The 2007 Jazz Winnipeg Festival wrapped up its annual season with a series of free jazz and pop concerts at the TD Canada Trust Stage in Old Market Square on Sunday, Canada Day. 

 

It was a rainy day.  No heavy downpour but showers here and there.  You’d see people open up their umbrellas when it started raining, and then after a while, the rain would stop and then later on start again.  There were quite a few of those big dark green Canada Trust umbrellas handed out so people were kept dry.

That’s my mother and her friend Tessie in their denims sitting at the front. 

 

There are a couple of restaurants around and there were also food stands, just in case anybody got hungry. 

 

The event started at 11:00 a.m. and ended at midnight.

 
Reggie performed with the Manitoba High School Honour Band on this event.  As conductor Richard Gillis mentioned a few times, you don’t just get into this band.  You audition for this.  Every end of May, Richard Gillis auditions students from different schools in Manitoba and he also picks which of the students will make it to the band composed of around 20 performers.  This year, they had five rehearsals, which were held at the University of Manitoba.

Here are two video clips from last Sunday’s event.  Please excuse the jerky movements especially in the second video.  I was holding the camcorder in one hand and the digicam in another.  I placed myself at the front of the crowd, but I couldn’t quite get a good spot because Reggie would be concealed either by the microphone or the soloist at the front.  Besides, people kept passing by in front of me.

In the first video clip, the band played The More I See You featuring Sophie in vocals.

In this one, they played Duke Ellington’s Things Ain’t What They Used To Be featuring saxophonist Christine Jensen.  The tune was quite catchy and there were three couples that danced not too far from the stage.  I videotaped them too.