Simon Fisk’s trio will join jazz legend Sonny Fortune at this year’s C-Jazz Carnivale

This year’s C-Jazz Carnivale is Calgary’s last big jazz festival of the summer, and it features some of the best in the local, national and international jazz worlds. You’ll find musicians equally at home with standards and original material, even some who will take you into over-the-edge improvisational experiments, and no shortage of influences and cross-influences.

Take Gordon Grdina’s Sangha Project, performing at the Auburn on Saturday, August 30. The quartet uses Middle Eastern instruments (tar, oud, tonbak and tabla) to create improvisational experiences drawing from Arabic, Persian and Indian sources. Cumako is another group drawing from many wells. Best described as a blend of Venezuelan, Afro-Cuban and Flamenco rhythms, the group has a high-energy sound, an incredible horn section and powerful percussion. Its members are from Venezuela, Japan, Mexico, Bolivia, Canada and Cuba, so the improvisations run through a wide range of world music. Expect a dazzling live show when Cumako performs as part of the Afro-Cuban Dance Party with Bomba and special guest Telemary Diaz at Flames Central on August 30.

If you like improvisational experiments on the edge, check out drummer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Dadge playing at Emmedia on Friday, August 29. Dadge’s record label, Bug Incision, specializes in free improvisation, and his genre-defying creations with his Bent Spoon Trio are fascinating. Dadge has also organized many of Calgary’s free improvisation events, and he has played as sideman for many local bands.

Local bands are also a mainstay of this month’s Carnivale, and the energy and expertise is high as always, with the likes of Gerry Hebert, Simon Fisk, and Karl Roth. Fisk’s trio is playing with jazz legend Sonny Fortune at Zsa Zsa’s Supper Club at Quincy’s on Seventeenth on Sunday, August 31. Saxman Fortune has played with McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis and Elvin Jones, to name a few. We’re lucky to have this opportunity to hear one of the greats of the jazz world. Meanwhile, Hebert’s quartet plays Beatniq on Tuesday, August 26. Herbert always delivers excellence, so expect to hear many original compositions and tunes from his newest CD, Constructive Interference. Roth, newly returned from a three year sabbatical in Montreal, delivers fine performances with his smooth vocals and distinctive violin improvisations in a repertoire solidly based in the jazz standards. He’ll be appearing with his trio (Jeff Drummond, Dave Hamilton) at the Wild Rose Brewery on Wednesday, August 27.