Jazz is uniquely collaborative. It requires careful listening and a responsiveness to new ideas — while its musicians play together. The call and response built into its musical forms is very social. Every performance is a conversation.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Prince Edward County Jazz Festival, I sat down for conversations with two long-time supporters of this now august institution.

John Puddy, now Chair Emeritus, has been volunteering since 2011. A “numbers guy,” quite fond of spreadsheets, he is proud to talk about the importance of the Festival to the PEC community. 

“We bring in three to four thousand people through the week. They spend about a half a million dollars. Each and every year. That’s a significant amount of money in a tiny place.”

“Over the years, that has meant about 80, 000 fans at more than 60 venues,” he continues. About half of festival goers are from elsewhere. “Research indicates that over 70 percent of that half comes to the County specifically for the Jazz Festival!

“We get no public funding. Audiences have continued to support us — and the Festival would not exist without its many  volunteers over the years. It really is a work of love.”

The third piece of the puzzle is sponsorship. “From a local perspective, we have had incredible support,  almost from the beginning,” says Mr. Puddy. “There have been three pillars of the many sponsors. Chris and Norah Rogers of the Waring House, Elizabeth Crombie of Royal Lepage Real Estate, and Peter and Celia Sage of Sage Design and Construction.”

County artist Celia Sage arrived in the County in the early 1980s. She witnessed the birth of the Festival. It started with a single show in Picton.

“The first thing I remember,” she recalls, “was Jeff Healey coming to play in town, at the Alley Cat on Main Street. And then after a year or two, we started hearing, oh, it’s a jazz festival. We weren’t paying any attention, busy with kids and lives.”

But around the time that Peter’s business was getting established, she thought that maybe they could sponsor this new “Festival,” which had become associated with The Regent Theatre. “But it was like I was chasing these guys down the street, trying to give them a cheque. I think maybe they knew they weren’t going to try running this thing. We and some others were thinking, ‘let’s keep this going here. Can we please be sponsors’, but they didn’t quite know how to do that.”

And then there was a chance encounter at Traveller’s Tales Books on Main Street, where jazz was always on the radio. A gentleman, newly arrived in the County, walked in asking if they would sell his daughter’s new CD. That CD was by Emily-Claire Barlow and that father was drummer Brian Barlow. He would become the organizing force of the PEC Jazz Festival for decades.

“By that time the Arts Council had taken this festival under its auspices. When Brian and the Arts Council came together, it really started to grow. Brian just took it and built it. And then eventually it separated from the Arts Council. And you know, it’s been flying on its own and such a success!”

In addition to Mr. Barlow as Creative Director, a part-time resident, the trumpeter Guido Basso, was Artist in Residence for years until his passing in 2023. “Guido had the kind of personality that made you feel like you were the only person in the room, and everybody says that. He just seemed to be such a center around which the whole thing could coalesce.”

Between these two figures there were enough connections to the Canadian jazz scene that Prince Edward County became the place to be for a week in August. Not only established musicians — Peter Appleyard, Mike Murley, Robi Botos, Renee Rosnes and even Louis Hayes — graced County stages, but up-and-comers have too.

Mr. Puddy is especially proud of the education program: “In early spring, from 2009 to 2023, we’d bring in a total of eighty students from four different Eastern Ontario high schools for a weekend to work with professional clinicians on their instruments in a non-competitive environment. And then, Sunday afternoon, the kids would participate with Brian Barlow’s big band at the Regent theater. It’s probably one of the best things that we ever did.”

The Festival has granted Rising Young Star Awards to sixteen players. “Some have gone on to become professional musicians and play at our jazz festival.”

Ms. Sage recently attended a concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall that featured two former Rising Young Stars as well as regulars like Robi Botos. She thought to herself, “how many people here know that Robi likes to go fishing between gigs?”

The special dynamic of the PEC Jazz Festival is in part due to its intimacy. Many musicians billet with local hosts, and have become friends. It’s all part the spirit of jazz, what Ms. Sage identifies with the customary after-hours jam session upstairs at the Regent. “It’s so fun to go to the after-hours and see the rising young stars join in with the main stage performers who just show up, and the kids’ eyes pop out of their heads, and they’d be just tossing it back and forth. It’s so exciting.”

The Festival continues its commitment to the social spirit of jazz. Under the direction of Sarah Kim Turnbull, now in her second year, a full slate of headliners will appear at sold-out shows, while guitarist Brian Leger’s satellite series will bring local musicians together at more than a dozen locations across the County. And, yes, there’s an after-hours jam session upstairs at the Regent.  

The PEC Jazz Festival runs August 12 – 17. Visit PEC Jazz for information about shows. Celia Sage, whose drawings illustrate this article, opened her 26th annual exhibition at Mad Dog Gallery last weekend. Don’t miss it.