2026 Ottawa Jazz Festival — Saturday, June 20

Saturday, June 20, 2026 Lineup

Daily lineup at Confederation Park. Headliner: Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra on OLG Main Stage.

OLG Main Stage (Confederation Park)

6:30 pm — Peter Hum Sextet

• Peter Hum - piano
• Kenji Omae - tenor saxophone
• David Smith - trumpet, flugelhorn
• Ted Quinlan - guitar
• Alec Walkington - bass
• Ted Warren - drums

Pianist and composer Peter Hum has been a mainstay of the jazz scene in Ottawa, his hometown, since the mid-1990s. Largely self-taught as a jazz musician, he has performed in recent years in leading Canadian jazz venues from Vancouver to Charlottetown. Peter leads an all-star Canadian sextet that includes some exceptional and distinctive talents who are also among his oldest friends. A recipient of grants from the City of Ottawa, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, Peter has released three acclaimed albums of his dynamic and lyrical original compositions. His 2020 recording Ordinary Heroes received a four-star review in DownBeat magazine. In June 2026, he is to release his fourth album, with support from a City of Ottawa creation and production fund grant. Outside of his musical pursuits, Peter has been a journalist at the Ottawa Citizen since 1990 and he has been the newspaper's restaurant critic since 2012.

8:30 pm — Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra 🎤 headliner

Currently co-starring as The Wizard of Oz with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the critically acclaimed global box office smash, “Wicked”, Jeff Goldblum’s storied career now spans 6 decades of award-winning work as a starring actor in film, television and theater. He has also produced both film and television projects and is an Oscar nominated director for his short feature film, “Little Surprises”.

Goldblum’s many cinema credits include “The Big Chill”, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, and “The Fly”— and box office behemoths “Independence Day”, “Jurassic Park”, and “Thor Ragnorak.

On television, Goldblum most recently starred in the highly regarded Netflix limited series, “KAOS”. In addition, he has been Emmy nominated for his work on “Will and Grace” and for his National Geographic/Disney Plus offering “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” which he also executive produced. On the stage, Goldblum has starred in Broadway productions including “The Pillowman” and “Domesticated”, and the London production of “Speed the Plow”.

Goldblum launched the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra 30 years ago. Since then, he and his band have performed for delighted audiences throughout the United States and all over the world playing contemporary arrangements of classic jazz and American Songbook Standards.

The group has released three albums, all with Decca Records, that have featured brilliant guest artists including Gregory Porter, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, Fiona Apple, Freda Payne, Haley Reinhart, Imelda May and more. The fourth album, “Still Blooming,” will be released this spring featuring guest artists Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Scarlett Johannson and Maiya Sykes.

As Goldblum has said, “The recording sessions with these wonderfully talented artists have been tremendously rewarding but I also have a special passion for the live shows that the MSO does and for that chance to connect with audiences."

Azrieli Studio (National Arts Centre)

7:00 pm — Joe Farnsworth's Big Room Quartet

• Joe Farnsworth - drums
• Peter Washington - bass
• Sarah Hanahan - alto saxophone
• TBC - drums

Joe Farnsworth, as chronicled on more than 400 recordings and witnessed within historical venues across New York City and the world, has indelibly penned his legacy within the history of jazz drumming. Concisely put, Joe has studied the past so that he might show us the future of music rooted within the jazz tradition.

Much of who he has become as a musician and teacher can be traced to his upbringing in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and his early years in New York City. Joe’s father, Roger Farnsworth, was a celebrated music teacher for more than 60-years, storied for inviting local music students into a repurposed dining room filled with vinyl recordings and an upright piano to challenge their ears with drop-the-needle quizzes and impromptu solfège lessons. The youngest-of-five sons (to a saint of a mother), Joe learned from two older brothers who forged careers in music before him. James, who toured as Ray Charles’ baritone saxophonist for nearly a decade and John, who has balanced stints with Slide Hampton and the World of Trombones, elementary music teaching, and later in life, as a saxophonist.

As a teenager, Joe studied with the acclaimed Boston-based drummer and pedagogue Alan Dawson, whom Joe credits, “having taught me to get my hands together and how, through rigorous study of rudiments, this can open possibilities for developing your sound.” He studied with Arthur Taylor, who, in Joe’s words, “taught me how to use that sound to develop a fluency of language and readied me to collaborate with jazz greats, like Benny Golson.” When speaking about the lessons learned while living (for 8-years) with the great drummer Jimmy Lovelace, Joe says, “Jimmy showed me how to control the drums.”

In 1990, Joe moved to New York City where he began sitting-in at Augie’s (now Smoke Jazz and Supper Club). Here, he was mentored by Junior Cook with whom he recorded his first album, You Leave Me Breathless (SteepleChase, 1992) and developed careerlong collaborations (and friendships) with George Coleman, and Eric Alexander (with whom he co-founded the band One for All).

Joe’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz can be attributed to his tireless study of the masters and traces back to his teens when he would hop a bus to catch a masterclass by Max Roach, sneak into local college dances to hear Buddy Rich (yes, dances back-in-the-day had live jazz), and hitch-a-ride to hear Clifford Jordan, Frank Strozier, and Slide Hampton play at Hartford’s 880 Club. It continued during his years at William Paterson University where he studied with Rufus Reid and Harold Mabern (with whom Joe performed until his passing).

