Friday evening featured a lot of good music. I’d attempted to take in as much as possible, hitting up Yellowbelly, Martini Bar, Dusk Ultralounge, Fat Cat and The Majestic Theater.

Despite Matt Anderson being the most popular event of the night, I was left singing a Rowdy Blues song entitled “All I Want Is To Travel” all of Saturday afternoon as I ran errands. You can check them out here.

Also on tap for Friday night was The Lori Cooper Band. My girlfriend quite liked Lori Cooper as well and being that she’s local (Cooper) we’ll probably be making the effort to see her again from time to time. She kind of reminded me of those silly people who just love to dance, sing and carry on… always smiling while aiming to make you laugh and enjoy life.

Rowdy Blues at the Majestic | Photo: Colin Peddle

Rowdy Blues at the Majestic | Photo: Colin Peddle

Lori Cooper at the Fat Cat | Photo: Colin Peddle

Lori Cooper at the Fat Cat | Photo: Colin Peddle

Tidbit time: Lori played keyboard for Thomas Trio and Red Albino, who in my opinion are creators of one of the best songs in Canadian history with “142 Thru”.

Dominic Mancuso at Dusk Ultralounge | Photo: Colin Peddle

Dominic Mancuso at Dusk Ultralounge | Photo: Colin Peddle

Dominic Mancuso at Dusk Ultralounge | Photo: Colin Peddle

Matt Anderson at the Majestic | Photo: Colin Peddle

Matt Anderson at the Majestic | Photo: Colin Peddle

Matt Anderson at the Majestic | Photo: Colin Peddle

Lots more pics from Friday night’s goings on here

This afternoon I was looking forward to hitting the deck at the Martini Bar after work to check out Funky Dory as part of the Wreckhouse Jazz & Blues Festival. The sun was out, the deck was filled…my camera battery was dead.

So much for trying out that new lens. That’ll have to wait until tonight.

I’ll just have to tell you that it was a great set and the crowd was loving it. I’m really going to have to make an effort to go out and see Funky Dory next time they play in town. The high energy tunes make you want to “get up offa that thang and dance ’til you feel better.”

I’ve been looking forward to this week for quite some time now. Especially to see Alex Cuba (who I missed at the Junos), Richard Underhill and the Worst Pop Band Ever. Getting to check out local groups like Funky Dory, Mopaya, and Chris Kirby reminds me that we’ve got some pretty great stuff on the go here.

Between now and Sunday evening get out there and take in what you can. Now that my camera battery is charged up, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

The Wreckhouse International Jazz and Blues Festival kicked off last night at the Majestic Theatre. Tonight it kicks into high gear, featuring a dozen acts across six venues. This trend is set to carry on throughout the week and into the weekend.

There’s afternoon and happy hour performances happening all week, too.

You’d be hard pressed not to find yourself taking in some of the Wreckhouse this week.

Not sure where to start or who to see? I caught up with local musician John Clark, who’s playing a set with Chris Kirby at the Yellow Belly Thursday night, and he tells me Creaking Tree String Quartet, who are playing tonight and tomorrow night at the Yellow Belly, are not to be missed. Like really, he insists, don’t miss it. I’m gonna take his word for it.

Rounding out the weeknight lineup, Clark’s a big fan of Treassa Levasseur, Shawn Beresford and the Soulution, and Keith Hallet. For the weekend he suggests The Patrick Boyle Trio, Rowdy Blues, Matt Anderson, and Morgan Davis.

For a complete rundown of the Wreckhouse who what when and where, check out their full schedule, available here.

Skylarks are birds known for their singing, but there will be no singing for this new group of Skylarks, in fact, it’ll be purely instrumental.

Even though it looks like an Idler, walks like an Idler, and smells like an Idler, tonight it’s a Skylark. Made up of band members from the Idlers, the Skylarks will take stage for the very first time tonight at the Grapevine.

Sexy Sax man, Chris Harnett, says to expect “all-instrumental ska, jazz and reggae. Some original material, but mostly from classic ska artists like The Skatalites, Don Drummond, Ernest Ranglin and Sound Dimension.”

This is perfect timing, since the city has recently been jazzed up by the Wreckhouse International Jazz and Blues Festival.

Check out one or both of their sets tonight at the Grapvine starting at 10 p.m., no cover!

And if the idea of a free show doesn’t convince you enough, how about the possibility of seeing all those musicians up on the tiny Grapevine stage? I’m collecting bets now as to how many times the trombone will whack other band members… 3? 4?

