Smokey Robinson @ Toronto Star Stage, Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto Jazz Festival (June 21, 2013)

  Smokey Robinson: photo by Michael Ligon

When Martin Fry and Mark White of the UK pop band ABC released their hit song "When Smokey Sings" (a tribute to the Motown living legend Smokey Robinson) back in 1987, it contained the definitive lyric, 'When Smokey sings, I forget everything'. And that was so true as watched Mr. Robinson kick off the Toronto Jazz Festival on on a weather-perfect Friday night, with a free show down at Nathan Phillips Square. I didn't bother lining up for a wristband to secure a spot in the tented area that encompassed the stage but took satisfaction to watch the show from outside the tent catching occasional glimpses and photo opportunites [thank god for the 15x optical zoom on my point and shoot] of the man as he entertained the crowd with a variety of hits. There were many highlights and some of those included his dramatic, more soulful rendition of "Tracks of My Tears" [a song that he said had been penned by a young Stevie Wonder], renditions of songs like "My Girl" and "The Way You Do The Things You Do" [songs Smokey had wrote for The Temptations], and Smokey's classic "I Second That Emotion". Dressed in all white, with his band and back-up vocalists following suit, plus a few dancers who came out later, Smokey later shed the white blazer he started out the evening in as things started to cook. In good spirits for the entire night, Smokey quiped and bantered [about the old Motown days, for example] throughout the night that had the audience stuck on his every word. For me the most sublime song of the night was actualy one I was not really particularly too familiar with, although I was sure I'd heard the song at least a few times in my life, but not nearly enough times and that was his 1965-released song "Ooo Baby Baby" which was really one of the most heartbreaking, romantic songs I've ever heard. The audience singalong on "Cruisin'" for which Smokey had two volunteers from the audience each lead one half of the audience in a sort of battle to outsing each other on the song's line 'I love it when we're cruisin' together', was a great way to end the evening. 73 years old this past February, Smokey is, if you will excuse the pun, still smokin'.

Photos: Smokey Robinson @ Toronto Star Stage, Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto Jazz Festival (June 21, 2013)

Bettye Lavette, The Big Sound, Get The Blessing @ Nathan Phillips Square, part of Toronto Jazz Festival (June 23, 2012)

  Bettye Lavette: photo by Michael Ligon

Like many of the music festivals that either have the words jazz, blues, or folk in their name, it's pretty much a misnomer these days and the Toronto Jazz Festival isn't any different. Although jazz still remains it's foundation and focus, I can say for a fact that many of the feature acts this year were not jazz, at least by purists standards.

On Saturday June 23rd, I had a few different acts on my schedule and I started on a sweltering late afternoon down at the Nathan Phillips Square, Outdoor Stage to catch UK band called Get The Blessing. Out of the all the acts during the festival which I saw, Get The Blessing were the most jazz. Formed from the rhythm section of Portishead, Jim Barr (bass) and Clive Deamer (drums), the band added Jake McMurchie (saxophone) and Pete Judge (trumpet) to the fold. During their set, a member of the band jokingly bantered about their instrumental songs, that they had two types of songs - ones about food, and ones about literature. The bright hot sun, didn't quite match the mood of the music in my opinion, the set being a heady mix of jazz, fusion, groove, and a slight dub reggae influence at times, the band gussied up in their dark suits, white shirts and dark sunglasses. But their was also an upbeat tempo to some of their tunes, enough to get several persons in the audience dancing enthusiastically, with a member of the band at one point giving a shout out to 'the woman in the white hat', and the 'man with the blue frisbee'. Pretty stellar playing all around, although I was particularly fond of the warm tones of the guitar playing and the occasional fuzzier solos. A decent start to the the the day.

This show was also an opportunity for me to catch local Motown-covers collective The Big Sound who'd I'd missed their semi-periodic residency at The Great Hall on several occasions. With a base group of musicians (guitar, rhythm section, etc), a horn section, backup singers and a select group of featured vocalists (I recall five or six different ones), I soon lost count of how many people were on stage. Of the vocalists, I'd only recognized Drew of The Bicycles and local vocalist-for-hire Maylee Todd but every one of the vocalists brought something unique to whatever they sung, Drew for example utilizing his sweet falsetto on Smokey Robinson's "Tracks Of My Tears" and Maylee belting out Jackson Five's "I Want You Back". The piece dé resistance had to be at the end (near the end?) of the set when Maylee and one of the male feature vocalists belted out the Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell classic "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". Most of what the collective performed was pretty familiar, whetting the appetites of the crowd with each song performed and as the set drew to a close, the crowd was sufficiently warmed up.

