Steel City Jazz Fest embracing its niche

As the Steel City Jazz Fest approaches, don't expect to see street closures around Hamilton, huge stages, and posters for acts being played on mainstream radio.

Now in its fourth year, the festival is growing just not to the massive, public heights of some of Hamilton's other major festivals.

But that suits organizer Chris Ferguson just fine. While the festival is bringing in acts with Grammy award-winning pedigree this year, it's main drive is showcasing Hamilton's scene and offering a jumping on point for newcomers to see what the city has to offer jazz lovers.

"We still play it pretty niche," Ferguson told CBC News. "We've never tried to go down the big outdoor festival route."

For [jazz] to survive, you have to get out there and champion it.- Chris Ferguson, organizer

Yet even without that push, the festival has still grown. At its inception, it was made up of ten shows on one weekend. This time around, it's ten days of shows, spanning three venues.

This year, the festival features artist-in-residence trumpeter Mike Malone and drummer Larnell Lewis from the Grammy-winning band Snarky Puppy.

Malone is giving a talk called "What Do You Hear? Improvisation, Composition and the Importance of Listening," which dives into the similarities and differences between improvand composition, which remain at the very heart of jazz.

On the local side, there's bassist Brad Cheeseman, a Hamilton native who just moved back to the city after living in Toronto. His band, the Brad Cheeseman Group, played at the Montreal International Jazz Festival this summer and won the TD Grand Prix De Jazz Award.

Cheeseman also plays with trumpeter Brownman Ali as part of the Brownman Electryc Trio, which just won Best Jazz Instrumental Group at the 2016 Toronto Independent Music Awards.

In many ways, the festival offers a kind of entry point for people who enjoy the ebb and flow of jazz, but they don't know much about the local scene.

"Any kind of music community can be intimidating to get into," Ferguson said. That's the joy of the festival setting multiple opportunities to dip your toe in the water and see just what's out there.

Festivals like this one are also important for keeping genres that aren't top of mind in the mainstream alive, Ferguson says. While it will likely never be as possible as the genre's heyday in the 1920s, there is still a dedicated subculture of people who want to worship at the altar of John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

"For [jazz] to survive, you have to get out there and champion it."

Steel City Jazz Fest runs from Oct. 26 to Nov. 5 in Hamilton.

For information on shows, venues and tickets, visit steelcityjazzfest.com.

adam.carter@cbc.ca