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Volume 5 Issue 7 - April 2000

  • Text
  • April
  • Toronto
  • Theatre
  • Choir
  • Symphony
  • Bloor
  • Arts
  • Orchestra
  • Singers
  • Musical

20 CONCERT NOTES Hear &

20 CONCERT NOTES Hear & Now continued from page J 8 abroad. Born in Moncton, NB, as a young woman she studied in England with Ralph Vaughan Williams, and later with Bernard Wagenaar and Arthur Benjamin. She taught composition and was senior lecturer at U.B.C. from 1947-73, and received honorary doctorates from U.B.C. and Concordia. Jean Coulthard's sonatas for solo instruments with piano, chamber works, and dozens of song cycles are among the most often requested scores from the CMC. A major achievement was the large-scale opera "The Return of the Native", based on Thomas Hardy's novel, on which she worked periodically from 1956-79. Although never realized in full production with orchestra and proper staging, fortunately the composer got to hear a workshop presentation a few years ago. On·May 3, the Talisker Players pay special tribute to Coulthard, giving her "Three Sonnets of Shakespeare" on a concert of music for voice and string quartet titled "The Best and Fairest May". Also A~OtkM-as&HtID_~ programmed are works by two of. Coulthard's teachers - Vaughan Williams' "'Merciless Beauty" and Gordon Jacob's setting of Blake's "Songs of Innocence" . Other composers include: Malcolm Arnold, Peter Warlock and Toronto-based Andrew Ag et. The vocal soloists are Margaret Evans, soprano and Doug MacNaughton, baritone. David G.H. Parsons is Ontario Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre. Tel: (416) 961-4057 Fax: (416) 961-7198 E-mail: ontario@musiccentre.ca One of my favourite Billie Holiday recordings is of a song called "It's April In My Heart". Thanks, Billie, but the real thing is here, we've all survived another April Fool's Day and spring is in the air, complete with young men's fancies turning. High on the list of this month's attractions is an Oscar Peterson concert at Roy Thomson Hall on the 11th at .8pm. It is the occasion of the world premiere of Mr. Peterson's Trail of Dreams Suite and he will be performing with his quartet and a chamber orchestra. After the nightmare of · his aborted Swing Night tour last fall, at least this dream will come true. (Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St. 872-4255. to 5.) Two jazz flavoured events will take place at Massey Hall. April 7 at 8pm Sweet Honey In the Rock will present a program of spirituals, hymns, gospel, jazz, rap, reggae, traditional African, doo wop & blues. Then on April 15 and 16, again at 8pm it's the turn of the Afro-Cuban All Stars - Big band sound of 50s Cuban music. (Massey Hall, 15 Shuter St. 872-4255. Both concens .50 to .50.) April 29, St.Andrew's United Church in Markham presents the second concert of their current series. The Pat LaBarbera Quartet is the featured group. Pat is best known for his tenor and soprano playing, although he does play all the reeds and flute. He is one of the busiest and best players on the Toronto Jazz scene, as well as having played for Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Louie Bellson and Elvin Jones. He is also a music educator at Humber College. (St.Andrew's United Church, 32 Main Street North, Markham. .00 (Seniors/Students .00). (905) 471-7027.) Guitar lovers, who tend to be picky, will be interested in the New Guitar concert on April 28 at 8pm at the Heliconian Hall in Yorkville. This concert will include James Brown and Justin Haines (dueling modern jazz guitars). Also on that evening is the Connor/Pomes duo (classical voice and IV. Jazz Notes BY JIM GALLOWAY guitar). (Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave. in Yorkville. Tickets .00 and .00, students/ seniors. Available at diJor or call 252-4792. More info at www.newguitar.net.) Both Humber and U .of T. get in the lists again and both concerts are on the same date, April 5 at 8pm. Humber Music Jazz Series has a Night of Big Bands. (Lakeshore Auditorium, 3199 Lakeshore Blvd. West. 675-6622 ext.3427. ,.) University of Toronto Faculty of Music presents another evening of Small Jazz Ensembles. (Walter Hall, 80 Queens Park Cresc. 