As Coastal Jazz cofounder John Orysik speaks out with a plea for calm, group announces interim artistic programmers
Amid controversy, long-serving member asks music community to “step back and not rush to judgment”
Crowds gathered at David Lam Park for the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival in pre-pandemic times.
AMID THE NEWS today that the Coastal Jazz & Blues Society has announced Cole Schmidt and Jeremy Page as its interim artistic programming team, one of the organization’s original founders is speaking out to ask the music community to “step back and not rush to judgment”.
John Orysik was responding to a letter calling for Coastal Jazz’s board to step down in the wake of a heated AGM late last fall. It has circulated widely on social media and at last check it had been signed by more than 300 musicians.
“They need to look at the big picture,” Orysik, who is semi-retired but is listed as cofounder and head of special projects at the society, told Stir today. “As far as what’s happening, it’s very distressing, because we’re being told that the board is not providing good governance when I feel that’s absolutely not true. In fact the board has supported staff and presided over many of the benchmarks and accomplishments over the years.
“I’m a cofounder of Coastal Jazz and I’m the longest serving member of the society. If I thought for one minute that the society mission, vision, values, and programming ethos were being abandoned, I’d be among the first to speak out,” he said. “Coastal Jazz has faced all kinds of challenges in the 35 years I’ve been there and we’ve gotten through it. Everybody needs to chill out and relax. You need to stop the vitriol and the name calling. Let’s get on with preserving the arts.”
Orysik co-founded the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society in 1985 with Robert Kerr and the late Ken Pickering, who died in 2018 at 66.
The musicians’ letter, penned by local bass player Torsten Müller in collaboration with several other musicians and dated February 3, reads, “Simply put, we are concerned that the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society is suffering a crisis of governance that threatens its existence.” It expresses concern about the future of the organization’s artistic programming after the departure of managing director of artistic programming Rainbow Robert. Robert has taken the helm of the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture.
At the AGM on November 16, members, some of whom had signed up in the days before the meeting, had tried to vote out the board. The board sought a legal assessment by an independent counsel that said it was not within the organization’s bylaws to “vote out” the board. But members of the society say the bylaws contradict the precedent of how the society re-elects board members.
Now the newly announced interim artistic programmers will step in to oversee the work Robert had been doing. They have been with Coastal Jazz since 2017, assisting with the lineup of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival from 2018 to 2022 as well as events like Winter Jazz, IronFest: A Fall Jazz Concert Series, and IronFest 2: Electric Boogaloo. They will work directly on completing the program for 2022’s 36th annual live festival, slated for June 24 to July 3.
Coastal Jazz, meanwhile, has said it is working to recruit new board members. Three of its 10 members left at or before the AGM. Musicians have told Stir they’d like to see more gender and racial diversity on the board, and in the organization at large.
For his part, Orysik put his faith behind the board: “At the board level they should be in a constant state of development to meet the needs of a society through changing times. And I know they’re open to that and hopefully we’ll attract really strong members of the community.”
He’s worried, however, about the permanent damage ongoing conflict will do to the organization he helped to build.
Ken Pickering, Jeff Turner, John Orysik, Paul Plimley around the time of the founding of Coastal Jazz & Blues Society.
“Organizations everywhere are dealing with all kinds of issues due to the pandemic,” Orysik says. “Coastal Jazz has been resilient and resourceful and it’s gonna get through this. This is a time when arts organizations need to unite and provide support and opportunity for all kinds of artistic endeavours….I’m worried that if this constant drumbeat of impending doom continues and if the trolling of the board continues that’s going to be really problematic.
“The musicians are innocent bystanders in this. They hear this from a musician they respect and they think it’s gospel. But what do they know about the day-to-day operations?” Orysik adds. “This board has presided over many accomplishments. They’re hard-working people, they’re passionate, and they’ve given support in not only time and energy, but financial as well, because they believe in the mission and vision—both statements that I wrote, by the way. If I found those being contravened, I would be upset. But that’s not going to happen. If it was going to happen, don’t you think it would have happened a long time ago?”
Orysik stressed again that it’s important to keep the jazz fest going at a time when the world is pulling out of a pandemic.
“We’re able to bring people together in these times when the world is experiencing all this brinkmanship," he says. "It's not only an organization that wants to share music, but that music being able to create bonds between people that we share and an ability to create a perspective of the world and on each other. I’m personally looking forward to the time when we can go out to David Lam Park—in the *thousands*—and enjoy music from our wonderful BC community and from all over the world.”
Editor’s note: Subsequent to the publication of this article, a member of the musicians group, Aram Bajakian, provided Stir for the first time with wording from a letter to the board from Robert Kerr, the other surviving Coastal Jazz cofounder, via social media. Kerr, who is backing the musicians’ call for the board to resign, is programming supervisor for City Cultural Events at the City of Toronto and.served as program director for the Cultural Olympiad for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
It reads: “I am deeply offended by your statement that you are ‘carrying on the legacy and intent of our founders’. None of you yourselves are founding members and not one of you speak for me....If you have a shred of respect for the values and intent of those of us who founded, established and nurtured the organization to international acclaim, you should all resign immediately.”
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