Ms. Bettye Lavette's career has been a lifetime in the making, having started her career in 1962 at the age of sixteen when she recorded a single, "My Man - He's a Lovin' Man", and since then her rise has taken baby steps. It wasn't until 2005, when ANTI- released her album I've Got My Own Hell to Raise an album comprising covers of songs written by other female artists including Aimee Mann, Joan Armatrading, Sinéad O'Connor, Rosanne Cash, Dolly Parton and Fiona Apple when many more people started to take notice. I'd recently been introduced to the music of Brooklyn-based soul artist Charles Bradley whose own story of being discovered late in life was an intriguing one and this was part of the motivation for me to check out Ms. Lavette.

Dressed in a silvery, sleeveless top, Ms. Lavette commanded a great deal of respect and applause as she came on to the stage. Backed by a four0piece band, Lavette ran through a set of soul balladeering, interspersed with some more uptempo soul tunes. Lavette's singing style on the slower numbers, tended towards strategic pauses, creating moments of quiet. Lavette displayed her versatile vocals, capable of belting out on the more uptempo numbers and dialing it back on the quieter ones. Her band, while capable musicians, seemed a bit on the reserved side, though the guitar solos and some harder drumming toughened things up at times. My only previous sampling of Lavette's work was her 2007 ANTI-released album The Scene Of The Crime which was a collaboration with Drive-By Truckers as her backing band and I was hoping for that grittier instrumentation, so I was disappointed by her backing band who were by comparison almost antiseptic. Draggier moments seemed to come and go during the set, but the set picked up steam in the latter half and there was no doubting Lavette's power such as on "Love Reign Over Me" which she got a standing ovation. At the conclusion of the set her band left the stage one at a time, the crowd giving her a standing ovation for several minutes and Lavette then returned to the stage for an accapella number to soothe us before we walked out of the tented area into the warm summer night.

Photos: Bettye Lavette, The Big Sound, Get The Blessing @ Nathan Phillips Square, part of Toronto Jazz Festival (June 23, 2012)

Janelle Monae, Roman GianArthur @ Toronto Star Stage, Nathan Phillips Square, part of Toronto Jazz Festival (June 22, 2012)

  Janelle Monae: photo by Michael Ligon

R n' b / soulstress / chanteuse Janelle Monae is making a return visit to Toronto for a show at Sony Centre For The Performing Arts on September 9, a mere three months after her playing the main stage at Nathan Phillips Square, which had kicked off the Toronto Jazz Festival in style. That was only the second time I'd seen her live (the first time being when she opened for Arcade Fire at Olympic Island during the summer of 2010) and it only confirmed my first impressions of her - her talent seeps through every pore of her being and she's in it for the long run.

Opening up the show was Roman GianArthur, originally from Winston-Salem, NC. Not much information comes up on the 'net about him although apparently a debut LP The Good Dreamer is in the works. And there is no doubt, that as Mr. GianArthur's set exemplified, the man is talented, playing guitar and belting out his funk / soul tunes with precision. Perhaps, it's that last point wherein the problem lies - there's a Prince-like quality to GianArthur's music and overall approach, but so far at least, there isn't much of a distinct personality behind it. Maybe, it's just because I don't know much about the gentleman but it's early on his career and I'd be more than willing to give him a chance towards paying his dues.

After having gone through my photo-set of the show, it was quite obvious how kinetically-charged this show was. Although a female, Monae's performance embodied male icons such as Prince, James Brown and Michael Jackson, both in her vocal intensity as well as her physical stage presence and dancing. I'll admit that maybe her gender as a female makes her talent seem that much more special; were she male, maybe she'd be called out as a copycat. But rather than over-think this any more, I'd rather focus on what a spectacular show she and her band-mates put on. Everyone was dressed to the nines in white shirt, dark trousers and black tie, a few sporting vests, with her three-member string section sporting the white body suits, and her backup vocalists doing the opposite with the black bodysuits. It was so freaking amazing how tirelessly energetic Monae and her band-mates were and I'm thinking how do they do it from night to night? They gave it a 110% and more.

The set list was a terrific mix of her own songs (from her debut LP The ArchAndroid) and covers. While the set list including encore seemed short in length, Monae and her band extended many of the songs into impromptu james, playing up to the crowd, with guitar and drums solos. Songs of hers like "Faster" and "Tightrope" hit the crowd in all the right places, while covers ranging from Charlie Chaplin's "Smile", Prince's "Take Me With U", Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" and Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" displayed how versatile Monae is. There was an interesting point in the show during one song where she painted on a canvas and at the end of the show, a lucky fan (whose birthday it was) got to keep the painting. It was just another example of how giving Monae had been to the audience that night. If your a newbie to Monae's live show and you are going to see her at the Sony Centre For The Performing Arts this coming Sunday, you are in for a really special treat.