Joe’s reverence for jazz’s heroes is witnessed in his own approach, as he places ego aside so that he might speak music’s truth. Joe’s humility is captured within jazz legend Benny Golson’s praise, “The interests of music will always prosper in the hands and tutelage of Joe Farnsworth. He has the unique and remarkable ability to lay his talented and obedient drum sticks aside, and mercifully share his intellect and his motivational heart with the awaiting world. This is the way of all geniuses.”

Twice nominated for a Grammy Award, jazz elites seek Joe’s artistry, including engagements with vocalist, Diana Krall; pianists, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, and Barry Harris; trombonist, Curtis Fuller; and saxophonist Lou Donaldson and sustained collaborations with Pharoah Sanders Quartet (16-years), Benny Golson Quartet (8-years), and Cedar Walton Trio (10-years).

Joe has released eight albums as a leader, including his debut album Beautiful Friendship (Crisscross Records, 1998) with Cedar Walton and Dr. Eddie Henderson, his sophomore recording It’s Prime Time (Eighty-Eight’s Records, 2003) with special guest artists Ron Carter, Curtis Fuller, Benny Goldson, and Harold Mabern, Jr., and his three releases on Smoke Sessions: Time to Swing (2020) with Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, and Peter Washington, City of Sounds (2021) with Kenny Barron, and Peter Washington, and most recently with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Immanuel Wilkins, Robert Hurst, and Julius Rodriguez, a record about which Jeff Cebulski says, “Joe Farnsworth, in excellent form, not only evinces his wide talent but also his wisdom, casting a vision for our jazz future that doesn’t eschew the genre’s blues roots while still advancing. In What Direction Are You Headed? (2023) is both a good question and an essential album for the 21st Century.” (Chicagojazz.com).

The album’s driving question (one asked of him by the late Harold Mabern) and recent artist-residencies in Spain, Israel, Finland, Austria, Russia, and here at home, are proof positive of Joe’s commitment to handing down the traditions that now inform the musical future he is busy inventing.

“I want to ensure the new generation receives what was given to me by the masters, including Billy Higgins, Roy Haynes, and Max Roach, who once passed along to me advice given to him by Lester Young, ‘Listen to learn. And learn to listen,’” says Joe.

It’s been a blessing to listen to Joe Farnsworth since we were kids growing-up together in South Hadley so many years ago. And I’m still learning from his every quarter note.

Mark Rabideau, President, College Music Society

Elgin St. Stage (Confederation Park)

7:30 pm — Jermaine Holmes

• Jermaine Holmes - Vocals and keyboard
• David Vandervort - Keyboard and guitar
• Nic Pura - Bass
• Anthony Pageot - Drums

New Jersey’s Jermaine Holmes is a Grammy award winning member of D’angelo’s Vanguard. He is also knows for his work with the legendary hip hop producer Pete Rock and for his role as drummer in the Daniel Lanois Trio. Jermaine’s solo work is a blend neo soul, funk, jazz & hip hop.

10:30 pm — The Soul Rebels

• Lumar LeBlanc - Snare Drum
• Derrick “Oops” Moss - Bass Drum
• Marcus “Red” Hubbard - Trumpet
• Paul Robertson - Trombone
• Corey Peyton - Trombone
• Douane Waples - Saxophone
• Alijah Jett - Trumpet
• Manny Perkins - Sousaphone

Brass sensation The Soul Rebels started with an idea - to expand upon the pop music they loved on the radio and the New Orleans brass tradition they grew up on. They took that tradition and blended funk and soul with elements of hip hop, jazz and rock all within the style of a modernized and contemporary brass band.

The Soul Rebels built a career around an eclectic live show that harnesses the power of horns and drums in a party-like atmosphere. The eight-member collective frequently appear on major record label releases with star artists including Sony Music artist GEazy’s single ‘When You’re Gone” featuring Lil Wayne, Def Jam artist Dave East and Nas’ “Godfather 4”, Big Freedia and Icona Pop’s “Pipe That” and Warner Music Group artist Phony Ppl’s new album. The Soul Rebels have scored original music for Walt Disney’s 2023 movie Haunted Mansion and appeared on the official soundtrack for Universal Pictures' hit comedy Girls Trip.

The Soul Rebels have impressed viewers with two appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, featured on NPR's Tiny Desk series with Wu Tang Clan front man GZA, and headlined the global TED Conference.

The Soul Rebels are riding high in 2024 after receiving national attention following the release of their new album, Poetry In Motion. The Soul Rebels continue to expand their international reach touring four continents including Europe, Australia, China, South Korea and Japan. Their explosive stage presence has led to live collaborations with the likes of Katy Perry, Nas, G-Eazy, DMX, Robin Thicke, Macy Gray, Portugal. The Man, Robert Glasper, Pretty Lights, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Matisyahu and most notably their new supergroup with the legendary Wu Tang Clan.

The Soul Rebels continue to chart new territory and are respected for their ability to combine topnotch musicianship with songs that celebrate peace, love and soul.