The Jazz Room launches fifth season with a few surprises

Waterloo Region Record

http://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/5915662-the-jazz-room-launches-fifth-season-with-a-few-surprises/

By Valerie Hill

WATERLOO — Five years ago, the idea of opening a permanent venue for jazz in Waterloo seemed an impossible dream.

“It progressed from impossible to it’s going to be possible and now this is happening,” said The Jazz Room’s co-founder, Stephen Preece. His organization, The Grand River Jazz Society, has launched its fifth season at The Jazz Room with two solid months of music featuring 40 performances and a few surprises.

“Our community is getting a lot more sophisticated in terms of what they want to hear,” said Preece, who says proudly sales were up last year, from the previous year’s 6,500 tickets to last season’s 7,000 tickets sold.

This year they have added monthly Sunday matinees, a time slot Preece said he was surprised audiences seemed to want.

For jazz lovers who might not have time to attend concerts in the evening, Sunday afternoons are the perfect alternative so organizers will make these concerts special.

“We’ll bring in bands we have a special affinity for,” said Preece.

Looking at this new season, it’s a mix of old and new as well as many different styles.

“It’s nice to hear some favourites but we always like to change it up too,” he said. “Nov. 8 is the Christian Howes Band. He’s become an institution, he’s a phenomenal violinist.”

On Nov. 21, Alex Dean’s Three Baritone Band will add a unique sound with three baritone saxophones.

“They’re all phenomenal players,” he said.

The word “phenomenal” pops up a lot when Preece describes performers The Jazz Room has managed to attract but given there are so few jazz venues in the entire country, it’s not surprising. Jazz musicians yearn to play here.

Unlike typical bar venues where music is often just background, The Jazz Room, located in the Huether Hotel, is concert style where audiences come to listen to the music. Beer and food are secondary as are conversations.

Last year was their first CD release party, music recorded live at The Jazz Room. It was not as successful as they hoped, but perhaps that was because the recording was a little too experimental for most tastes.

The Dave Wiffen Quartet will be this year’s recording artist, performing Sept. 18. Preece is certain audiences will warm to Wiffen, a local artist and teacher who he says performs “listenable” music.

“It’s going to be jammed-packed, he’s a very popular player,” he said. “It’s a mixture of old standards and his own music.”

The season will also include a touring musician from France, the Zerafa Sandro Quartet Oct. 22. Preece said they are hoping to be a venue for international touring musicians in the future. And never let it be said The Jazz Room takes itself too seriously.

On Oct. 31, they will feature a dress up Halloween party with the Trinidadian-born trumpet master who goes by the name of Brownman, performing the entire Michael Jackson album, “Thriller,” in a jazz style. Preece calls Brownman “fun and gregarious” and they plan to move tables aside to make room for dancing.

The Jazz Room will feature weekly concerts until a couple of days after Christmas, wrapping up with the Alysha Brilla Sextet.

“Alysha is a local favourite, she’s really fun,” said Preece, who noted that December will be about the vocalists, starting with the Joni NehRita Band on Dec. 4 to Brilla on Dec. 27 and a whole lot of singing in between.

Presenting such an ambitious season is possible because of community support and now they have achieved charitable status, donors will receive tax receipts.

“We’ve got a new corporate sponsor too — Eigenworks, a tech startup,” he said, adding “I’d like to see others in the tech world step up to sponsor arts and culture.”

vhill@therecord.com

Valerie Hill writes on arts and can be reached via Twitter @HillRecord.

The Jazz Room

Dave Wiffen Quartet CD release concert

Sep. 18, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $15

On line: www.KWJazzRoom.com

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KOI Fest 2015 Schedule

KOIFEST 2015

 

 

 

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25th

CIVILIAN PRINTING – MAIN STAGE

Doors
TBD
Carousel Kings
The Royal Streets
Rich Aucoin
July Talk
7:00 pm
7:20 pm
8:10 pm
8:50 pm
9:20 pm
10:10 pm


PABST BLUE RIBBON STAGE – 54 Queen St. S

Doors
Mark It Zero
Rydell
Wayfarer
Conversation
Fighting Season
Teen Violence
7:15 pm
7:45 pm
8:30 pm
9:15 pm
10:00 pm
10:45 pm
12:10pm


TD BANK STAGE – 31 King St. W.

