How is Apollo’s? Finally back for jazz at the ex-Tangent
It’s back at the establishment 2 nights a week now and has survived some musicians’ grumbling
The last time I walked out of 2095 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, it was called Daybreakers. The menu had changed from Malaysian fusion to German and brunch, the exterior turned purple, and the soul of our scene had left the building.
As David Blake told us in the summer of 2023, an exit of sympathetic owners meant that suddenly the place was all but dead to us:
Will Chernoff
En route to that ignominious end of an era, I became the first bandleader to play the venue under its new ownership; I did it on May 3, 2023. (I didn’t know that when I booked the gig.) The turnout was low; many of us fans were cautious about the space’s future. The last time I walked out of there ended up being July 6th.
But the venue has changed names again: now it’s called Apollo’s, and jazz has been back in a big way there for some time now. Mackenzie Tran, a recent CapU and UBC graduate, has taken the lead in presenting. I’m curious to speak to her more and find out how it came together, with John Korsrud and perhaps Diane Kadota supporting the effort too.
The first show of this new era at Apollo’s was on July 6, 2024 with Tran's own vocal trio, featuring pianist Josh Krushel and bassist Bella Fedrigo. They played three shorter sets – now consolidated to two. The series has leaned into the month of October, adding a second weekly night: Thursdays, the same one on which I had drank the biggest percentage of my wallet in Fat Tugs and heard my friends play over those years.
It’s on one of these Thursdays – last night – that I finally decided to re-enter the place.
In the background of my messages, I heard musicians grumble about the low pay of these new Apollo’s gigs. But some of them are now booked to play there, so I suppose the prevailing winds have changed.
And there could hardly have been three more reputable musicians on stage last night: Steve Kaldestad, Bill Coon, and Conrad Good made sure we had an excellent session to enjoy.
The things I’d emphasize to you as a patron are:
- It’s dark: dark enough to lull you to sleep, make photography challenging, and evoke the former Blue Martini lounge in Kits more than the Tangent.
- No longer do you get flagged down immediately upon entry to negotiate for where you will sit. Attendance was sparse. I asked, but the host behind the bar invited me to sit anywhere I wanted. (From the door, you can walk to the left directly into the stage and dining area again now.)
- The menu has barely any items that you’d call snacks, few cheap options, and more entrees that are substantial. Come to eat or to solely drink. The food is Greek-oriented, even though — as one musician told me — it’s not the walls-painted-blue kind of Greek restaurant. The beer list is no longer an attraction.
- The staff don’t care about the music. We could hear “We Will Rock You” blasting from the kitchen during a ballad, the manager or owner played back a video on his phone that he took of Steve’s sax playing while they were still playing, and an interrogation-level white light flashed suddenly onto the stage without warning toward the end. The servers talk to you loudly during soft tunes. A listening room, but with bona fide awkward moments.
- By the very end of the second set, it had become a good hang as a handful of musicians showed up after attending or playing other gigs. We chatted for a while after the trio finished.
And here’s what they played across the two sets:
- Turn Out the Stars
- The Touch of Your Lips
- Lover Man
- Segment
- Come Rain or Come Shine
- Sandu
- Nobody Else But Me
- If You Could See Me Now
- Voyage
- Dolphin Dance
- Moose the Mooche
- Things Ain’t What They Used to Be
What do you think: will you go? Have you been yet?
