The boxing gym that had 18 Infidels Jazz shows
All-City Athletics hosted the Knockouts series for 2+ years; ten bandleaders reflect on the unique space
All-City Athletics is a self-described "boxing and social club" that left its space at 130 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, on November 30th. The previous night, it hosted the final show of Infidels Jazz's Knockouts series. The band led by electric bassist Cole Woodland played the music of Weather Report; it was billed as Elegant People, the name of a track from Weather Report's album Black Market.
All-City founder Jordan Bowers and co-owner Laurie Assaly shared the news of the coming move-out on October 8th. "Over the past year, we’ve been facing rising costs and challenges with our landlord. After many conversations and attempts to find a solution, we couldn’t reach an agreement that made sense for All City," they wrote on Instagram. Bowers and Assaly described plans to keep running their programs "in a new location (stay tuned), as well as weekly park workouts". Alas, hosting jazz shows will no longer be adjunct to those plans.
Rhythm Changes connected with ten of the series' bandleaders, as well as with Tim Reinert of Infidels Jazz, to reflect on All-City. Woodland said that it "was one of the coolest venues I've played in Vancouver. Laurie and Jordan created such a warm and welcoming atmosphere that resonated throughout the space, and it was an honor to get to play the final show."
"Although I'm sad that this series has had to come to an end," Reinert said, "I'm immensely proud of the impact the series made on the jazz scene here in a relatively short period of time. Knockouts was a really unique confluence of great music and good vibes, and brought a lot of new faces to both the jazz scene in Vancouver and to Infidels shows in particular."
Reinert first announced Knockouts on October 3rd, 2023. "All-City is a full use boxing gym owned and operated by the grandson of one of the most important traditional Jazz musicians in Vancouver's History, Lance Harrison," Reinert wrote at the time, referring to Bowers. Harrison, a Vancouverite and a member of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, was a prominent Canadian saxophonist from as early as the 1930s whose playing career continued all the way through the 1990s. Harrison died in 2000 at age 85.
The first Knockouts bandleader was also a saxophonist, one who was making a name for himself as a creative force on the scene at a young age: Gordy Li. All-City had an entrance through the back alley and a winding corridor down a staircase to reach the space; it sometimes called for not one, but two volunteer door people. It provided a hip atmosphere for shows as well as lively set breaks in the alley, at least when it wasn't raining. "This room has to be seen to be believed," Reinert wrote in a follow-up promotional post on October 23rd.
Rhythm Changes saw this series-launching show: Michelle Escudero went as a correspondent to hear Li's Smurf Quartet.
Will Chernoff
The second Knockout got a deep dive here: Chris Fraser covered the November 25th album release show of drummer Kevin Romain's Salience Network, which came out on the Infidels label.
Chris Fraser
Romain told me about his reaction when Reinert invited him to play All-City. "I immediately had images of the quartet set up on a raised boxing ring, enclosed by those rubbery ropes and surrounded by bleachers of cheering fans," Romain said "I texted Tim back something like, man, that sounds perfect, let’s do it. I didn’t tell him that he was going to be the coach dumping a bottle of water into my mouth as I crouched in the corner of the ring at halftime with a towel hanging over my neck."
Romain continued with playful references to the boxing gym. I'll share the rest of his anecdote with you in full:
"'You got this boss! There’s plenty more fight in you.' he’d say – something like that – as I put my mouthguard in and slowly stand to face my worthy opponent once more, pulling the worn red boxing gloves back on to my clenched fists. All City turned out to be a much humbler sort of boxing gym: one with beer, stone walls, and inexplicably great acoustics. It’s probably a good thing that there was no ring with rubbery ropes as the six pack never materialized and, as I found out when I took a swing at the lone punching bag hanging from the low ceiling off to stage left, punching hurts both the puncher and the punchee. Newton’s third law of motion strikes again. When you punch long into the bag, the bag also punches back into you. Apparently it hurts less if you put on boxing gloves instead of hitting those things with your bare hands. Miles and Muhammad were on to something."
