That's a Wrap on The First Virtual Jazz Festival

The first ever VIRTUAL TD JazzYYC International Jazz Days Festival ended its successful run last week. Over 28 days, JazzYYC presented 29 live streams and 19 educational videos featuring Calgary artists alongside top Canadian and International jazz musicians. The final episode featured a world-premiere tribute of the late Senator, and world-famous jazz musician, Tommy Banks performing with the Jens Lindemann Big Band, highlighting Calgary's trumpeter Al Muirhead, nominated for a JUNO this year.

"Two weeks after the shutdown in March we had a plan and funding in place to present a month-long virtual festival," says JazzYYC Artistic Producer Kodi Hutchinson. "We were the first major music festival in Canada to offer large-scale programming designed to support artists financially. We paid 84 artists to participate, 54 of them from Calgary. We are honoured to have worked with 17 JUNO-nominated and JUNO-winning musicians, one Polaris Prize finalist, and one Grammy winner."

Each day music lovers were able to watch the TD Jazz YYC International Jazz Days Festival on the JazzYYC website and on social media as presented via Jazz Home Delivery. Visit JazzYYC.com to re-watch all the shows. The Festival was broadcast live each night on six unique online services. Over 100,000 views have been registered on the content to date.

TD JazzYYC International Jazz Days Festival Host Tim Tamashiro is the host / producer of Jazz Home Delivery, a jazz / talk show on Facebook Live. Tim created the show in response to COVID-19 separating jazz fans from live jazz performances. He invites musicians to deliver their music and stories from their homes to fans around the world. For a decade Tim was host of Tonic on CBC Radio 2. His role as Canada's nightly jazz companion was one of his most cherished experiences of his lifetime.