Episode 244:How a Small City in Canada became known as “Jazz City”.

Discovering Jazz

How did North America’s first International Jazz festival get established in Edmonton, Alberta? Why Edmonton? And who is the Kansas City Bluesman, Big Miller, after whom a park in this city has been named? And lastly…what famous jazz musician left town in the middle of his concert, absconding with his band’s pay?

More from an interview with Jazz City founder and artistic director, Marc Vasey. Plus some great music by Dizzy Gillespie, P.J. Perry, Franco D’Andrea, Stan Getz, Pepper Adams with Tommy Banks, Freddy Redd, and Big Miller,

IMPORTANT NOTE: Two corrections. The first one is that Marc Vasey did NOT sell those archival tapes such as The Pepper Adams Concert at Room At The Top to Cory Weeds, but gave them to him. He states: ” “I gave him all of the tapes in the hope that for posterities sake they would survive. No money changed hands”.

The second correction is in the account of how Big Miller came to Edmonton. The ‘promoter’ who abandoned him by taking the money and running after they played in Vancouver was Jon Hendricks….who, at the time, had a cocaine addiction.