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Volume 10 Issue 5 - February 2005

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • February
  • Jazz
  • Theatre
  • Arts
  • Symphony
  • Orchestra
  • Musical
  • Ensemble
  • Baroque

JAzz Notes by Jim

JAzz Notes by Jim Galloway IN JANUARY I visited NYC for APAP (the Association of Performing Arts Presenters) and to attend meetings of Jazz Festivals Canada. It was an opportunity to meet with other festival directors, plan, exchange ideas, talk to agents, artists and, not least, be in New York. Since childhood I have been attracted by the" Apple" through movies; even now the "big city music" sound tracks of old films with Manhattan as backdrop get my imagination going. I made. my first visit to NYC soon after I arrived in Canada. I drove, and can still vividly remember my first distant view, parked by the Hudson River, of its soaring skyline. There was, and is, a buzz about the place - an awareness of being "where it's at". Like all the great cities of the world, New York is wonderful to walk in. One of the joys of city walking, whether in New York, Paris or London, to name only a few, is to look up at the myriad of fascinating architectural details to be found well above eye level. T6 On that first visit not everything torontdart sbouncil about my dream city, as it turned out, was inviting. My first cup of coffee was a terrible letdown tor a lover of espresso. (Things have improved over the years, and I probably just didn't know where to go.) I remember a taxi driver saying to me "You can find everything you want in New York - and everything you don't want!" I'll concede there was, and ' is, as in every big city, a dark underbelly. But the jazz was great! The Village Vanguard, The Village Gate, The Five Spot, Eddie Condon's - only a few of the hot spots that ma,Oe New York the jazz centre of the world. I was too late, even then, to catch The Metropole, that once-famous bar where the musicians stood in a row on a narrow ledge behind the bar. Many of the jazz greats lined up behind the bartenders at The Metropole - an unfamiliar view for most of them! By the time of my first trip, the Metropole had succumbed to changing values and become a strip joint. (I didn't go.) Years later I was fortunate enough to play in some of these shrines of with trumpet teeend Clark Terry and TNr TOONTO MLL-STH IG MND FEB. 19, 2005 2PM GEORGE WESTON RECITAL HALL TICKETS: - (416) 231-5695 TORONTOALLSTARBIGBAND.COM the music I love - Jimmy Ryan's, Condon's and Sweet Basil. At Ryan's we played until 2 o'clock in the morning and still had time to catch the last set at Condon's. Manhattan was a late night happening place. But things have changed. In recent years the place has been 'cleaned up'; the strip joints, 'specialised' movie houses and adult book stores have disappeared from Times Square. In fact it is almost too sanitised nqw, more like a Disney franchise than the city I first saw all those years ago. This last trip I spotted another trend - early nights. The night we arrived, our flight was delayed because of bad weather and it was 9:30 before we checked in at our hotel. We had to turn around immediately and head out to Dizzy's, the new club in the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle. Why? Because there were two sets by the Eric Reid Trio and the second performance began at the same time as we arrived at our hotel. By 11.00pm the trio was finished for the night! And this js not an isolated case. A look over the club listings shows a very similar picture at major Manhattan jazz rooms with 7. 30 rather than 9.00pm being start time during the week; even Saturday night at the Iridium Club was all over by 1.00 in the morning. WWW. THEWHOLENOTE.COM New York isn't the only city where the music goes round and round at an early hour. Jazz clubs in Tokyo start proceedings at 7 .30 so that business men, for example, can have a night on the town and still get home by 11.00. Whatever the reasons, late night 'hangs' are the exception rather than the rule. I wonder if the trend will make its way to Toronto. In any event, early and late, here are a few Toronto events worth getting · out for - even on a winter's night. Wednesday Feb 2 at 8pm, the Humber Music Jazz Series will teature artist in residence, bassist Dave Holland with the Humber Studio Jazz Ensemble. Host for the evening will be Ross Porter. Every Monday in the month the Jazz.FM91 Sound of Toronto Jazz Series at the Ontario Science Centre features student ensembles from York, Mohawk, Humber and U.of T. It's an opportunity to catch som future stars in a concert setting. Wednesday Feb 23 at the Glenn Gould Studio, Duncan Hopkins and the The Canadian Staff Band will present a programme called Red & Brassy. With Duncan will be Roy Styffe, alto sax; Adrean Farrugia, piano and Anthony Michelli, drums. There are some pretty 0 decent happenings on week-ends as well. The Hummingbird Centre will present Pat Metheny on Friday Feb 18, while on a more traditional note, Toronto's longest running trad club, Grossman's Tavern on Spadina will have its Second Annual Kid Bastien Forever Kick-Ass New Orleans Jazz Party featuring The Happy Pals. Oh, by the way I'll be at the Bistro on Monday 7th with the Echoes Of Swing band. Following the New York trend, we start at.8pm and finish at 11 ! Happy (live) listening. For details on the local live jazz scene see IN THE JAZZ LISTINGS Featuring some of Toronto's best jazz musicians with a brief reflection by .Jazz Vespers Clergy Sunday, February 6 - 4:30 ROB PILCH and LORNE LOFSKY, guitars Sunday, February 20 - 4:30 ROSEMARY GALLOWAY GROUP Christ Church Deer Park, 1570 Yonge Street (north ot St. Clair at Heath St.) 416-920-5211 Admission 1s tree. on page 51 An offering 1s received lo support the work ot the church, including Jazz Vespers. FEBRUARY 1 - MARCH 7 2005

