Marian Jago combines archival research, interviews, and photos to tell the story of early jazz in Canada: the fascinating musical lives, the social interactions, and the new and infectious energy that paved the way for today’s vibrant Canadian jazz scene.

In the 1950s and ’60s, co‐operative jazz clubs such as Vancouver’s Cellar, Edmonton’s Yardbird Suite, and Halifax’s 777 Barrington Street opened their doors in response to new forms of jazz expression emerging after the war and a lack of available performance spaces outside major urban centres. Operated on a not‐for-profit basis by the musicians themselves, these hip new clubs created spaces where young jazz musicians could practise their art close to home.

Live at the Cellar looks at this unique period in the development of jazz in Canada. Centered on Vancouver’s legendary Cellar club, and including co-ops in four other cities, it explores the ways in which these clubs functioned as sites for the performance and exploration of jazz as well as magnets for countercultural expression in other arts, such as literature, theatre, and film. Marian Jago’s deft combination of new, original research with archival evidence, interviews, and photographs allows us to witness the beginnings of a pan-Canadian jazz scene as well as the emergence of key Canadian jazz figures, such as P.J. Perry, Don Thompson, and Terry Clarke, and the rise of jazz icons such as Paul Bley and Ornette Coleman. Although the Cellar and other jazz co-ops are long shuttered, in their day they created a new and infectious energy that still reverberates in Canada’s jazz scene today.

"Good books on jazz are filled with intriguing stories about the relationships that generate such an energizing art form. This book is that, and more. The more is a carefully considered framework for making sense of the social dynamics that create a jazz scene. Put the stories into the framework and you’ve got a must-read book." - BC Lookbook/The Ormsby Review

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Live at the Cellar deserves an audience beyond jazz aficionados: in a town that tends to endlessly reinvent the wheel, it tells how the first wheel was forged.

"With verve and insight, Veronica Strong-Boag’s account of Laura Jamieson challenges many widely held myths. The book shows how a seemingly conformist, middle-class matron became an unstinting champion of social change – including women’s enfranchisement, birth control, and social democracy. The Last Suffragist Standing is a stunning accomplishment, notably for its fresh and compelling twist on Canadian political history." - Vancouver Sun

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Jago’s book is a sparkler. It shows how a small group of believers can make real change and quietly kick ass to boot. Bless ’em all! ... This is Vancouver’s book of the year, hands down.

"Good books on jazz are filled with intriguing stories about the relationships that generate such an energizing art form. This book is that, and more. The more is a carefully considered framework for making sense of the social dynamics that create a jazz scene. Put the stories into the framework and you’ve got a must-read book." - The Ormsby Review

"Live at the Cellar does important work helping to tell the story of the music in Vancouver at this foundational moment in the city's history as well as drawing connections with other major Canadian scenes during the same period." - CAML Review

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Marian Jago has performed a genuine service in capturing one of the places that did exist [in the early jazz scene], with a diligently researched and amiably written study of a unique time and place in Vancouver’s musical past.

"[...]The way Jago sets the stage to explain how and why a musician-run, co-operative jazz venue emerged at this specific time in Vancouver, as in several other places, provides a fascinating window into Canadian history." - Canada's History