Music Festivals

Again, as in years past, the Atlantic Jazz Festival treated Haligonians and out-of-town visitors to some exceptional musical experiences, exposure to areas of fascinating and expansive world musical forms, and opened up ears and minds to adventurous and daring sonic inventiveness. And of course, gave an opportunity for the myriad local musical ensembles to entertain […]

She’s shading eighty. He’s crowding sixty-three. She’s a legendary jazz singer who made her bones way back in the bebop 1950s. He’s a self-effacing virtuostic marvel on the acoustic bass packing an impressive professional background. Together last night, this voice and bass duo (actually a trio: Brown and the bass acted as separate foil characters) […]

Pyeng Threadgill radiates the girl-du-jour cool good looks that effortlessly commandeer attention. And the parental (jazz giant Henry Threadgill: stepmother Cassandra Wilson)) and lofty music school pedigree to, on paper, back up her craft as a musician. Singing for her ought to be second nature. After last night’s gig in the Commons Room, filled to […]

So you’re sitting around wonderin’ – ice tea or a cold beer near at hand. Not about how in Zog’s name you’re ever gonna pack iPhone heat and still afford to eat regularly. Naw. More outside stuff. Like, suppose Gil Evans, the late great musical genius arranger/composer who sired the Birth of the Cool for […]

Wednesday night I ran into bassist/composer/electronic tinkerer Lukas Pearse outside 1313 Hollis Street – the venue for a performance of a new music composition penned by Pearse. “This is going to be really slow, ” he said in answer to a question about his piece. “Really slow. Quiet.” I noticed a michievous impishness in the […]

If you were planning a night of hushed, introspective sounds Tuesday soir at the Jazz Tent, ya picked wrong, Jacko. What Algerian-born French singer Rachid Taha and his force-of-Nature band of merry men and opening act Kojopresented over the course of the evening was git-up-on-it musical combustion. Hotter than a stroll on the sun I […]

Sunday night. It was a pumped queue, peopled mainly with the “we-live–well” set (all ages), that snaked back from the Jazz Tent along Queen Street heading for Morris. Explanation for the line length? The Holly Cole show had sold out. How long was it? Long enough that you felt, in it, you could possibly, while […]

A chilling word made its way to some of us filling the Jazz Tent to capacity and then some on Spring Garden Road Friday night – a lovely warm summer evening. Headliners. Orquestra Tipica Imperial had somehow lost their way from the airport to downtown. But, we were quickly assured, they HAD made it and […]

Starting Saturday, Graham Pilsworth will be the eyes, and more importantly, ears, at this year’s Atlantic Jazz Festival. Catch all his reports right here at thecoast.ca.

Woke up early (lord knows how) to go to a talk by Karen Kain and a bunch of other dance types at the new Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre. I left midway because I was too hung and I was having an out-of-body experience. If this was an art blog, I’d tell you about a […]

Went down to the Distilllery district (an old whiskey factory turned into an awesome live/work/art/resto area, and things have changed quite a bit. Not a lot of interesting art–I don’t think any of the original artists can afford to have studios there anymore, no doubt a product of its own success–but the old brick buildings […]