I missed the third show, which featured bassist Julia Farry's Assorted Mustards & Greens on December 16th. This group included the two previous bandleaders – Li and Romain – and paired Li with an even younger saxophonist, Ingrid Li (no relation to my knowledge), rounding it out with pianist Clara Lin.
I did, however, attend the first Knockout of 2024: Peregrine Falls, the explosive duo of Gordon Grdina and Kenton Loewen. The March 3rd show had the billing of "the first official Peregrine Falls show in 6 years" per Infidels' website, which also stated in bold, "P.S. This will be LOUD." During that year's jazzfest when I heard the duo again, in my mid-fest Subscriber Friday piece called "Rockstar music", I included a memory of this show: "Loewen hit his snare drum so hard that he broke the skin."
Loewen grounded his recollection of All-City in the fact that he's been on the scene long enough to have seen many fun spaces come and go. "Vancouver eats music venues whole, so we hold tight and create in all these strange and wonderful places while they remain available to us. All-City Athletics was a great space to play: a boxing gym with a late night rock, mirror, neon club vibe. It was both literally and figuratively underground, and yet somehow our man Tim Reinert at Infidels Jazz found it and brought it to the music community. We came, we played, and again another farewell. Jordan and Laurie were great. Thanks to everyone who comes to experience the music in all the venues we play in."
Infidels would present five more shows in 2024 at All-City. Next up was May 11th and the Quincy Mayes Experience. "It was an honor and a pivotal moment for me, presenting an evening of American and Brazilian soul and fusion music at All-City-Athletics," Mayes said. The pianist later climbed two more rungs on the Infidels ladder with this concept: at the VIFF Centre this February and at Hero's Welcome one evening this May.
Looking back on all those shows, Mayes remembered All-City fondly, saying that "the audiences it brought in were uniquely open and hungry to hear something fresh, something outside of their expectations."
On June 1st, drummer Arvind Ramdas brought a quartet that had two tenors up-front: Cory Weeds and Ardeshir Pourkeramati, plus bassist David Caballero. Ramdas and Caballero were taking flight as the young generation's premier straight-ahead rhythm team; alongside their many gigs with Brad Turner, they were in Atley King's band for his record Unconditional on Cellar Music, and they'd just played that music with King in a feature set at the Jazz at the Bolt festival.
Ramdas said his All-City show was "one of the most fun and memorable shows of [his] career. Playing in that room with that band, there was nothing more jazz than that feeling of playing some real swingin' material in a dimly lit underground boxing gym."
On September 28th, I went to hear guitarist Ron Samworth and the Pat Pending Trio, with Bradshaw Pack on pedal steel guitar, Karlis Silins on bass, and Jesus Caballero on drums. (Pedal steel would become a recurring character at the venue: an unexpected instrument for improv in an equally atypical space.)
Samworth recalled the kinetic energy he channeled that night. "When I played at All-City," he said, "I was intrigued that it was a boxing venue, so to celebrate that, I transcribed the Miles Davis Jack Johnson album, which was an homage and soundtrack to a movie about Jack Johnson, the ferocious Black heavyweight in the 1920s. The Pat Pending Trio and I had Bill Clark sit in on trumpet. Bill was burning on one of those Miles grooves, and I was struck by the impulse to box. I grabbed a pair of gloves and starting working out on a bag in time to the music. It was exhilarating and fun to physicalize the music in that way."
One week later, trumpeter Julian Borkowski's quartet played a show that had been rescheduled from August 10th. No All-City shows would ever end up taking place in the summer, likely due to how hot the space would be.
On November 30th, 2024, exactly one year before All-City would move out, Tony Wilson and Scott Smith – noted for guitar and pedal-steel playing, respectively – co-led a show featuring the music of two corresponding legends: guitarist Lenny Breau and pedal steel guitarist Buddy Emmons. The intriguingly specific concept came from a 1978 duo album by Breau and Emmons, Minors Aloud; Smith and Wilson had previously brought it to the Kay Meek and to Coastal Jazz's IronFest at Ironworks. It led to a full house for the Knockouts presentation. "Tim Reinert must be one of the two or three most important people in the city right now in the jazz and improvised music scenes for his unique ability to find cool new spaces for jazz and improvised music," Smith said.
