Inaugural jazz festival strikes a chord in Windsor’s Via Italia

The inaugural Electric Avenue International Jazz Festival kicked off in Windsor on Saturday.

A new outlet for Windsor’s jazz musicians took off on Saturday afternoon with the press of a valve.

Rhythms from the Electric Avenue International Jazz Festival echoed down Erie Street from the WindsorEats Food Hall.

“The way sometimes I think about it is, it’s most often sort of contemporary, improvised, conversational,” explained Russ Macklem, a Windsor-Detroit-based musician who helped organize the show.

“It’s a mostly instrumental version of contemporary Black music.”

The festival began Friday evening and will continue into Saturday night, with musicians from Windsor, Vancouver, Toronto, and Detroit, including Macklem himself.

Windsor’s proximity to Detroit has made it a home for the “evolving art form” of jazz, Macklem said.

“Because of the influence of Detroit, and not just jazz, but really all kinds of Black music, Windsor has a pretty diverse musical community, kind of thanks to that,” he said.

Macklem said the goal is to make the festival an annual part of Windsor’s jazz landscape each summer.

For more information on the schedule for the show click here.