Articles by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2025
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Victoriaville, Quebec May 12-18, 2025 The 41st edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville was the second with Scott Thomson as artistic director, after taking the reins of the festival from festival founder and artistic director Michel Levasseur following the 39th edition in 2023. This year's affair was drastically reduced from the usual 20 concerts over four days to two concerts on Saturday evening, May 17 ...
Continue ReadingFestival International de Jazz de Montreal 2024
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Jazz de Montreal Montreal, Quebec, Canada June 27-July 6 2024 One of the charges that has historically been leveled against the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (the FIJM, or popularly, the Montreal Jazz Festival) is that the programming had gone from a jazz-centric approach in its early years to a state where the program didn't present much current jazz by young or lesser-known musicians, international or local, nor did it make ...
Continue ReadingFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2024
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Various Venues Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 16-19, 2024 The 40th edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, held May 16-19, was marked by the big change of artistic directors from founding director Michel Levasseur to Scott Thomson, former artistic director of the Guelph Jazz Festival. On the other hand, the programming itself stayed true to the history of the festival, with perhaps a stronger ...
Continue ReadingScott Thomson Takes Over at FIMAV: Seeking a Balance Between Continuity and Change
by Mike Chamberlain
At the 2023 edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, all the talk was about the future of the festival after founding artistic director Michel Levasseur announced that he was stepping down after 40 years and 39 editions of the event. Who would take over as artistic director? Who was even qualified to direct such an eclectic, forward-looking festival, given that one of the requirements would be having a strong local presence in a small city of ...
Continue ReadingFestival International de Jazz de Montreal 2023
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Jazz de Montreal Montreal, Quebec June 29-July 8, 2023 Not many cities like a party like Montreal, and the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM) has been the biggest party in Montreal since its inception in 1980. Not even smoke from wildfires in northern Quebec could obscure the love that Montrealers and tourists from outside the city have for the festival. This year's 43rd edition of the FIJM was ...
Continue ReadingFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2023
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 18-21, 2023 This year's 39th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Victoriaville (FIMAV) was characterized by a new performance space, a good number of noteworthy performances, and trepidation about the future of the festival following artistic director Michel Levasseur's announcement that this would be his last year at the helm. The Centre des Congrès, a new facility next door to ...
Continue ReadingMichel Levasseur Leaves the Building
by Mike Chamberlain
The run-up to this year's 39th edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV, or Victo) has been anything but routine. First, it was announced in December that the City of Victoriaville had rescinded the festival's contract for the use of the Colisée des Bois-Francs arena as one of the festival's two main venues. Attempts to change the council's decision proved fruitless, and alternative venues had to be hastily arranged. Fortunately, they were, but the loss of ...
Continue ReadingThe Sam Rivers Sessionography: A Work in Progress
by Mike Chamberlain
The Sam Rivers Sessionography: A Work in Progress Rick Lopez 768 Pages ISBN: # 9 780578 948713 The Vortex2022 Twenty-five years in the making, Rick Lopez's 768-page opus The Sam Rivers Sessionography: A Work in Progress is a dizzying, stunning achievement of research and scholarship that stands as a one-of-a-kind standard for a genre that Lopez has practically invented by himself, starting with his previous William Parker sessionography (in print), and his online ...
Continue ReadingFestival International de Jazz de Montreal 2022
by Mike Chamberlain
Various venues Festival International de Jazz de Montreal Montreal, Quebec, Canada July 5-9, 2022 All hail the return of live music! After a three-year break imposed by Covid-19, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM) was back this year with a scaled-down but user-friendly slate of 350 concerts, about 2/3 of which were free. This was a year of transition for the festival, now under new management. In the past, the festival ...
Continue ReadingFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2022
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Various Venues Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 19-22, 2022 The weekend of May 19-22, was the first time since 2019 that artistic director Michel Levasseur and the team at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV, or Victo, as it is popularly known) were able to mount a full program of concerts and other presentations (sound installations, films) without tight pandemic restrictions. This meant that, ...
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