The Winnipeg Jazz Festival was back for 2023 with a full 11 days of great live music around Winnipeg. Crowds packs all the venues and were living it up at The Cube for all the free shows in Old Market Square. We didn’t catch every band, but we certainly got a lot of them. Check out some of our shots below.
The first three days brought some fantastic headliners to the jazz festival. Opening night at the Manitoba Theatre Centre featured acclaimed trumpeter Keyon Harrold. You many not recognize him, but you’ve likely heard his playing. He was the horn on the recent Miles Davis biopic. Opening for him was local hiphop group Super Duty Tough Work. Night two back at the Manitoba Theatre Centre brought Canadian pop star Reve to Winnipeg with Preston Pablo opening the show.
During the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, you can’t go wrong checking out the shows at The Cube free stage in Old Market Square. This iconic form-over-function stage is the centrepiece of the jazz festival with nightly music and a beer garden. The First night of the festival brought folk trio Casati to open the night. You can’t go wrong when you have a hurdy gurdy on stage!! They were followed by country artist Brandi Vezina and local folk quartet Leaf Rapids. The the hurdy gurdy wasn’t enough to impress you, no doubt, watching Leaf Rapids play theremin will be exciting. The Cube closed out on opening night with Paige Drobot’s incredible guitar shredding.
Night two at The Cube we got to check out three fantastic groups. We kicked off our night with the Sam Little 5 who brought some of the first jazz of the festival to Old Market Square. They were followed by N2ONET, a 9-piece group interpreting Wayne Shorter’s great music. Closing out the night was Juvel, a fantastic quartet playing some fun gypsy-jazz.
Night three was a little more chill for us. We got to check out Diogo Peixoto’s phenomenal guitar playing. Originally from Sao Paolo, Brazil, Peixoto now teach guitar at Brandon University. The night ended with the incredible energy of Rodrigo Massa. Undoubtably, Massa was thrilled to be in Winnipeg playing for such an adoring crowd.
