Mark Mancini - Blog #1

Published on July 11, 2011 Mark Mancini

Welcome to the website of the Jazz Sudbury Festival!

The weather is warmer, jazz is hot around the city, and everyone is gearing up and excited about the 3rd annual Sudbury Jazz Festival!

It’s been a pleasure and a delight to watch jazz grow around the city over the last number of years. Small, intimate gigs have started and become fan favourites around the city, including at the 1500 Club, the SRO, Little Montreal, and elsewhere. One can see this as a natural extension of the success of Sudbury’s first two Jazz Festivals.  Jazz is alive and well in Sudbury!

I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of Sudbury’s jazz scene, playing at a number of these small venues, for a couple of years now. I would say that my best memory in jazz really came when I, along with my group, The Viking 5, were finalists in Jazz Sudbury’s Online Talent Search in its first year. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I hope to blog about my experience in this regard, and how really amazing this experience is for any young jazz musician!

Before I was able to perform at this level, at the main stage of the Festival, I played my very first jazz gig during the summer of Jazz Sudbury’s 1st Festival. I think it would be fair to say that any jazz musician remembers their first gig relatively well. I joined Allan Walsh and JY Begin, two of my major jazz mentors, at the 1500 Club. We played a number of tunes, including the cool blues “Sugar” and the up tempo jazz standard, “Just Friends.” Of course, I can remember my nerves running wild---a phenomenon that all jazz musicians need to learn to manage. Improvisation, I’ve always found, is a mix of a number of things. But most importantly, all jazz improvisers who succeed are imbued with a sense of confidence that no other can possess. These people trust their inner selves to come up with original ideas that are special.  Sometimes this is really hard---after all, what if we play a wrong note? I learned very quickly at the 1500 that wrong notes happen and in fact, are a part of jazz. They are great learning moments where you can realign yourself and trust yourself more; they give you a chance to bring out better ideas. The camaraderie and community created by every musician, and what they bring to the bandstand, is what makes jazz the universal language. Believe it or not, the hot, mellow and dark 1500 Club in a Northern Ontario community taught me all of this.

 It’s my opinion that this shows just how strong jazz remains as an art form—it can build character and enrich a community like Sudbury.

I expect many more great jazz moments, like mine, to happen over the course of this year’s Jazz Festival. In the meantime, check out the great acts in this year’s Festival, start recording your video for the Online Talent Search, and stay tuned for some more swinging Sudbury jazz!

Keep on swinging!

Mark Mancini

Carmen on Mon 11th Jul, 2011 at 16:09:

Great insight into the world of the jazz musician. Thanks, Mark.

Sam on Mon 11th Jul, 2011 at 16:55:

Good read. It's always nice to be reminded that Sudbury has an abundance of culture!

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