Doors
Sparrows
Heavy Hearts
Bass Lions
Little Junior
Aspire
No King For Countrymen
7:30 pm
8:00 pm
8:40 pm
9:25 pm
10:10 pm
10:55pm
11:45pm

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 26th
TD BANK STAGE – 31 King St. W.

Doors
Vintage Playground
Run Coyote
DB Cooper
Redambergreen
For The Win
Alive in Standby
Scott Moffatt
Safe As Houses
Kandle & the Krooks
Wind In Sails
Splitfist
The Maysides
2:15 pm
2:45 pm
3:30 pm
4:15 pm
5:00 pm
5:45 pm
6:30 pm
7:15 pm
8:00 pm
8:45 pm
9:30 pm
10:15 pm
11:00 pm


SEAGRAM STAGE – 54 Queen St

Doors
The Scrubs
Coldfront
Survay Says!
We Were Sharks
Harbour
Lions Lions
The Creepshow
Bitter Kids
2:00pm
2:30pm
3:30pm
4:30pm
5:40pm
6:50pm
7:40pm
8:40pm
9:50pm


HEFFNER SCION SECONDARY STAGE

Doors Open
KOI Battle Winner
Saywecanfly
I See Stars
Ill Scarlett
The Mezingers
The Ataris
1:30pm
2:00pm
3:10pm
4:15pm
5:55pm
7:30pm
9:15pm


PABST STAGE – 54 Queen St.

Dead Broke
Somehow Hollow
Carousel Kings
Teenage Bottlerocket
Pears
Isotopes
The Brains
Bitter Kids
Make Do and Mend
2:00pm
3:00pm
4:00pm
5:00pm
6:10pm
7:10pm
8:10pm
9:20pm
10:20pm


CIVILIAN PRINTING – MAIN STAGE

Doors Open
The Color Morale
Auras
Hawthorne Heights
Texas In July
Letlive.
August Burns Red
1:30pm
2:30pm
3:45pm
5:00pm
6:45pm
8:25pm
10:15pm


EXCLAIM! STAGE – The Wax

Doors Open
The Hollow Sea
The Road to Milestone
Cardinals Pride
Drag the Lake
Exalt
Red Handed Denial
Mushy Callahan
Chastity
St. Andrews
Amberwood
Ivory Hours
2:30pm
3:00pm
3:45pm
4:30pm
5:15pm
6:00pm
6:45pm
7:30pm
8:15pm
9:00pm
9:45pm
10:30pm

TICKETSCENE STAGE – Capers Sports Bar – 1 Queen St. N.

Doors
Discover Atlantic
Mirrors&Tides
The Ocean Cure
Odium
Polarity
Prophets
Catalyst
Islands & Empires
Heart Attack Kids
Housing
The Space Pimps
Heaven Through Hell
1:45pm
2:15pm
3:00pm
3:50pm
4:40pm
5:30pm
6:20pm
7:10pm
8:00pm
8:50pm
9:40pm
10:30pm
11:20pm


BOBBY O’BRIENS – 125 King St. W.

Doors
Stuck On Planet Earth
Shorething
Olivia & the Creep Crawlies
Eli & the Straw Man
Broken Remarks
Repartee
Curses
Fiction Issue
Grey\\Water
Birds of Bellwoods
2:15pm
2:45pm
3:30pm
5:00pm
5:45pm
6:30pm
7:15pm
8:00pm
8:45pm
9:30pm
10:15pm


MOMENTUM ACOUSTIC STAGE – Corner of King St & Ontario St.

Cory Cruise
Cinderose
Grizzly Waves
Casey Bolles
Vienna D’amato
Wayne Kennedy
Brooklyn Doran
Mandippal
Madison Ing
Ivy James
James Downham
2:15pm
3:00pm
3:45pm
4:30pm
5:15pm
6:00pm
6:45pm
7:30pm
8:15pm
9:00pm
9:45pm
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Laurier Shinerama 2015 record One Republic’s “I Lived” at Studio A

University Affairs magazine has released a compilation of top campus traditions across Canada. Shinerama, a nationwide fundraiser that started at Laurier, has made the list.

Shinerama began in 1961 at Laurier’s Waterloo campus as an alternative to traditional first-year initiation antics. Paul Enns, president of Laurier’s sophomore class (then known as Waterloo University College) and chair of the initiation committee at the time, had an idea to improve how incoming students experienced the traditional welcome to campus life.

