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The “PATH” is truly an amazing feature of Toronto. I never really appreciated this urban marvel until I had to do a project for Marketing Geography (great course BTW), in which we had to analyze the stores from a section of PATH. The PATH stretches for 27 km, and has over a 1000 shops. If you’re new to Toronto, I highly suggest you take a stroll during the afternoon, for more details check out http://www.toronto.ca/path/
It’s important to have a good school/life balance, or else you might end up like Eugine.
[Written in collaboration with BlogUT blogger Jasmine]
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably noticed the ads for the Shaw Festival’s 2009 centerpiece, Garson Kanin’s “Born Yesterday”. It’s pretty hard not to, considering they’ve been plastered over every available surface for a few months now. We found out why this was necessary when the curtain rose on the play’s amazingly elaborate set, complete with staircase and crystal chandelier. This set was by far the most – maybe the only – impressive thing about this production. The rest was, to put it lightly, awful.
That the message could have been more subtle would be a polite way to put it. The “message,” as it were, was more like a sledgehammer to the face. TRUTH! JUSTICE! FREEDOM! OF THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE! …All well and good, but honestly (and we shall be honest; it is, after all, a virtue greatly espoused by the play), it would also have been nice for the script not to assume that its audience was stupid enough to warrant the oft-placed spiels about democratic values and the power of the people (oh, and by the way, equating the audience with the “ditz” of the play in its several kindergarten explanations of the origins of democracy is just rude). The characters were stereotyped and completely one-dimensional, and what little humour there was was forced and, more often than not, came across as a cheap, last-minute afterthought. Overall, it felt more like being forced to sit through a sermon detailing the playwright’s personal political manifesto, than the highly-touted play that was, according to the buzz, a “brilliant comedy”. Continue reading “Shaw’s “Born Yesterday”: A “Brief Encounter” With Bad Theatre”
This being opening night of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I could not help but be completely excited since I, as most fans are, am an avid reader of the books. I have my own favourite movies as I do favourite books and I understand that my opinion will be torn apart and picked on or be received with a certain amount of agreement. That is, of course, assuming that you’ve already seen the movie. If you haven’t, then feel free to partake in whatever I express in this review of mine, although, if you are a fan like me, I don’t think my opinions would affect whether or not you will watch it. Continue reading “Harry Potter and the Half-Perplexed Reader/Movie Viewer”
Posted on behalf of a reader, Peter Tran:
It’s an expression we all use, particularly when we run into people we haven’t seen for a while. But the thing is, there is a reason you haven’t seen them in a while.
We all know that through the different stages of our lives (e.g. elementary, high school and post secondary), friends come and go. The friends we keep are the ones that weren’t just convenient, they were people we naturally gravitated towards. These are the people you can spend time with sitting on a swing set, going for walks or even cleaning your room while the other watches. We all have these friends with whom we can spend time with doing practically anything. I call these people close friends. I could be cleaning toilets with them and I’d still enjoy their company.
Then there are the friends who you drift from but every once in a while you can easily call up and be like “Hey! Its been a while, come over tonight.” You don’t need a regular dose of them, nor do they need a regular dose of you. It’s so easy to pick up right where you left off even if its been weeks months or years since you’ve seen them. I call these people old friends. These are the people who are going to fly all the way up from Australia to see you get married or take a day off work to help you move into your new apartment.
However there are those friends we don’t keep. The friends that… in reality, were convenient. These are the people who you had class with, who you worked with, who you saw on a regular basis out of circumstance. Continue reading “We should hang out sometime”
Both the Dave Holland Quintet and the Branford Marsalis Quartet could have easily sold out the MainStage space at the Toronto Jazz Festival had they each been the headliner act of their own show, so it’s a little strange that they should be shoved together in a double bill on Friday, July 3rd. Nevertheless, it’s hard to complain when you get to see that much talent and good music on display for the affordable price of $40 at the Toronto Jazz Festival, all in one night, even if the acoustics leave something to be desired.
