Music Festivals

While spending her days steaming milk and keeping people buzzed at Starbucks, music lover Rebecca Sharpe started dreaming up a plan for a charity concert. And as it turned out, the perfect venue was right under her nose. Always encouraging charity work in the community, her employers offered up their high traffic patio as a […]

It’s always good to change it up on a silver anniversary—add a little more shine. Halifax Jazz Fest celebrates 25 years with a little more glamour and a change of venue. “We had to move because of the new library,” says Heather Gibson, JazzEast’s executive director. “We knew it was coming down the pipe two […]

They say it’s “the summer of sax,” thanks to hit singles from Katy Perry and Lady Gaga that drop huge horn solos. Given that, it’s tempting to frame Colin Stetson’s New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges as part of the trend, especially since it’s easily the best avant-garde jazz saxophone album to be shortlisted for […]

Norman Adams, Tim Crofts and Lukas Pearse are all fixtures of the local jazz and experimental scenes, seen doing everything from concerts to experimental electronic accompaniment to theatre to live film scores. They’d played together before but formed their trio about five years ago with the suddenlyLISTEN new music concert organization (which Adams is director […]

When asked about her whereabouts, French singer Keren Ann Zeidel rails off a months-long list of tour dates, festivals, rehearsals and opera openings that traverses the globe, “and then in March I sleep,” she says. Opera? “My bandmate and I in my band Lady & Bird just finished writing an opera,” she explains. The opera, […]

In spite of a cell phone connection that keeps cutting out, Elisapie Isaac is in high spirits on her way home to Montreal from Ottawa. The Inuit singer performed July 1 on Parliament Hill for celebrating Canadians and the visiting royal couple, who she had a chance to meet as well. “They were kind enough […]

In the early ’90s, many rappers were reaping the benefits from long overdue attention they were receiving from the general public. Hip-hop was quickly becoming a major force in North American popular music as more and more people began shedding their preconceptions. With huge backing from major labels, artists like Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, 2Pac […]

In the old French Quarter of New Orleans stands a building rich with history and slim on amenities. It serves no food or drink, has no air conditioning and offers very little in the way of sight lines and capacity. In short, it does not provide the greatest conditions in which to run a business. […]

Charles Spearin may be playing a jazz festival and hold a Juno for contemporary jazz for his album The Happiness Project, but he initially found the award perplexing. Prior to the win, he hadn’t considered the album jazz at all—the Toronto-based musician is known for his work as a member of Broken Social Scene and […]

John McKiel I started Saturday off as a journo-geek at a NXNE talk by Evan Ratliff from The Atavist, a non-fiction journalism website that is publishing long-form journalism through Kindle Singles for the iPad, iPhone, etc. Nice to know that I may still have a job in 10 years, because music festivals aren’t cheap. Saturday’s […]