Midnight Channel is Bringing Punk Jazz to a City Near You
Midnight Channel. Photo supplied.
If you have never started a mosh pit at a jazz show, Midnight Channel’s province-wide tour is your chance. The Lethbridge-based “punk jazz collective,” as bassist Matthew Erdmann described it, is hitting five Alberta cities and partnering with local artists in each one.
Midnight Channel formed after the COVID-19 pandemic. Erdmann met part of the collective through the University of Lethbridge Jazz Ensemble and others through other bands he played in. The members had a shared goal of bringing their jam sessions to a more public environment than their own homes, but somewhere more casual than a traditional music venue.
“We wanted to go to a park, or … somewhere kind of public that would accept us and it would kind of be like a regular hangout spot,” Erdmann said.
After hearing jazz playing in the lobby of Lethbridge’s Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, Erdmann got permission for the collective to play live music there every week.
“It was kind of this loose collective of people who would show up and come down, very low pressure. And we just played jazz standards,” Erdmann said. “Eventually we started writing our own songs and bringing them to jams.”
According to Erdmann, the advantage of Lethbridge is the city’s smaller size makes it easy to find good musicians and quickly. Additionally, it made securing those first performance opportunities easier than it may have been elsewhere.
Midnight Channel tour poster.
“I think the really tight knit nature of the scene really sped up a lot of our opportunities to get out there and play more.”
While they incorporate the traditions of jazz, the members of Midnight Channel “all bring [their] own sounds into it that might be a bit more aggressive or modern inspired.” Their first album, Gemini Sunrise, is a bit more of a typical jazz form, Erdmann said. However, as they’ve gotten more comfortable with form it’s enabled them to create music “modded off of that form” and “more in tune to a composition, rather than a jam.” Additionally, their most recent release, Alien Love Songs is more condensed and incorporates more of a pop sound, Erdmann said.
Midnight Channel’s non-traditional approach to music also extends to their performance style. Erdmann noted that since the band’s inception, he wanted to have the same energy as a punk group. At first, he noticed this was a bit confusing for people who had different expectations of what jazz sounds like. Seeing people get comfortable enough to dance, even mosh, has been cool for Erdmann.
The first time a mosh pit formed at one of their shows, their planned gig had been cancelled due to weather and a friend ended up offering their house. However, the mosh pit was not the most exciting event of that evening.
“The show got so loud … that people called the cops on us, and they shut our show down,” Erdmann said. “It was kind of funny to see that as a jazz group.”
Like their sound and performance style, Midnight Channel has also cultivated a distinctive visual identity, courtesy of the band’s percussionist Gabby Cabrera-Lopez. Midnight Channel and Cabrera-Lopez draw from early internet culture, such as invasive and borderline absurd Facebook ads. Midnight Channel wants to present a modern version of jazz visuals, rather than the traditional image of jazz people may have in their heads.
“We’re trying to put ourselves in a place that might look more to the future of jazz but also still respecting the tradition of the 100 years or so and more that came before us,” Erdmann said.
Through their Alberta-wide tour, Midnight Channel hopes to make lasting connections and grow Alberta’s jazz scene. The artists featured at the shows create in a range of different genres of music. Since Midnight Channel pulls from so many genres themselves “it doesn’t really take away from the show to have maybe shoegaze groups or hip hop groups”
“They all kind of mesh together in a way. We think about this kind of universal connection between all these kinds of music,” Erdmann said.
That community element is particularly important because of the support Midnight Channel has received within Lethbridge.
“I think we have a good foundation, starting playing in a community that supported us immediately and would let us play in the Japanese garden every week. We kind of have that “making a home” kind of feeling to us.”
Currently, Midnight Channel is writing some new songs, which Erdmann said lean more into hyper pop and electronic music. As well, they will be releasing two live albums. One is from their performance at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The other is from a live session they did at CJSW-FM in Calgary.
The tour will bring Midnight Channel across Alberta, hitting Lethbridge on March 13, Medicine Hat on March 14, Calgary on March 21, Red Deer on March 27, and finally Edmonton, on March 28.
Spring Alberta Tour Dates:
March 13, 2026 Lethbridge, AB @ The Owl – with (un)decided (Calgary-based hip-hop)
March 14, 2026 Medicine Hat, AB @ Casa Amigos with Postal Code, Sex Cowboy
March 21, 2026 Calgary, AB @ Blox Arts Centre with Ginger Beef, Eye of Newt, 36?
March 27, 2026 Red Deer, AB @ The Vat with Tegridy, Dylan Ella
March 28, 2026 Edmonton, AB @ The Aviary with Whiling, Dylan Ella
Album line-up: Matthew Erdmann – Bass, N’goni, Synth, Gabby Cabrera-Lopez – Percussion, Omnichord, Austin Phillips – Guitar, Brandon deGorter – Alto Saxophone, Stuart Dalby – Tenor Saxophone, Chris Bernhardt – Keys, Drake McCheyne – Drums
Additional members (extended band): Keira Harman – Trombone, Tavis Dueck - Trombone, Ray Wong – Baritone Saxophone, Claire McMahon – Trumpet, Geneva Murphy – Vocals, Coqui Saporana – Hypeman
Touring members for this 2026 leg: Sam Flegal - drums (Lethbridge, Med Hat, Calgary), Joel Jeschke - drums (Red Deer, Edmonton)