singing,
Semantics is one of the full-scale symphonic works.
catch Salif Keita, with
wildest groups playing the
If something a little more Themba Tana's African

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