In 2025, Wilson would co-lead two more dates at All-City: April 5th with the Longhand Trio and October 25th under the billing of Spirits Rejoice, a tribute to Albert Ayler.
The space's last calendar year began with two timely bookings. Veteran saxophonist Saul Berson's band Asef, featuring Itamar Erez, Sam Shoichet, and Liam McDonald, had just played their first Infidels show in the fall – Frankie's After Dark – and was about to become a go-to band for the company, including at jazzfest time. "All-City Athletics has been one of Vancouver’s most inspiring creative surprises for me," Berson said.
Asef played Knockouts on January 25th. "The closeness of the audience, the warmth of the space, and the sense of discovery made [it] feel special. All-City was a gift to the scene, and its spirit will be remembered with gratitude," Berson said.
Then, on February 22nd, the Montreal-based band Bellbird came for one of their several shows during a Vancouver stay that month. It was well-attended by the friends of Eli Davidovici and Mili Hong, the Vancouver-expat half of the band.
"Bellbird had such a unique experience there," Hong said. "Cool vibe and welcoming people. We’ll miss it!"
After April's Longhand show, all five of the final Knockouts were what you might call tribute shows. First among them was drummer Todd Stewart's band playing the music of Grant Green on April 26th.
Drummer Jordy McIntosh's quartet with saxophonist Erika Chow (who would later lead the penultimate Knockout), guitarist Jake Kostuchuk, and David Caballero celebrated John Scofield on May 24th. "The most impactful thing I noticed once I arrived at All City," McIntosh said, "was Jordan and Laurie's welcoming vibe, and their excitement for any show being put on. I remember walking in a few minutes late because of traffic, and they already had Scofield's Loud Jazz playing over their PA system, gearing up for the show to come that night. Huge thank you to Jordan and Laurie for welcoming us there and contributing to Vancouver's creative music scene!" McIntosh brought this group out again in July, to the Fort Langley Jazz & Arts Festival; he and Caballero also played on Kostuchuk's own trio album released in October.
On September 20th, Loewen returned to the gym with a group called Lookout for Hope in tribute to Bill Frisell. It was like the Pat Pending Trio from Samworth's show, featuring Bradshaw Pack on pedal steel and bassist Karlis Silins, but with Loewen on drums. They had launched the group at the Painted Ship for a May 27th Infidels show. They found All-City to be an appropriate venue for a follow-on ticketed show, not least because it already had a penchant for pedal steel.
Following the Albert Ayler tribute show in October, Infidels confirmed the news about Knockouts' future on October 25th. Earlier that week, Reinert announced Erika Chow's show celebrating Wayne Shorter on November 22nd as well as the final show by Woodland and Elegant People on the 29th. Each of these bands contained a pair of musicians who had collaborated often over the past few years: Chow with pianist Jancis Bautista, and Woodland with Stewart on drums.
Knockouts is so far the longest-running Infidels series to have ended, both in terms of the number of shows and the length of time. The shorter-lived series that Rhythm Changes covered would include the ones at Chill X Studios and the Heatley, while the Painted Ship's series has stayed active with brief pauses along the way.
All-City was both a place for the young generation to step out and a meeting place for some of Infidels' finest veterans. The relatively small capacity meant every show needed to be a near-sellout for sustainability, but also that this feat wasn't too hard to accomplish. It felt edgy enough that you wouldn't necessarily have your family members there, even to your own show, which made for cooler and rowdier crowds than many of our other venues.
The de facto carrier of Knockouts' torch going forward is arguably another small room where Infidels has been presenting on weekend nights for more than a year: Zameen Art House. But creative music loves a dim stage with a red neon glow, and All-City had a vibe that the wonderfully neat and tidy Granville Island space doesn't try to mirror. All-City's underground charms might very well crop up again at new Infidels venues in the future, but its cohort of bandleaders won't soon forget that unique setting.
