Inlet Music Series 2025/26 preview
Directed by Bill Sample and Darlene Cooper, the 4th season in Port Moody starts Sep. 20 and brings vocal jazz and folk
Rhythm Changes is the Inlet Music Series' media partner (an in-kind sponsorship) for 2025/26. Season passes for the monthly series are available now: get a $40 discount and guaranteed seats for all shows here.
When pianist Bill Sample co-founded the Inlet Music Series, he told me the key to its success in no uncertain terms. "Make sure the sound is good," he said in an interview here at Rhythm Changes, "because if the musicians on stage are happy and the audience can hear most of the words and everything, then it's a recipe for success." Sample and his partner Darlene Cooper have applied that focus as artistic directors of the Port Moody series for three seasons now. They just announced their fourth, which happens monthly from September of this year through April 2026.
Inlet Music Series 2025/26
Saturdays 7:30pm: Inlet Theatre, Port Moody
Sep. 20, 2025: Cara Luft & The Luckies w/ Shari Ulrich
Oct. 25, 2025: Locarno
Nov. 29, 2025: Cory Weeds Quartet & Ale Nuñez
Dec. 20, 2025: Dawn Pemberton & Marcus Mosely: Soulful Christmas
Jan. 31, 2026: Van Django & LJ Mounteney
Feb. 21, 2026: Krystle Dos Santos
Mar. 21, 2026: Laila Biali's Joni Mitchell & Canadian Songbook
Apr. 25, 2026: Pharis & Jason Romero
The series has always juggled the sounds of jazz and folk, though a common factor is that every show this season is vocal-forward: no instrumental acts. It begins on September 20 with folk as Winnipeg's Cara Luft meets Shari Ulrich's group The Luckies. Luft is best known for being a founding member of the Wailin' Jennys and co-leader of the duo The Small Glories. The Luckies recently played at the Bez Arts Hub, featuring Ulrich with Hilary Grist and Jeanne Tolmie.
The second concert on October 25 welcomes Locarno. The band led by Tom Landa has brought Latin folk traditions to countless festival stages for going on 15 years. A few frequent members of the band known on our jazz scene include Jocelyn Waugh, Robin Layne, and Liam MacDonald.
The series switches genres as Cory Weeds' quartet links up with Ale Nuñez on November 29. A Humber-trained vocalist, Nuñez released her first EP titled Under the Lemon Tree last month. I believe this show is her Vancouver debut, but it certainly won't be her last.
From there, Dawn Pemberton and Marcus Mosely will lead a holiday-themed show on December 20. But in the new year, before Krystle Dos Santos continues in the soul genre on February 21, Van Django and LJ Mounteney play on January 31. The quartet and vocalist are longtime collaborators who blend midcentury hot jazz with R&B-blues like Bonnie Raitt.
Arguably the highest-profile show is on March 21 with Laila Biali, who brings what I expect to be her next album: a project featuring the Canadian Songbook as curated by not just Biali, but her fans as well. The concept resembles her 2023 release, Your Requests.
With Joni Mitchell and much more on tap, Biali's premiere performance of well-loved Canadian songs in Vancouver is likely to sell out.
The season wraps up in intimate fashion on April 25 with one of my favourite folk duos: Pharis and Jason Romero. The universally-acclaimed Tell 'Em You Were Gold (2022) on Smithsonian Folkways is still the latest record from the four-time Juno winners.
Back in that interview from season one, Cooper told me about how the series spoke to what drew her and Sample to Port Moody. "I guess in 2021, I just felt like we needed to start a music series, get something going in this beautiful theatre," she said. "We've got this space, Port Moody's a great place, people are coming here all the time: they've got Brewery Row, all these things, and it's just a place people come to." I've enjoyed several of Sample and Cooper's presentations at the Inlet Theatre since the beginning for similar reasons and am excited for the season to come.
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