Cory Weeds admits that it feels “weird” that he’s shutting down his Cellar Jazz Club at the end of this month. “Emotionally, it’s sad,” he told the Straight, adding that running a jazz club in an out-of-the-way basement location has not been easy. “I’m looking forward to an immediate feeling of relief, just to have that constant stress lifted. But there will come a time when I’ll realize it’s not just a break: it’s permanent.”

Weeds’s absence from the local jazz scene will be brief, however. Come April, the entrepreneurial saxophonist will launch a series of weekend concerts at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s Pyatt Hall. He’ll also be booking bands into Seventeen89, a new West End restaurant at the old Delilah’s location (1789 Comox Street), and there are other surprises in store.

“We’re going to be doing a jazz-festival series at Pyatt Hall,” he said. “And I’ve just formed a non-profit organization, the Cellar Jazz Society, in hopes that in a year or so we can get charity status and operate under that umbrella—whether that is as a venue, like the Yardbird Suite in Edmonton, or a presenting society. So things are definitely moving forward.”