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Chris Potter’s Underground put on a must-see jazz show at the Pilot on Tuesday June 30th (Review of Monday’s show): TO jazz festival 2009

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What: Chris Potter’s Underground
When: Tuesday, June 30th at 9PM (Today!) (Monday’s show reviewed below)
Where: The Pilot at 22 Cumberland between Bay and Yonge (Map)
Tickets: $28 at the door – arrive early as seating is limited and first come first serve. Doors open at 8PM. Dinner is available at the Pilot.

(See end of Review for more Chris Potter listings for this week on Tuesday and Friday)

Starting at 9PM and finishing up at around midnight, Chris Potter’s Underground wowed the audience from start to finish at the intimate Pilot setting this evening, with two great sets of serious head-bopping, jiving music, that held your attention throughout, accessible to the jazz neophyte and a real delight for the jazz fan. The band played both original music off Potter’s albums and interpretations of other musicians’ work.

Chris Potter is a musician’s musician – about half the audience was music students from York, Humber, and UofT – he takes any piece and turns it on its head in so many different ways that make you listen and watch in anticipation, constantly engaged. His albums are good, but his performance here was stellar. I spent the whole concert bopping my head, swinging my shoulders, tapping my foot, tapping my hands, and at the apex moments, finding myself doing all of the above at once without thinking about it. It was a heck of a lot of fun and a heck of a good show.

Chris Potter’s Underground – with Adam Rogers on guitar, Craig Taborn on Fender Rhodes, Nate Smith on drums, and Potter on alto sax, soprano sax, and bass clarinet -played original tunes like the title song from “Underground” and Potter’s new album “Ultrahang”, new never-before played compositions like “Flight to Oslo”, old standards like Duke Ellington’s “Single Petal of a Rose”, and unexpected oldies with seriously imaginative turns like their melodic, swingy ballad of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe”.

What made the show great was not just the quality of the playing or the selection of the music, but the tightness of the band, the seamless transitions, and the incredible variations on the melody. While most jazz concerts follow the same old pattern of melody, sax solo, guitar solo, drum solo, keyboard solo, back to melody, and then new song and repeat, Underground has a new and exciting way of approaching performance, which is strong and engaging. However, it does get a little repetitive in nature by the nth song. Continue reading “Chris Potter’s Underground put on a must-see jazz show at the Pilot on Tuesday June 30th (Review of Monday’s show): TO jazz festival 2009”

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CALLING ALL SAXOPHONISTS: Help the Shuffle Demons Set A New Guinness World Record on Canada Day!

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Join the Shuffle Demons and the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival on Canada Day at Nathan Phillips Square and help set a new Guinness World Record for the largest saxophone ensemble.  All professional and amateur saxophonists are welcome. Let’s honk our way back into the record books!

On October 18, 2008 Taiwan attempted a world record with 918 saxophonists; the Shuffle Demons were the previous record holders five years ago at 900. Show that patriotic pride at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 1 as the Shuffle Demons try to better all previous attempts and bring the world record officially back to Canada.  Led by the Shuffle Demons, saxophonists will play a five minute rendition of O Canada.

To avoid disqualification, ONLY SAXOPHONES will be participating in this world record breaking attempt.  Regardless of skill level, experience and age, all saxophonists are welcome to participate.

Registration is free and available online at www.torontojazz.com; participants will also be able to register on the day of the event starting at 12 p.m. at Nathan Phillips Square.

Sheet music as well as music samples of the national anthem are available for download at www.torontojazz.com.

The Shuffle Demons celebrate their 25th anniversary this summer with a special reunion tour across Canada.  Capturing the imagination of a generation with their crazy, zany, enthusiastic spirit and number one hit, Spadina Bus, there is still nobody else like them. Do not miss the return of the Shuffle Demons!

The sounds of jazz will have feet tappin’ and fingers snappin’ as the 23rd edition of the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival swings its way into summer, running from June 26 to July 5, 2009.  Be a part of the action as more than 1,500 musicians, performing in over 350 concerts, descend upon Toronto for the city’s largest music festival. Get jazzed this summer!

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NXNE Day 2: Black Lips, Experimental Dental School, You Say Party, We Say Die!, Japanther, Youth Brigade

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Thursday, June 18th was day 2 of the venerable 15-year-old North by North East (NXNE) Music Festival.

Spiral Beach, Burning Brides, Black Lips

My compatriot and I were making our way to Yonge and Dundas Square for the first of 3 nights of free concerts thrown by the festival at the square.

Though the concert at YD Square had been going on since 6pm that night, we were making a fashionably late arrival at 9:30pm. Unfortunately, that meant we missed the powerhouse and up-and-coming Toronto band Spiral Beach, who had kicked off the show at 6pm. As we arrived, the band Burning Brides were just finishing up their act, and there was already a slow-growing trickle of people arriving in anticipation of the Black Lips’ show at 10pm. We left to grab a quick bite to eat (sorry Burning Brides, food more important) and by the time we had returned the Black Lips show was already underway.

