Growing Into the Community

Jeremie’s first experience at the TD Halifax Jazz Festival happened when he was young, attending a free daytime show. What stayed with him was not just the performance but the realization that he was hearing something entirely new. 

“The performance was a sort of quartet featuring a saxophone with a big modern sound to it,” he recalls. “As a kid just watching television, I had never been exposed to these sounds before in my life.”

That first encounter left a mark.

“I walked away from that first performance very exhilarated,” Jeremie says, “that I learned something like that could be possible on a stage.”

As he got older, and later while completing his undergraduate music degree at Dalhousie, Jeremie found himself returning to the festival year after year.

Jeremie playing with his Trio, the Nova Fiasco Three at the 2025 TD Halifax Jazz Festival.

“Checking out the festival's yearly program and events for the community became a consistent part of my musical growth,” he explains. “I became more and more curious to see what each year would bring.”

Over time, the way he attended began to shift. Watching the performers and the range of music being presented, he started imagining himself not just as an audience member, but as a performer.

“I later became so inspired that I started attending to model how I might launch my own project at the festival one day,” Jeremie says.

That idea became tangible through the festival’s educational programming. Participating in the Creative Music Workshop allowed him to experience the festival in a more intimate way.

“Last year, I was a participant at the Creative Music Workshop,” he says. “We had the honor of having Bill Frisell come in and perform solo, talk about improvising, and his experiences as a musician.”

For Jeremie, it was the smaller moments that mattered most.

Jeremie and his band, Nova Fiasco, at Gus’s Pub.

“Small grassroots moments in between the big events of the festival are what make those experiences unique for me,” Jeremie says.

In 2025, Jeremie stepped onto the festival stage himself, debuting his trio and original music. Sitting in the audience was his best friend, attending the festival for the first time.

“It was his first time attending,” Jeremie says. “I felt really happy to give him that experience and show him the community of musicians sharing their own projects and music at the festival.”

Looking back, Jeremie describes the festival as something that continues to invite discovery. Returning to the festival meant finding a place where an early spark could grow, year after year, into something real.

Help keep Halifax Jazz Festival a place people return to, where curiosity is shared and carried forward together.