“I thought initiation should be about team building,” Enns toldCampus Magazine in a previous interview. “Embarrassing people doesn’t always do it.”

Enns thought a fundraiser could bring first-year students together while giving back to the local community. After a brainstorming session with the director of information and alumni relations, the idea of a shoe-shining campaign was put in motion.

A remarkable $1,358 was raised that year for Sunbeam Home, an agency that supports individuals living with developmental challenges. By 1963, Laurier students had raised almost $10,000 for the local non-profit.

The Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF) learned of Shinerama’s success through the family of a child living with the disease. The foundation was challenged to make Shinerama work as a CCFF fundraiser at other schools. And it did.

While the idea was taking off at other schools across the country, Shinerama experienced a decline at Laurier until the university partnered with CCFF in the late 1970s, giving new energy to Enns’ original idea of team building and good will.

“Shinerama, throughout its history, has become such a cornerstone of the Laurier community. It reflects the function of our values as a school,” said Al DiCiantis, coordinator of Shinerama at Laurier’s Waterloo campus. “Shinerama unites all students who go to Laurier and plays an instrumental role in welcoming first-year students into our culture every year.”

Shinerama at Laurier is coordinated by the Students’ Union. DiCiantis expects approximately 2,400 students to participate in Shine Day this September. He hopes Laurier students can raise another $100,000 – a goal they have achieved several times before. Shinerama has raised more than $25 million for cystic fibrosis research since its inception.

Read about Shinerama in University Affairs’ top campus traditions.

 

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Boathouse partners part ways, six months after opening

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5716815-boathouse-partners-part-ways-six-months-after-opening/#.VZ-xXEahVC0.facebook

B822021820Z.1_20150709210538_000_GGM1GS018.2_Gallery.jpg

Waterloo Region Record

By Catherine Thompson

KITCHENER — Six months after a long-delayed, long-awaited opening, the Boathouse is going through a change in ownership.

Mark Forwell is buying out partner Bill MacTavish in a deal that is likely to close next week, Forwell said in an email.

“Bill and I are parting ways and will each pursue our separate visions,” Forwell said. “The price has been set and the deal should close next week. The only delays are getting tax advice, and transferring accounts, etc.”

He added that the Boathouse will still chiefly cater to blues and rock audiences, but that the location, next to the lake in Victoria Park, appeals to a diverse crowd so the venue will host different musical styles, with funk and country being the most requested music styles after blues/rock.

“The Boathouse aims to provide any music that gets people off their behinds,” Forwell said. “One of the most fun nights we had was a raucous “Gypsy Punk” band that plays lively, eastern European-influenced music. We are even hoping to get a band famous for using a chainsaw in their act.

“Generally, the place has been successful and we hope to build on what we’ve done so that we become a well-known destination.”

He has hired Rai Madge, who is well-known in the local music scene, to book musical acts, and a new chef, Matt Mahler, who has just introduced a new menu.

MacTavish declined Thursday to comment on why he is leaving, but said, “Given this new situation though, I am more aggressively pursuing a new location for Imbibe.” He owned Imbibe Food and Drink at 10 King St. W., which closed in June after a three-year run in space at Themuseum.

Forwell said the change in ownership will have no impact on the 10-year lease that he and MacTavish signed with the city in 2014, since he was a co-owner of the company from the outset.

The Boathouse opened in January after lengthy renovations, with space for about 150 people and another 135 on the patio.

The city awarded the contract for the Boathouse in early 2014 to Forwell and MacTavish, who were the sole remaining bidders in a process that had originally attracted six bids.

The popular city-owned venue was closed from September 2013 until January 2015. MacTavish and Forwell signed a 10-year lease with the city after the previous owner was kicked out for failing to pay bills. The city invested $410,000 in renovating the site, and another $350,000 in patio and walkway upgrades, with Forwell and MacTavish covering all other construction costs. Those amounted to at least $250,000, up from an original estimate of $168,000, MacTavish said last year.

Rod Regier, executive director of Kitchener’s economic development department, said he has no concerns about the change.

“The partner, Mark, who put the majority of the financial investment in the business, is invested and committed to the business, to the point where he’s wiling to purchase the rest of it,” said Regier. “For me, that’s a good sign.”

The city is not involved in the transaction, other than to ensure that Forwell is committed to the original terms of the lease, and to the city’s vision for the site as a live-music venue and a high-quality food and beverage business, he said.

