Putting the jazz in jazz festival: Genre's influence focus of Halifax music fest

Jazz festivals across North America regularly feature artists whose music falls outside the genre, but some musicians at this year's Halifax Jazz Festival are highlighting jazz's influence on the rest of pop music.

Headliners for this year's festival stretch across various genres such as folk, rock and hip-hop. 

Jazz can be heard in each one of those styles of music, according to one musician who specializes in the genre.

"Jazz inspires pop music and pop music inspires jazz," said Quebec jazz bassist Carl Mayotte, whose band the Carl Mayotte Quintet performed at the festival this year. 

Mayotte, who completed a master's degree in jazz performance at McGill University, hosted one of several "jazz labs" that are part of the festival's year-round educational programming. 

The labs offer the public an interactive look at how a musician works on their craft and produces music. 

Despite peaking in the 1920s, Mayotte said jazz has had a lasting effect on different types of music that have been popular throughout the decades since.

Folk, prog-rock, R&B and hip-hop are just some examples of types of music that have borrowed elements of jazz, he said. 

"Rap is like the [child] of jazz," Mayotte said. 

'Jazz is for everyone'

The Halifax festival's mandate has always included an educational component, said one organizer. 

"We like to do a lot of our workshops prior to the concert so people can come and learn from the artists and then go see them perform later in the day," said Andrew Jackson, the festival's artistic director. "That's a really special way to just get more out of the music as well."

Several jazz musicians are part of the festival every year but typically perform at venues away from the main stage on the Halifax waterfront.

Jazz is not as represented as other genres, Jackson said, which is why it's important to have education be part of the annual event.

"[Jazz] music is for everyone. And so being able to, like, unlock some of those mysteries is really important to us," he said.

For Mayotte, an event that has the word jazz in its name should be promoting jazz music in some way.

There are a lot of talented young jazz musicians in Canada who just want the opportunity to perform live and events like the Halifax festival should be making space for them alongside the larger mainstream acts, he said. 

Mayotte, who also teaches music in schools, said there will always be an interest in jazz because young people are naturally drawn to it. 

"Because there's this kind of child play in jazz and there's this kind of feeling to be free in it, like how this concept of liberty is really implied in jazz," he said.