HUMMINGBIRD SWAN-SONG On OPERA by Christopher Haile At the COC press conference on January 18, General Director Richard Bradshaw announced the 2005-06 season which, hard to believe, will be the COC's last season in the Hummingbird Centre. With the new ballet-opera house scheduled to open in June 2006, there was a sense of both valediction and anticipation. In the past the COC has had to rent productions from other companies. For 2005-06, however, all seven operas presented will be the COC's own productions. Fall 2005 will see three rather than the usual two operas. First on September 22 is a new production of. Verdi's Macbeth designed by Dany Lyne, directed by Nicholas Muni and conducted by Richard Bradshaw. Next is the COC's first production of Bizet's Carmen in eleven years. Third is the rarity of the season, Handel's 1725 opera Rodeli11da designed by Dany Lyne. directed by Tim Albery and conducted by period expert Harry Bickett. Many of the leads in these productions are unknowns discovered by ·Bradshaw during auditions in Europe last year, a year, Bradshaw says, when he heard a remarkable number of extraordinary voices. The winter season beginning January 30 will consist of only one opera-Wagner's Gbllerdi:immerung, the final and longest opera of the Ring Cycle. As for all the operas in the Cycle, Michael Levine will be the designer and Lotji Mansouri Bradshaw will conduct. This time Tim Albery, who directed an acclaimed Ring Cycle of his own for Scottish Opera in 2003, will direct. Frances Ginzer and Christiann Franz return as Briinnhilde and Siegfried, and John Fanning is Gunther. In spring the final two operas in the Hummingbird Centre are Bellini's Norma (a revival of James Robinson's fine production starring Ukrainian soprano Elena Prokina) and Alban Berg's Wozzeck (a revival of. Michael Levine's production starring Pavlo Hunka. who has recently shown his versatility in Toronto as Verdi's Falstaff and Wagner's Hunding). In a suitable gesture of farewell to an era, former COC Artistic Director Lotfi Mansouri will return to direct Wozzeck. As for the COC Ensemble, Bradshaw said there were so many outstanding applicants he had no choice but to increase its size. The work that will showcase their talents in December will be Mozart's The Magic Flute . CONTINUES NEXT PAGE TOK ONTO 0111\tTIA Wi &J@no S:Uva·tldlrin kN.mrJ (;ef11:'ff('"f(.l:t n1e rhythms and melodies of the Spanist1 capital art; as-sequctive a$ the Barber l1imself - naughty, P&5slonate and cAl-pantic al! at once. y,',, , / . LJ,,7 * ·- " "'"rta11 Ell'J$ W

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