Coun. Frank Etherington, whose ward includes Victoria Park, said the Boathouse seems to be a success.

“From what I can see, and I’ve been there a number of times, the Boathouse is doing very, very well, particularly the summer patio, where it’s just fabulous to sit out there in the evening and watch the world go by,” Etherington said.

The building was originally constructed to store canoes and as a shelter for people putting on their skates. Over the years, it has served as a tea house, a pub and a bar with live music that seated about 80 people. The last major renovation took place in 1967 following a roof fire.

cthompson@therecord.com , Twitter: @ThompsonRecord

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KOI launches first wave of festival lineup

http://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/5677966-koi-launches-first-wave-of-festival-lineup/

Waterloo Region Record

By Record staff

The Menzingers

KITCHENER — American punk rockers The Menzingers are among the first group of musical acts announced to play the sixth Kitchener Ontario Independent Music Festival this fall.

The Scranton, Pa., band will be joined by some other notable U.S. acts for the festival held at venues throughout downtown Kitchener Sept. 25-27.

letlive. is a post-hardcore band from Los Angeles while I See Stars is an electronic hardcore band from Warren, Mich. Waterloo’s own folk-rock group, The Royal Streets, is also on the bill.

The four bands were among the first 10 acts named to perform at the 2015 edition of the festival, which boasted 105 acts a year ago.

“This is only the first of many announcements to come,” KOI co-founder and festival executive director Cory Crossman said in a media release.

“We’re looking forward to further growing the festival to meet the levels of excitement we’ve seen for the five years previous.”

Other bands to perform include Hawthorne Heights from Dayton, Ohio, Hartford’s Make Do and Mend, Burlington’s The Creepshow, Wyoming’s Teenage Bottlerocket, Calgary’s The Fast Romantics and PEARS from New Orleans.

KOI, formed by Crossman and his brother Curt, is billed as a celebration of the diverse independent music scene in Canada. Through the festival, the Kitchener musician brothers aim to promote their city as a musical hub while offering exposure to local bands.

This year’s festival includes some new features. The KOI Battle, in partnership with Maxwell’s Music, will see local bands dueling for a chance to perform on the main festival stage. A lead-up tour to the festival will be called “The Road to KOI.” The acoustic brunch series, which saw main stage bands play intimate and unplugged sets over breakfast, will return.

The First Wave of KOI

Sept. 25-27

Letlive.

Hawthorne Heights

The Menzingers

Make Do and Mend

i See Stars

The Creepshow

Teenage Bottlerocket

The Fast Romantics

PEARS

The Royal Streets

www.koimusicfestival.com

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What A Guy! Dave Grohl Breaks His Leg But Continues To Rock in Sweden

https://youtu.be/_Hb788GPv6I

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/dave-grohl-breaks-leg-but-continues-to-rock-in-sweden-20150613

It takes a special kind of commitment to keep entertaining a crowd of thousands on a freshly-broken leg, but Dave Grohl is dedicated to his fans. The Foo Fighters frontman took a catastrophic tumble off the stage during a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden on Friday, forcing him into a surprisingly brief hiatus to seek medical assistance, as the BBC reports.

Two songs into the band’s show at Ullevi stadium, Grohl seemed to have miscalculated a jump onto a ramp, falling instead into the security pit. “I think I just broke my leg,” he announced to the crowd while lying on the ground, as captured by a fan video. “I think I really broke my leg!” To any audience members making the reasonable assumption that the show was over for the night, he offered some reassurance. “You have my promise right now that the Foo Fighters, we’re gonna come back and finish this show,” he said. “But right now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m gonna go to the hospital, I’m gonna fix my leg. But then I’m gonna come back, and we’re gonna play for you again! I’m so sorry!”

He then handed the show over to drummer Taylor Hawkins, who led the band in a set of covers in Grohl’s absence. About an hour later, Grohl returned to the stage on a stretcher, with the assistance of two medics. They set him down on a chair, from which he proceeded to rock for another two-and-a-half hours.

The Foo Fighters later confirmed the extent of Grohl’s damage by Tweeting an x-ray showing a rather gruesome-looking fracture. “Thank you Gothenburg. That was amazing,” the caption said. Unfortunately, the injury has forced the band to cancel their June 14th appearance at the Pinkpop Festival and their show at the AFG Arena in St. Gallen, Switzerland on June 16th.

https://youtu.be/Whbmf17Esuw

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