Just over 30 people attended day one of the 11th annual South Coast Jazz festival at Brantford’s Glenhyrst Art Gallery on Friday, August 9, 2024.
The festival originally got its start in 2013 in Norfolk County and was held across a few of the county’s wineries. By the second year, organizers sold out the Port Dover Arena with Holly Cole and the event became a yearly festival peppered throughout different venues in Norfolk County.
While the event has evolved over the years, including switching to an online format throughout the pandemic, festival organizers have also been bringing the entertainment to Brantford for the past two years.
“We’re thrilled to be here as we have not actually done any shows here at Glenhyrst before,” said Juliann Kuchocki, founding Director and Producer of the South Coast Jazz festival. “We were teamed up with them for the Jazzin’ Juniors program in the past which was a brilliant success and now I’ve been working with Ana Olson and everybody here, so we decided to come back here and do some shows here in the gallery.”
During Friday’s event, guests settled inside the intimate venue for an evening of instrumental music from the Branson Palanio Organ Trio and Johannes Linstead.
The Branson Palanio Organ Trio, a Brantford-based jazz ensemble featuring Branson Palanio on the organ, Paul Macdougall on the guitar and Costa Chatzis on drums, kicked the night off with several cover songs including their rendition of the Oliver Nelson Septet’s “Stolen Moments,” Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” Larry Young’s “Paris Eyes” and Lonnie Smith’s “Back Track.”
During intermission, guests headed outside to the terrace for a few songs from jazz and blues musician Thom Adkins, before heading back inside for the second half of the evening’s performance.
Up next, Johannes Linstead, an award winning guitarist, took to the stage alongside Jordan Abraham and Geoff Hlibka, to perform several of his original upbeat songs including “Bella! Bella!” “Azul,” “Don Juan,” “Coconut Girl” and “The Happy Song.”
As the evening wrapped up, many guests stuck around to talk about the performances, chat with the musicians or grab a photo, and overall, Kuchocki said she was thrilled with the night.
“The turnout was great and we had a sold out show tonight so we always love when that happens,” she said. “We had some amazing musicians up close and personal tonight so it was just wonderful and the vibe was just great, I think the audience loved what we put on tonight.”
With the Brantford show in the books, the music continued on Sunday at the Simcoe Lynnwood Arts Centre with performances by Shannon Butcher and Michael Shand, Brantford singer-songwriter Avery Raquel and singer-songwriter James Wilson from Six Nations of the Grand River.
Kuchocki said that was excited for the festival lineup as a whole, noting that the best part of the annual event is always finding the talent.
“My favorite part is finding the talent and working with them; For instance, with Avery Raquel, I discovered her when she was 12 at an event here in Brantford and I thought she was just amazing and now she’s headlining the festival,” said Kuchocki. “Finding these musicians is one of the things I really treasure, especially when it’s young people or even just the ones that need to be discovered, you know?”
The founding director said she couldn’t do the in-person shows or the international online viewing without her sponsors.
“I have to thank all of our sponsors; Ontario Creates, the City of Brantford, Norfolk County, the Brant Community Foundation, Richard Cooper Law, Baby Charlotte and all of our media sponsors,” said Kuchocki. “We really couldn’t do this without their support and I’m just so thankful for all of them.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
