Thank you for a great 2024 from Infidels Jazz
Every year I keep saying that Infidels Jazz can’t keep getting bigger or busier, and every year we do. I wanted to take a second to talk about the year we just had, and to thank some folks that made 2024 amazing, Infidels-wise.
At the beginning of 2024, we had booked our first shows at the Fox and at the Pearl, which were (and still are) huge venues for us. I was terrified. Dean Thiessen and Space Elevator sold out those shows of course, and then we sold out five other shows at those venues, plus dozens of other shows all over the city. In total, we presented 205 shows at 17 different venues in Vancouver and Burnaby. And I got to present David Murray. DAVID MURRAY!!!!
Obviously if you’re going to promote live music, you can’t do shows without incredible musicians. And this town has a LOT of them. Thank you to the over 500 musicians who played an Infidels show this year! From the ones that were sold out, to the ones where almost nobody showed… what mattered was the music, and we are so grateful to you for sharing your talents with this city.
A big part of our secret sauce continues to be our eclectic venue partners, from movie theatres to boxing gyms to jazz clubs to high schools. Big gratitude for not only the managers of these great spaces, but for the staff that make them special: Frankie’s Jazz Club, Hero’s Welcome, VIFF Centre, Tyrant Studios, All-City Athletics, Zameen Art House, The Lido, Fox Cabaret, The Pearl, VSO School of Music, the Painted Ship, the Heatley, the Hollywood Theatre, the Shadbolt Centre, Chill X Studios, Odd Fellows Hall, & Magee Secondary School Theatre. The people who work in these spaces care so much about their community. Tip them big, when appropriate.
One of the things that I think makes Infidels Jazz special, is that we aren’t really an arts org in the traditional sense. We just book shows that we think people want to see. But we work with lots of arts orgs, and other cultural organizations and companies. Thanks to Fraser MacPherson Jazz Fund, the Vancouver International Film Festival, Cellar Music Group, NOW Society, MODO-Live, VSO School of Music, Rhythm Changes, and Coastal Jazz for your partnerships and collaborations.
Thanks to you. Yes, you. Literally thousands and thousands of people attended Infidels Jazz shows this year. We don’t get grants or public money: Infidels Jazz exists because you spend money and attend the shows.
When Infidels started, it was supposed to be about the record label and the Mixcloud Show. The live events have become the main thing we do, but we still released 4 albums this year that I’m very proud of, and produced 56 episodes of The Infidels Jazz Show. Thanks to Darren Williams, Ron Samworth, Bruce Freedman, and Jodi Proznick / Allison Au / Mili Hong for trusting us with your albums this year. Thanks to Chris Preston for engineering our podcast every week. There literally would be no Mixcloud show without you.
The special-est of SPECIAL THANKS needs to go to: Jen Johnston, Cory Weeds, Will Chernoff, Ben Frith, Pyper Geddes, Tom Charity, Daniel Deorksen, Emma Lancaster, Lisa Cay Miller, Zach Herbert, Adam Fink, JP Maurice, Vince Lim, Rylan Pushor, Joanie Lavoie-Robert, Laurie Assaly & Jordan Bowers, Jay Schreib, Jodi Proznick, Sean Cranbury, Kenton Loewen, Jeff Brocklebank, Chris Wong, Cole Schmidt & Jeremy Page, Taees Gheirati, Phil Daum, Syd Dunkin, Raymon Torchinsky, Gordon Grdina, Lisa Buck, Mo Tarmohamed, Fiona Black, Leesa Butler, and Stuart Derdeyn. I could literally write a separate email about each of these people detailing the myriad ways they helped out this year. You are all amazing and I appreciate you so much. Also, much gratitude to everybody who volunteered at an Infidels show in 2024. There were a lot of people who stepped up, and I’m grateful.
2025 is going to be even bigger, with 3 shows (at least) planned at the Rickshaw, the addition of 2 new regular series (in addition to the 7 we currently present) and our very own jazz festival in the fall. We're thrilled to be part of Jazz at the Bolt again in 2025, and already have shows booked with touring musicians like Kahil El'Zabar, Christian Lillinger, and more that we can't quite talk about yet. The record label is releasing 4 new albums in the spring, and two of those will be on vinyl, a life-long goal of mine.
Do not let anyone tell you that the arts are in trouble. Public funding for the arts may not be so hot, but that doesn’t define the arts, and it never has. I won’t ask you for donations, but these shows don’t happen if people don’t come to them. So keep coming. Not because we need your support (though we do), but because you will feel better when listening to great music.
Infidels Jazz 2024: a breakdown
4 Albums released on the Infidels Jazz Record Label
7 regular live music series (presenting at least one show a month)
8 community and commercial partners
17 venues
42 hats
58 episodes of The Infidels Jazz Show on Mixcloud
205 live concerts
A sampling of some of the shows we were excited to present this year:
Happy new year!
-Tim Reinert