Mix ancient and modern music for the best jazz experience this month. September will provide a great free performance mid-way through, and some of the country’s best young modern jazz players throughout the month.
    If you’re looking for something well off the usual musical track but still defined as traditional, check the Cantos Music Foundation at lunchtime on September 14 for a free concert by DUVO. The group performs traditional music from Europe’s Carpathian region. This ride through Hungary’s ethnic music is sure to evoke jazz legend Django Reinhardt’s 1920s Hot Club peak. Cantos is even supplying two traditional instruments, the cimbalom and hurdy gurdy, for DUVO’s players.
    Departing from the traditional, look for locals John Hyde, Ralf Buschmeyer and Andy Ericson to offer steady modern jazz every Thursday in September. Together, these guys form Manic Thematic, with a sound partly inspired by the likes of Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden. Just to mix it up a bit, they’re featuring a different guest performer every week of their month-long gig at the Red Onion on Macleod Trail.
    The William Carn Quartet draws together some of the finest modern jazz musicians in Canada. Led by the Juno-nominated Carn, the quartet features Montreal saxman Kelly Jefferson, who’s played Calgary as a sideman and a group leader throughout  years. Carn’s quartet hits Beatniq on September 22. If you’re looking for great improvisation and original composition, this is the one.
    Charlie Parker used to say that improvisation is like mining: you have to keep drawing something new from yourself every time you perform. What you draw, of course, is fed by your life experiences. For pianist Tricia Edwards,  that experience is fed by classical training and performances in Canada and the Middle East. Watch for Edwards’s September 27 Beatniq gig.