Photos: Janelle Monae, Roman GianArthur @ Toronto Star Stage, Nathan Phillips Square, part of Toronto Jazz Festival (June 22, 2012)

Shad/Thunderheist @ Nathan Phillips Square(31/01/2009); Cuff The Duke @ Lakeside Terrace - Harbourfront(31/01/2009)

I wasn't going to let the frigid temperatures this past Saturday night stop me from taking in a few of the free events happening in Toronto. First up I headed down to Nathan Phillips Square to catch some of the evening WinterCity theatrical performance [a nautical-themed piece] , then sets from Shad and Thunderheist. Shad, with bassist and DJ, performed some cuts off his album "The Old Prince" and even busted out some freestyle acappella style when his DJ was having some technical difficulties. He asked us if we liked '80's music to which the audience cheered then Shad and band dropped into a cut which used The Cure's "Close To Me"'s familiar keyboard arrangement as a backing track. That only went on for about a minute or so before Shad continued with some old-school hip hop sounds.

Shad @ Nathan Phillips Square(Jan 31, 2009): photo by Michael Ligon


Crowd excitement heightened in anticipation for Toronto duo electro-dance-rock duo Thunderheist. Vocalist did her best to get the crowd involved and to dance, if only to stay warm and there were eager ones who were only happy to comply. DJ Graham worked the rhythm tracks on the laptop and did some rudimentary record scratching and at the encouragement of Isis broke out into his funky white boy dance style. Isis invited the audience to stay for the afterparty(a DJ party taking place at the WinterCity Lodge across the way), though as she expressed humourously and as she chuckled, the afterparty would be starting at 9:30. They brought out a drummer for one song though the highlight of the night for me was when the group's all-girl dance crew did some b-girl dancing to several of their songs. Saving the best for last, Thunderheist pulled out "Jerk It" as the audience transformed into a full-out dance party.

Thunderheist @ Nathan Phillips Square(Jan 31, 2009): photo by Michael Ligon


Photos: Thunderheist, Shad @ Nathan Phillips Square (January 31, 2009)

After Thunderheist, I jumped on the subway and travelled down to Harbourfront for CBC Radio 3's live broadcast at the Natrel Rink. Inside Harbourfront's Lakeside Terrace, a few artists were performing. I got too late to catch Toronto's Castlemusic but made it in time for Oshawa's Cuff The Duke. It was a surprisingly light crowd, although it did fill up more respectably by the time Cuff The Duke hit the stage. No new material was played although vocalist Wayne Petti did make reference to the new album. A relatively low-key set of their country-rock tunes, although guitarist Dale Murray displayed some delicious guitar licks. Funniest moments of the night perhaps was when in between songs CBC Radio 3's promo could be heard through the venue's PA, to which Wayne responded that that's a guy they usually kept behind the curtain. Believe me, it was hilarious.

Cuff The Duke @ Lakeside Terrace - Harbourfront(Jan 31, 2009): photo by Michael Ligon


Photos: Cuff The Duke @ Lakeside Terrace - Harbourfront (January 31, 2009)

Sweet, Sweet, Sweet, Sweet, Fire In The Street

concert review: The New Pornographers (part of WinterCity) @ Nathan Phillips Square(Toronto, Ontario), February 3, 2007



I'm so hardcore. It may have been -14 degrees Celsius weather[colder with a wind chill] this past Saturday night, but it didn't stop me from checking out The New Pornographers who were playing a free show down at Nathan Phillips Square as part of WinterCity. Poor Carl Newman that his propane heater onstage kept on going out on him. Continually mentioning how cold it was, in jest Carl said he thought he was going to die, even directing a quip to keyboardist Kathyrn Calder to not let him fall asleep. Ha ha. In another moment, Carl and Blair were speaking about how Toronto was so cold and that it was going through a reverse global warming. At one point between songs, Carl had to tune his guitar and blurted out "Fuck" only to jokingly explain that he said "Funk", which prompted the band into an impromptu instrumental version of Parliament's "Give Up The Funk". Kathyrn Calder looked so cute in her mouse-ears toque as she grabbed a tambourine and started to dance to the groove. Such were the moments that kept the crowd going through an hour plus set in the bitter cold, though I must say the body heat from the crowd and a little bit of dancing/moving kept things somewhat comfortable. They performed most of the tunes that I could have hoped for including "Use It", "Sing Me Spanish Techno", "Mass Romantic", "Miss Teen Wordpower", "The Bleeding Heart Show", "From Blown Speakers"(during the encore), and what for me was the highlight of the show, a stirring rendition of "Streets of Fire"(complete with singalong from the crowd). Kudos to the band for braving the cold and performing a great set.

Here are my photos from the show.

I found some live video clips from the show on YouTube. Check 'em out:

YouTube: The New Pornographers - Sing Me Spanish Techno (4:11)
YouTube: The New Pornographers - The Bleeding Heart Show (1:59)
YouTube: The New Pornographers - Give Up The Funk (0:31)
YouTube: The New Pornographers - Streets of Fire (1:17)
YouTube: The New Pornographers - Testament To Youth In Verse (2:37)
YouTube: The New Pornographers - From Blown Speakers (2:39)

MySpace: The New Pornographers