978-3744. Free.) In club happenings this month a highlight, especially for piano aficionados, is the appearance, April 11 to 15 of Fred Hersch in a duet setting with bassist Don Thompson. Hersch is one of the most gifted of the young pianists on the contemporary jazz scene and if you are not yet acquainted with his playing, don't let this opportunity pass you by. If you are familiar with his playing, you'll be there anyway. (Montreal Bistro, 65 Sherbourne Street. 363-0179. Cover charge.) Lots of jazz fans are, not surprisingly, collectors of recordings. The average listener has a humble, basic collection of his or her favourites. There was a time, of course, when one could actually keep track of new recordings as they were .released. Those were the good old days. Nowadays there is so much 'product', as it is called in the business, that it is impossible to keep up with the volume of music being released. The CD has become a sort of musician's calling card. More about that another day. · I am not an avid collector, partly because I don't really care to collect avids, but I do have a reasonable, eclectic collection of recordings, including, largely for reasons of nostalgia, some few 78s that I actually shipped from Scotland when I left those fair shores for the ones here. Serious collectors are quite a different matter, scouring the globe, as if for some holy grail, tracking down rare 78rpm recordings which are, truth to tell, probably available on CD! But, and any discophile will be quick to agree, it is not the same as an original Bluebird pressing! Anyway, if you fit the description, you might want to know that the Twenty- Ninth Annual Canadian Collectors' · Congress will take place Friday, April 28- 30th, 2000 at the Ramada Plaza Toronto Airport East, 1677 Wilson Avenue, Toronto. It's a conference for record collectors and discographers/researchers interested in ragtime, vintage jazz, blues,gospel and Canadiana. Comes the 78 revolution! For more information contact Gene Miller 416-231-4055. Happy spring listening, but make sure that some of it is live music. They call it gloomy Tuesday Jim Galloway reflects on a rollercoaster week Since writing the accompanying rather tranquil jazz notes for this month's WholeNote, a great storm of media attention has buffeted the ojf-then-onagain Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, of which I am the Artistic Director. My partner, Patrick Taylor and myself, · did a great deal of heart searching before making the decision, announced at a press conference on Tuesday March 21, that we were cancelling this year's event. Sponsorship dollars were simply not there in sufficient quantity to ensure the quality of the festival. So it was indeed gloomy Tuesday as I went that evening to the Montreal Bistro, where I was playing with Junior Mance. (I was reminded of the story about the horse who goes into a club, goes up to the bar and the bartender looks at him and says, "Why the long face?") Continued, page 22

1/Public Llbraries·in ihe'GrA ·· All· Ch'apters) 3ookstores .. .. All Festival Cinemas ·· ·· ·. HMV(mostlocations) •.' Long&.McQuade (most Toronto ' D~wntowi( . .·· . ..· ·• . · · ···· Art Gallery of Ontario, 31TDuildas S · ·· L'Atelier Grigoriari; 7o Yorkvilie Ave. ·.·· · .... •·. ·· Canadian Music Centre, 20 St. Joseph$t. .Canad ian Opera Company; 227 Fron ·· Casa Loma, 1 Austin Terrace . · ·. · Church of the Tra6sfiguratiori; ii1 M Gienn Gould studio, 250 Front st:w. .·. Har.l,lour{rontCentre , ·.:< ·• ·· •· .·. Metro Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St · MusicGallery, 179 RiChmond St. W. · ·. ntario Tourist Board, (Eaton Centre) .. . cim The Record Man, 347 Yonge St .. . har Music, 26 Cumberlarid St. t.James cattieqra1;55 Church · t. Lawrence ceritie for the Arts Centre · 227 Bloor urch,3S3 H ;2iOBloor II /

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