Posted by 
I’m guessing this will be a fairly mediocre ticket story at best. Don’t worry, it’s not you.
On June 28th, 2017 I made my way down to the Ottawa Jazz Fest yet again. This is something I had been doing joyously for years and years and years, filling my late-June evenings with a nightly dose of jazz or something generally very close to it, and all of it of the utmost quality.
But y’know, somehow, some way, it had started to get kind of old. It’s not like some other festival had swept in and taken over my summer interest – not a bit – but somehow my interest had consistently been waning. Maybe I had finally purchased enough plastic cups full of beer to last me a lifetime, though I doubt it. Perhaps my interest in live music had already reached its pinnacle? Sure, that’s likely, but just because I used to be much more likely to be amazed, surprised, and enamoured by live music doesn’t mean it didn’t happen anymore. Hmm. Maybe it wasn’t me either?
Maybe it has to do with the fact that I tend to see a lot of repeat acts at the Ottawa jazzfest. Not that I’m going to complain when Bill Frisell returns year after year, but even a gaggle of stacked musicians like The Bad Plus (who were playing the main stage on this evening) can get a little weary on the earies when they seem to pop by every season, and as for the bands in the Late Night Tent (like Nomadic Massive, who I saw after TBP), well, by that time of day they have to be pretty on top of their game to pull my attention away from my friends and a few final beers, and I don’t recall Nomadic Massive succeeding in this regard, though it was probably no fault of their own.
Come to think of it, it might have been the consistent rainy weather – of which this instalment of the jazz festival had plenty – that was dampening my enthusiasm for what was once my favourite annual capital event, so I can’t really blame the bands either. And while I’ve enjoyed some seriously great music whilst standing in Confederation Park enduring many a downpour (David Byrne comes to mind), sometimes the weather succeeds in ruining a parade.
But y’know, it occurs to me that despite all of these factors the reason I was unenthused with the jazzfest on this evening was specifically because I was so eagerly distracted by the impending arrival of my brother, his wife, their eldest son and his fiancée, who were scheduled to arrive the very next day in a monstrous RV/converted bus that would house them as they spent a week camped in our driveway celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary. Which was a great time.
Hmm. As I write this the annual jazz fest approaches and here I sit without a festival pass, something I should have purchased months ago. But this year I don’t think I will, and if so it will be the first year I’ve skipped the jazz fest (minus a show or two) in…well…ever.
So maybe it is me. Just know: it’s not you.
Todd Man Out 