At its outset in 2001, it was a 'time-sensitive' reaction to the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival's abandonment of its 'cutting edge' avant-garde jazz programming. The musicians here were mad as hell that they had lost a vital input to the city's creative music scene. So I took it upon myself to organize a counter-festival that would happen at the same time as the major event and would include a diverse cross-section of the improvised music community, especially those who worked outside the jazz/free jazz traditions. I hoped that some of the local and international press would be interested and give us a boost. That didn't happen (except for one article in the Globe and Mail). But what did happen was that I found a strong interest in the music and a willingness on the part of the musicians to keep the 'festival' going. In 2002, I rescheduled the event to happen annually in November. Apparently others thought the idea was solid, too; I was contacted by Larry Rossignol, who wanted to pick my brain about organizing a 'fringe' jazz event (his efforts produced the sadly short-lived Distillery Jazz Festival). The '416', as it has come to be called, has persisted through the willingness of musicians to come together to celebrate Toronto's improvised music's extraordinary diversity.

By the event's second year, I was receiving calls and emails from musicians/groups who hadn't appeared in the 2001 edition. It became standard practice to make a list of those who had been left out and guarantee them a spot in the next year's performance schedule, a practice that continues to this day. Musicians are selected in part by this method and in part by keeping close tabs on who is and isn't playing on the local scene AIMToronto was founded in the wake of many of its current member being asked to perform in 416 and wanting something more frequent; Somewhere There was founded as a way to provide an on-going venue for improvising musicians to perform more than once a year at 416's traditional venue, The Tranzac. Enquiries are made to 'unearth' musicians who are still creatively active but who are not performing regularly. Also, care is taken to welcome new artists to the existing community; whether they be young musicians just starting out (3 Blind Moils, Ptarmigan, The Tiny Orchestra) or more established musicians 'in hibernation' (Nobuo Kubota, Tanya Gill). To provide the wide-screen perspective, since 2003 a panel of changing curators (musicians, series organizers, journalists, radio programmers) was established; each year, new curators are asked to program one night each of the festival so as to ensure the maximum range of diversity and to minimize the 'old friends network' programming that affects some other long-term organizations' booking practices. While ad hoc groups are welcome in 416, special consideration is given to existing solo performers/duos/groups who are working on establishing a repertoire-based performance practice.

As additional sidelight, twice since its founding, 416 has mounted short series 'off season' to coincide with late lamented International Association of Jazz Education (IAJE) Conferences in Toronto. In 2004 and 2008, the 'CIA' (Creative Improvisers Assembly, an adjunct of 416) put on short 2- or 3-day series that allowed local audiences and visiting educators and musicians to hear local improvising artists perform.