Jazz at Karlo

BIGLAKE Arts bring intimate performances to winery

For those who enjoyed and experienced the extraordinary collection and curation of performances, events and activities Wellington Water Week delivered in 2018 and 2019, the creative and musical minds behind the event are back. While Wellington Water Week has outgrown its initial concept, executive director Elissa Lee and artistic director Johannes Debus have rebranded themselves as BIGLAKE Arts and will be bringing the BIGLAKE Festival to Wellington and beyond this August. In the meantime, for those patrons eager to hear and experience live music this summer, BIGLAKE Arts, in collaboration with Karlo Estates Winery, have come up with BIGLAKE Jazz Fridays at Karlo Estates, beginning this Friday. “With Wellington Water Week, we wanted to make something that was broader in terms of a name, but also encompasses still what we did,” said Lee. “We still have a week-long festival and have expanded on other dates surrounding the festival with these other jazz series concerts we are doing with Karlo, and we also hope to continue expanding throughout the year.”

Comprising of five Friday night jazz concerts throughout the summer, the BIGLAKE Jazz Fridays series will feature different musicians at each event (two of whom call the County home) with two concerts in July, two in August and one date in September. “We’re hoping for it to be very, very exciting as I think people have been really starved; we have definitely been starved from music and anything bringing people together, and I think everyone really misses listening to concerts and being uplifted by music,” said Lee. “Sherry [Karlo] was fabulously supportive on previous festivals and she approached us and said she really wanted to incorporate more musical activities. We had known each other and it was leaning on our musical expertise and collaborating together at their venue, and with their wonderful wine and service.”

Elissa Lee and Johannes Debus on the waterfront in Wellington.

The BIGLAKE Jazz Series kicks off this Friday (July 23) with the County’s Matt King-Smith Trio, a group of young musicians who share a passion for jazz and swing music. “Taking inspiration from Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, this up-and-coming young trio bring your favourite jazz standards and are sure to bring a smile to your face,” stated BIGLAKE’s media bio. The following Friday (July 30) welcomes a Prince Edward County favourite, Hamilton-born Rita di Ghent. “Rita has become a worldwide artist of note and the inventor of an original jazz genre that she calls ‘sprawl’, a combination of traditional jazz, contemporary urban music and painterly stories. Her many accolades include a nomination for the Montreal Jazz Festival’s Prix de Jazz for her acclaimed The Birth of Sprawl.”

For the comfort and safety of its patrons, Karlo Estates has installed a state-of-the-art filtration system, transforming the wine lounge into an intimate, COVID-safe indoor environment with limited relaxed seating. “People have quite a bit of space around them, but we wanted to keep it indoors to keep the feeling of a jazz lounge intact,” Lee said. To ensure things work efficiently and safely for everyone, each concert will have two seatings. The first will be at 5:30 p.m. (to 7 p.m.), with the performance at 6 p.m. (to 6:45 p.m.); the second seating is at 7:30 p.m. (to 9: p.m.), with the performance at 8 p.m. Food and drink may be ordered during the first 30 minutes of each seating, before the performance begins. With safety still in mind, tickets will be sold in bubbles of a maximum of two, for a maximum seating of 22 people per sitting (11 bubbles). Cost per person for one concert seating (tasty snacks and wine extra) is $25 (students and seniors $20), and if you wish to stay for both performances, the cost is $40.

August brings Toronto-based Two Cups of Joe with Jozsef Botos (guitar) and Josef Philips (double bass) on Friday August 6. “Guitarist Jozsef Botos is an accomplished performer who works seamlessly in between classical, jazz and world-music styles. Joe Phillips is one of Canada’s most versatile double-bassists. Equally at home in a concert hall or at a folk festival, Joe has appeared as guest principal bass with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, has performed at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow and the Winnipeg Folk Festival.” Tania Gill (piano) and Victor Bateman (bass) perform on August 13. “Acclaimed composer and pianist Tania Gill is a key figure in the Toronto scenes of jazz and creative music. Victor Bateman is a bassist, vocalist, composer and improviser. For almost four decades, he has regularly played country, bluegrass, blues, jazz, and improvised music and occasionally pop, rock and classical music. He enjoys exploring the edges of the urban environment, as well as collecting and employing elegant psychic furnishings.”

The five nights of summer jazz wrap-up on Friday, September 3 with Rebecca Hennessy (trumpet/vocals) and Michael Herring (double bass). “Rebecca Hennessy and Michael Herring play their original songs drawing influences from jazz, pop and roots music. They elegantly trade off singing lead and background vocals and accompany themselves on a mix of double bass, piano, accordion and trumpet. Michael Herring is JUNO-nominated a double-bassist and composer based in Toronto who writes, performs and records across genre lines, equally comfortable in jazz as in folk, world and pop/rock settings.”

Further details and tickets for BIGLAKE Jazz Fridays at Karlo Estates can be found at biglakefest.com. Karlo Estates Winery (karloestates.com) is located at 561 Danforth Road, Wellington. Also, save the date for the BIGLAKE Festival which runs August 20 to 27 where the exciting line-up will include more jazz at Karlo Estates with Tara Davidson (saxophone) and Juno-nominated artists William Carn (trombone) and Andrew Downing (bass). This unique jazz event (August 25) will include a special wine-tasting event intermingled with fresh, sweet, tangy and smokey jazz standards. Check out BIGLAKE’s website for the full August BIGLAKE Festival line-up which promises not to disappoint.