The Dave Holland Quintet – Robin Eubanks on trombone, Steve Nelson on vibraphone, Chris Potter on alto/soprano sax, Nate Smith on drums, and Dave Holland on bass – opened the evening with a wonderful, energetic 75-minute set of original compositions from Holland’s albums. The set list included: “Step to It”, “Last Minute Man”, “Full Circle”, and “Lucky Seven”. The Dave Holland Quintet has a very eclectic sound, and at times, dissonant. Generally, this means there’s a lot going on at once, with Potter and Eubanks each carrying a bit of the melody – at the same time – and Nelson, Smith, and Holland sharing the rhythm sections. This tends to lead to a lot of complexity, and because of all the different instruments, each with what could be a standalone part, all together, gives you a rich variety of things to listen to. You can tune in and tune out of various different instruments, take your pick, and never be bored. Sometimes all this action leads to really rewarding and interesting dissonance and other times it ends up as just too busy. Sometimes I had trouble differentiating between the parts that Potter and Eubanks were playing, sometimes they blended together, and it felt like a bit too much mushiness. But the band really shone when its three stars took the stage with their solos: drummer Nate Smith, saxophonist Chris Potter, and bassist Dave Holland.
Drummer Nate Smith also played with Chris Potter in his “Underground” group at the Pilot on Monday, but it was in this concert with Holland where he really impressed me. Generally, when drummers take solos, they are so excited to finally be allowed to stray from just beat-keeping that they try to hit and bang as many drums and cymbals as possible in the smallest amount of time: this is their chance to make a lot of noise. But this approach lacks musicality; it’s just an unpleasant racket, the kind I usually can’t wait to stop. But Nate Smith, much like drumming greats Jack DeJohnette and Tony Williams, understands that less is more with drum solos. He hits a beat, he finds a rhythm to play with, and he lets the audience in on what he is doing. We can keep up, we can enjoy, and while it’s not “simple” it’s not overdone either: there’s music and clarity here. He also finds different pitches and tones to play with so that when his drum solo comes to an end, we can’t help but want more, or look forward to his next one. Smith is a great drummer and these are very, very few and far between.
Continue reading “The Dave Holland Quintet and Branford Marsalis Quartet made a fabulous double bill last Friday at the TO Jazz Festival MainStage.”
Last week, BlogUT caught up with Canadian bassist and composer, Brandi Disterheft, for a telephone interview, before her appearance at the Toronto Jazz Festival, as the opening act for the Dave Brubeck Quartet on Canada Day. Her debut album, “Debut”, won the 2008 Juno award for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year, and it’s an impressive debut, with all original compositions, for this very young, late-twenties, up-and-coming artist. Disterheft has studied under Oscar Peterson, who said of her “She has the same lope or rhythmical pulse as my late bass player Ray Brown. She is what we call serious”, and she is currently studying under the great bassist Ron Carter in New York City. Though she is known in the Toronto music scene – her first album was made with all Toronto musicians – she has decided to take on the big apple, where she now lives, and enjoys the new anonymity and late-night jam sessions at various clubs. She has been doing a lot of touring across Canada in the last week from Calgary to BC to Toronto, playing shows with her newly assembled sextet.
BlogUT: How did you decide to play the bass?
Brandi Disterheft: I grew up playing the piano and was playing the flute at one point. But then I wanted to play an instrument that was more versatile, an instrument I could play classical, jazz, and funky lines on. It was actually my dad’s idea to pick up the bass. But I have always been around music and instruments because my mom was a jazz player in Vancouver (where she grew up).
BlogUT: Did you start out playing classical music or jazz? How does that affect your playing?
Brandi: I did a combination of the two, actually. I started playing classical piano and then I got into jazz. I went to Humber College for the jazz program and took some private classical studies after. I’ve been studying under a classical teacher in New York City. Playing classical music is really important because it develops your technique and develops your sound. You get to really know your instrument and play with a bow. I don’t consider myself a classical musician, but I’m studying classical music mainly so that I can grow on the instrument. Continue reading “Interview with bassist Brandi Disterheft: TO Jazz Festival 2009 coverage”