Page 50 - 01-Jan-Feb-2025

Arts Leader
Todd Crawshaw Crawshaw
In a few hours, the oldest, continually operating,
volunteer-run jazz club in Canada will be stuffed
with musicians and music lovers. In the middle of it
all, checking in on the players, chatting with the vol-
unteers, and admiring the artwork, is the Yardbird
Suite’s first executive director in three decades, Todd
Crawshaw.
He was brought on just three years ago when the
Edmonton Jazz Society, which runs the club, was
considering some shake-ups to help grow its audi-
ence. Crawshaw, who has worked for the govern-
ment, CKUA, Edmonton’s maximum-security prison
(through the Edmonton John Howard Society) and
Edmonton Rock Fest, says it’s been a good fit.
But if you compared him to a stereotypical jazz
club proprietor, you’d be wrong. He isn’t a die-hard
jazz purist either. He’s actually a total punk.
“I was a child of the punk scene with SNFU and
the Dead Kennedys,” Crawshaw says, while remi-
niscing with Jones about wild nights at now defunct
punk venues. But for him, jazz, punk, and rock
music aren’t so different.
“Jazz as an art form was born out of cultural and
political racial oppression,” Crawshaw says. “To me
it was the original protest music, it was the original
punk rock.”
While he loves all sorts of music, those punk
years were special for Crawshaw and represent
Edmonton’s do-it-yourself arts scene.
“I found that there was a sense that we created
our entertainment, and our own culture. Because
we’re so far north, I would see that Edmonton would
Todd
Crawshaw
miss out on really good touring acts, big-name
people.”
Now, 67 years after it opened (after moving a
couple times), the Yardbird is an internationally
recognized jazz destination. It gets regular mentions
in Downbeat Magazine (the industry’s biggest
periodical) and attracts players from Berlin to
Brazil.
Last year was the most successful year on record
for the Edmonton Jazz Society, with more sold-out
shows over its 130-gig season than ever before —
exceeding the 10,000-patron mark (from September
through June) for the first time.
Part of that is thanks to Crawshaw’s risk-taking
Tuesday nights are sabbatical at the Yardbird Suite,
and tonight is no different. It is the day of the weekly
attitude. While he’s got a large umbrella for what
he considers jazz, he’s thankful that when he got
open jam.
A jazz keyboardist from the United Kingdom sets up on
stage — he plays a set later to break the ice. A guitar player
checks his sound while mimicking licks on the tune coming
through the PA, as visual artist Spyder Yardley-Jones puts the
finishing touches on his exhibit in the lobby.
the Yardbird gig, the board allowed him to open
up that umbrella. Now there’s a wider variety of
music, and audiences passing through the storied
venue — whether it’s singer-songwriter, funk, R&B,
or blues.
by Liam Newbigging
50 EDify. JANUARY • FEBRUARY.2550 EDify. JANUARY • FEBRUARY.25