David Murray & Kahil El Zabar

Saxophonist David Murray is a giant of the jazz avant-garde with a distinctive tone on tenor sax and the willingness to play anything from completely free improvisations to bop. The pairing of Murray and legendary Chicago composer/multi-instrumentalist Kahil El’Zabar is a thing to behold. El’Zabar’s compositions have been called “spiritual” and he has played with everyone from Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp to Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon.

Gordon Grdina Quartet

Juno award winner Gordon Grdina is a oud/guitarist whose sound is a combination of his interests in mainstream jazz, free-form improvisation and Arabic classical music. Bringing his Quartet to the fest this year, he is joined by Oscar Noriega, Russ Lossing and Satoshi Takeishi. Photo Credit: Genevieve Monro www.gordongrdinamusic.com/gordon-grdina-quartet/