Winterlude starts Friday, and organizers of Ottawa’s annual winter festival have been working to come up with entertainment that doesn’t rely on the thickness of the ice on the Rideau Canal.
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WORLD
Alex Cuba’s music is an exquisite blend of styles, ranging from breezy pop and soul with a Latin flavour to jazz elements ingrained during his early days as a bassist in Cuba. Born Alexis Puentes, he moved to Canada in 1999 and as an artist has reinvented himself as an award-winning singer-songwriter with a knack for lilting melodies and a nose for collaborations, having worked with everyone from Jim Cuddy to Nelly Furtado. Hot on the heels of last year’s Grammy win (for best Latin pop album), the Smithers, B.C.-based musician is working on new music, which you’re sure to hear when he plays the National Arts Centre’s Babs Asper Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets start at $44, plus fees, available at ticketmaster.ca.
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FILM
Winterlude starts Friday, and organizers of Ottawa’s annual winter festival have been working to come up with entertainment that doesn’t rely on the thickness of the ice on the Rideau Canal. One of those events is Unikkaatuarniq, a series of Indigenous films projected on a snow bank at Lansdowne Park. Four Inuit films and one Sami production, all GG or PG rated, will be shown on the snow screen, with DJ and VJ performances afterwards, as well as fire pits and an ice bar. Admission is free. The snow-screen venue is outside the Horticulture building and Aberdeen Pavilion.
ROCK
Some of the top musical acts in Ottawa-Gatineau will play free shows at the Rainbow Bistro this month, courtesy of the BeaverTails Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival. Although the ice-boat races are cancelled because of poor ice conditions, the shows will go on at the Murray Street club. The series starts Friday with two top-notch party bands, retro rockers Main Street Revival and soul outfit The Commotions, followed Saturday by Wakefield rockers Rebelle with Stoby, and Metis singer Amanda Rheaume on Sunday with indie folkies Okies on Sunday. The music starts at 8 p.m. and there are no advance tickets – be prepared to show up early and wait in line.
THEATRE
The festival of original theatre known as undercurrents, presented by Ottawa Fringe, kicks off Feb. 8 with a program of short plays entitled, Why Worry About Their Futures? The showcase features Keith Barker’s The Sky It Falls, Lawrence Aronovitch’s The Auden Test and Sanita Fejzić’s Expecting, three works that express concern for a world shaped by patriarchal power structures. Opening night also includes a reception after the performance and a talk-back with the artists. The festival takes place on the third floor of Arts Court, 2 Daly Ave., with a mainstage lineup in the theatre, a discovery series in the atelier and a few more events in the studio. It runs until Feb. 18. Tickets are sold on a pick-your-price model, starting at $5 per show. To purchase, go to undercurrentsfestival.ca/schedule/ and click on the show you want to see.
JAZZ
Because he’s based in Quebec City, electric bassist Carl Mayotte is a little under the radar for Canadian jazz fans. But he deserves more attention thanks to his virtuosic jazz-fusion chops, burbling creativity and obvious love of performing. Better known in Quebec, he took home last year’s Félix award – the province’s equivalent of a Juno – for best jazz album of the year. Mayotte plays with his trio in Ottawa on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m. at Record Runner Rehearsal Studios (#6-159 Colonnade Rd. S.) Tickets are $25 at recordrunner.ca.
lsaxberg@postmedia.com and phum@postmedia.com
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