Blog Archives

Halie Loren, an international, award-winning jazz-pop singer-songwriter, played an intimate show at Le Studio TD in Montreal as part of the Jazz Festival.

As a blues fan, catching eye to eye with our Blues Night artist, Juno Award recipient Dawn Tyler Watson, and her seven-piece band at Le Balcon in downtown Montreal was a magical experience. Dawn lit up the dark room for the Montreal Jazz Festival, happening between June 27 and July 6, 2024.

The self described “Brass House” trio Too Many Zooz brings the groove to Edmonton

Say an airplane carrying a large polar bear were flying above the Nation’s Capital and, say, just say, said polar bear’s carrier were to jangle loose in a bad patch of turbulence that also opened the security hatch whooshing the bewildered bear out and sending it buffeting through the clouds. Now say, and we’re just saying here, that bear plummeted towards a recently upended truckload of beanbag chairs where it fell safe and snugly, shook off the air sickness and rolled into, say, the Rideau Canal where it slowly but surely swam its way towards,I dunno, City Hall? Stepping onto land with a mighty shake, say, and let me reiterate, I’m just saying, it were to sneak somehow undetected unto the grounds of the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, park itself behind those jerks who decided to chat all the way through, saaaayyyyy, a Norah Jones concert, and then, just then, suddenly realize how hungry it was and….

As a staple of Toronto’s music community for years, if you were looking for a collaborator, musician Lydia Persaud was your go to. Now she’s stepping forward with her debut album and she leaves no mystery of her intent when it comes to the title. Let Me Show You, she says.

Released in May via Next Door Records, she’s bringing her new songs to the NAC’s Fourth Stage tonight. Ahead of the show, we had a chance to chat up her influences, putting the new album together and shifting from her work with wild cover band Dwayne Gretzky to this solo tour.

Cook and his accomplished ensemble of musicians put on an unblemished performance at the Brockville Arts Centre last Wednesday leaving the audience asking when he’s coming back.

If you’ve been out to an O-town festival or caught some live music at one of the clubs, chances are you’ve seen Steve Berndt perform. The man gets around. From swinging performances with soul sensations The Commotions, bopping beats and jumpin’ blues with The Jivewires, to smaller trio tributes to Tom Waits, Berndt and his trombone have been making the Capital groove for years.

When you think of late night hour jazz, those wee small hours of the morning, most conjure up images of slow, smooth, sleepy horns and the crooning of Ella or Billie or maybe some ol’ Blue Eyes. When it comes ‘round midnight at the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, however, you best trade your droopy eyes for some dancing shows because when the late night tent is a’pumpin’ you’re gonna’ be a’jumpin’!

From rave style parties, to insane Jewish DJs, to the conga lines, dancing on tables and chairs, tossing out tables and chairs for more room to dance, musicians in the crowd with tubas, and oh my Lordy Lord Lord, the vibration. You could charge up the downtown core if you could bottle it, people.

The OLG After Dark Series is electrified!

“It’s become one of my favourite venues. It’s really more of a club atmosphere with a large capacity. So we wanted to make it an exciting program, with lots of energy,” Festival Programming Director Petr Cancura says, though he should add a couple buckets ‘o sweat and a rattling tent full of pulse and beat if he wants to really encapsulate the feel. Jane Fonda ain’t got nothing on this workout.

Not having to adhere to O-town’s outdoor curfew cops, jazzers, ravers and the festival “Bobcat” himself Stephen Corrigan get to keep the shock and awesome going inside the late night tent until well past the time our carriages turn back into pumpkins. It’s midnight but Cinderella ain’t leavin’ this ball. Besides, glass slippers make perfect wine sippers! Am I right?

Now, I’d like to think that it wasn’t construction in Confederation Park that moved the tent to this year’s location at City Hall’s Lisgar Field. Between you, me, and a couple of jump jivin’ squirrels in the trees above, that tent just up and moved itself . . . propelled by rhythm and bass, Base, BASS! Mayor Watson, you better expect a couple of rattled items in your office each morning, methinks.

Okay, so you’re now pumped and peaked. What, tell me what, Andre should we go see in this wonderful structure you have so elevated?What say we start with Moon Hooch (June 22 / 10:30PM). This is not the first ro-did-e-oh for this band at Jazz Fest. I’d say my usual “those who have seen them before will know what you are in for” but, here’s the short skinny-bop: we’re not ready for Moon Hooch. Not you. Not me. Not your hipster Uncle Mort and his jazzy pug Arnie. We are just not ready. They’re going to bring virtuosic jazzer jams, they have heaps of the funk and they got enough electro dance vibes that Escapade wants to borrow a cup of six of it all! Ohhh yeahhhh, they also got a ginormous traffic cone they slip into the sax for extra ooompha-loompha! They’re so wild the NYPD had to ban ‘em from playing subway platforms. You don’t have to catch the A-train to see ‘em. Just grab a jazz fest ticket and strap in!

It’s just a two day step to the right to get acquainted with L.A.’s KNOWER (June 25 / 10:30PM). The Jazz Festival’s website calls them searing hot but I’ve been watching their YouTube vids. This is more than that…it’s nuclear heat, like what happens when you blaze some of that noon day sun above El Azizia on top of the Large Hadron Collider. If you don’t wanna’ Google it, that’s more heat than a supernova. Bam! Slam! Sizzle me timbers! Drummer Louis Cole and singer Genevieve Artadi have been spearheading a new music movement with hard-hitting funk, coolio chords and ocean deep melodies. It all makes for an off-world trip through the musical stratosphere. If there’s a thermometer nearby prepare for the mercury to be rising. KNOWER isn’t going to be holding back!

Did you ever think you’d read the sentence “this avant-garde Artic-born artist has power-driven the traditional throat singing of her ancestors into the main stream”? Yeah, Tanya Tagaq (June 28 / 10:30PM) has a style like nothing you’ve ever heard before. She’s punk and metal and electronica all baked into a bubbling beat simmered in the unique music of her Nunavut homeland. It’s a sound that begins in a breath and sends you soaring on gusts of violin and drums. You know you’re one of music’s most wanted when Björk and the Kronos Quartet are trackin’ you down! If this Member of the Order of Canada’s literary output is as tingly spiney as her concerts, I can’t wait for her first book, Split Tooth, to drop come September.

Alright, if I hit ya’ with anymore you might need to break out a defibrillator. One last thing, if you see a groovin’ tent bouncing down Elgin Street sometime next week you’ll know where the party is at!

Kenny G and his band brought their Miracles Holiday & Hits Tour to Ottawa’s National Arts Centre on Wednesday night. Billed as a night filled with festive spirit and contemporary classics, the newly renovated NAC was all decked out for the holidays. Decorations included an enormous Christmas tree, giant nutcrackers, and the largest rocking chair this side of the Rideau canal.

Every Friday night the National Arts Center’s revitalized Fourth Stage plays host to emerging artists from across Canada for ‘Friday’s at the Fourth’. The casual atmosphere of this new stage lends itself well to artists of all genres. This past Friday a sold out crowd was beyond entertained by the wildly talented Rebecca Noelle and opener Kayla Diamond.