Continue reading “NXNE Day 2: Black Lips, Experimental Dental School, You Say Party, We Say Die!, Japanther, Youth Brigade”

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NXNE Day 1 : Opening Night Party

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North by North East (NXNE), for those who don’t know, is the annual music festival in Toronto that has more than 500 international and Canadian bands playing 50 venues over 5 days, and in the past few years has also added a film festival of 30 music related films. This year was its 15th anniversary and it took place from June 17-21 (Wednesday-Sunday) and had a stellar lineup in comparison to some of the more lackluster past years, with notably The Cool Kids, The Black Lips, GZA of Wu-Tang Clan, and The Zoobombs among many, many others. For the uninitiated, prices are usually $10 to $15 a show but the best value is definitely in the $50, 5-day wristband that gets you into all the shows. However, there is no priority or even guaranteed entrance if the show is packed, so one should get there early. Of course there are various others in between and above and beyond ticket levels available ranging from $25-$250 as well. This year was my first year as music reviewer, so those who are looking for really erudite obscure band comparison references should jump ship to Pitchfork now. On the other hand, NXNE has yet to reach the level which would demand attention from Pitchfork, unlike Austin, Texas’ South by South West (SXSW) which NXNE owes name reference to. For those who are looking for descriptive reviews of general vibe, venue, music, and experience, read on!
Continue reading “NXNE Day 1 : Opening Night Party”

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Getting “Cross” fit

Personal health is very important.  I recently discovered an amazing blog community called www.crossfit.com.  They do INSANE amounts of exercise.  Alex and I thought we would take it one step further.

I thought there were exersizes that would stop them. I thought wrong.
I thought there were exercises that would stop them. I thought wrong.
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Free Flicks at Harbourfront

The popular Free Flicks outdoor film series re-launches this summer at Harbourfront Centre with host Erica Ehm (former Much Music VJ). All films are free and are screened rain or shine unless otherwise specified.

What: Free outdoor movies
Where: SIRIUS Satellite Radio Stage at the Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West)
When: 9pm every Wednesday from July 8th – August 12th; see schedule below
More info: Call 416-973-4000 or check out www.harbourfrontcentre.com.

Free Flicks Schedule:

Wednesday, July 8 – Pretty In Pink (Rated: AA)
Wednesday, July 15 – Breakin’ (Rated: PG)
Wednesday, July 22 – Desperately Seeking Susan (Rated: AA)
Wednesday, July 29 – Stop Making Sense (Rated: PG)
Wednesday, August 5 – Say Anything (AA)
Wednesday, August 12 – Labyrinth (PG)

Continue reading “Free Flicks at Harbourfront”

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Review of the new Japanese film, Departures

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Departures is a new Japanese film about a man, Daigo, whose dream to be a concert cellist fails because he lacks the necessary talent, and so is forced to make other plans. He moves from Tokyo back home to a small town, where news seems to travel surprisingly slowly. Untrained in any profession other than music, he answers a classified ad in the newspaper for a job in “departures”, thinking he is applying to work at a travel agency, only to discover it was a misprint and a job about “the departed”. The job interview lasts 2 minutes; the interviewer asks Daigo if he will work hard, Daigo responds “yes, sir!”, the interviewer tells him he’s hired and hands him a pile of cash. When Daigo discovers the job deals with dead people, he is hesitant, having never seen a corpse before or had to deal with death. Nevertheless, upon discovering how well it pays, Daigo decides to accept the job.

And so Daigo enters a world of ritual for the dead, performed for the living. His job consists of carefully cleaning the bodies of the dead discretely in front of the family, safeguarding family members from the sight of skin, in order to prepare the body for the coffin.

The beginning of Daigo’s dalliances with “the Departed” is filled with a lot of good humour. On the first day of his job, Daigo participates in a promotional video; he has to wear a diaper, have a powdered white face, and must play a corpse. His first encounter with a dead person involves finding a woman in an apartment filled with bugs and the strong stench of her decaying body. Sad, disgusting, and for Daigo, incredibly shocking events are happening, but they are shot with such light humour that we can’t help but laugh at Daigo’s confusion and initiation. When he is no longer a neophyte, he still encounters new and bumpy ground, including discovering, in the middle of the ceremony, that the person he was preparing, who looked like a woman, happens to have a penis. These scenes are genuinely funny and a whole lot of fun; they are also dealt with in a delicate, caring fashion so that we are not laughing cruelly or poking fun at this ritual. We experience the same amusement as the other characters in the film. Continue reading “Review of the new Japanese film, Departures”