Story
The Vancouver Jazz Heritage Project, a multi-year educational project documented the diverse heritage of jazz and improvised music in Vancouver. This was done via videotaped oral history interviews with local musicians, presenters and experts. The resulting collection of video, audio, photos, articles, and more was housed on a web database for further research. A $20,000-grant from Catalyst supported Phase I of the project, which took place throughout 2005 and involved archival research to determine interview subjects, conduct videotaped interviews, catalogue existing material, and more.
The project helped to facilitate the organization’s interaction with the community and participants found the intensity of the interviews to be rewarding. Witnessing, documenting, and being entrusted with people’s stories was a humbling experience for all involved. This spirit helped propel the project to Phase II which included further interviews, and assembling of the information onto a database and website. The completed project is available on-line at jazzstreetvancouver.ca.