Infamous. Audacious. Unpredictable. The Shuffle Demons. The musical highlight of the festival for me personally was seeing this band . Back in the early 90s they played at my school and it was probably one of the events that spurred me on to take up saxophone. It’s years later but the band was as fun as I remembered. The bar was at capacity for a good portion of their set and the crowd was just loving it. The show even included their trademark conga line which found its way out onto George Street during Spadina Bus, including a few spins through Sal’s Pizza and some crazy dancing by drummer, Stitch Wynston.

Halifax based band, Gypsophilia had a late start to the night after their ferry was delayed for 6 hours in North Sydney. They play gypsy jazz with klezmer, funk, classical music, indie rock, and bebop all mixed in. Even though there was an extended break in between the Shuffle Demons and Gypsophilia, people stuck around, which was great to see. The crowd enjoyed their ecclectic sound which got a lot of people moving. The band was also asked to come back and do an encore set Sunday night.

Friday night saw me squeezed into the Fat Cat to see Carlos del Junco. The bar was packed with people all waiting for the main event. It was hot but Carlos’ playing was even hotter. He’s won the Harmonica Player of the Year award at the Canadian Maple Blues Awards seven times out of the awards’ 12 year history. Makes a person wonder if, like Robert Johnson, he might’ve stood at the crossroads and sold his soul to the devil for his harp playing abilities.

Playing a ten hole diatonic harmonica, Carlos has developed the unique ability to play chromatically by using a recently developed “overblow” technique which is truly impressive. Before too long he had the crowd whipped into a frenzy. On top of some amazing harp playing he also took the odd turn at vocals.

A highlight for me was Heddon Tadpolly Spook, a cartoon-inspired sounding piece that got stuck in my head for ages the first time I saw Carlos play years ago.  If you missed him this time around be sure to not make the same mistake twice.

Day/Night Three for me started off with seeing the Grammercy Riffs at Dusk. There’s already been a post with some great photos so I won’t double up.

I popped over to the Yellow Belly Brewery afterwards thinking I’d be just in time to catch the Patrick Boyle Trio but it seems they were running late. While waiting around I struck up a conversation with guitar player Nathan Hiltz. Turns out that we very likely went to the jazz band camp at Acadia University together in the mid-90s. What a small world. I’d just missed his band, the Griffith Hiltz Trio, play and I felt bad for not getting shots of them so here’s a pic from their press kit instead.

Turns out Pat was running late due to an earlier gig at Holy Heart. Better late than never, I say.

I made a short stop into Dusk and caught a couple songs by Kirsten Price. There’ve been some great photos and a review done of her set so I’ll just say that I was really impressed. Wow.

The Martini Bar was the next stop, where I was introduced to The Brandi Disterheft Sextet. Only in her twenties, Brani is probably the hottest bass player in Canada right now. Her debut album won the 2008 Juno Award for Traditional Jazz Album. Her set was a real mix of sounds that I fully enjoyed. The sassiness of vocalist Terra Hazelton. The smokin’ tenor sax of Chris Gale. The swinging bass of the band leader herself. They had it all.

Kevin Breit, guitarist for Sisters Euclid, sometime collaborator of Norah Jones, Bill Frisell and many others, gave a workshop on improvisation at the Martini Bar this afternoon, and had the room gaping dumbly at his ridiculous chops for an hour and a half. There was lots of time for questions, and he gave sound advice on all things extemporaneous, from how to “assassinate” one’s inhibited self upon taking the stage, to all sorts of technical theory stuff. The best answers were the ones where he simply said “oh yeah, I can show you that,” before diving into yet another genre and turning it on its head. Nice guy, mean guitarist.

Sisters Euclid play tonight at 9:30 at the Martinti Bar, followed by the Brad Jefford Quartet, as part of the Wreckhouse International Jazz & Blues Festival.

[photo via http://www.flickr.com/photos/penner/ / CC BY-SA 2.0]

On Wednesday, the first set I checked out at the Wreckhouse Jazz & Blues Festival really wasn’t jazz or blues at all. Local folk group, The Once, were impressive as always though. Their laid back performance style and tight harmonies were a great fit for the atmospheric Yellow Belly Brewery.

During the break between sets I stopped by Dusk to see The Idlers. The dance floor started off pretty empty but these guys got people up on their feet before too long. Their set was the usual high energy “reggae circus” people have come to expect from the band.

Then it was back to the Yellow Belly to see Cadence, a Juno-nominated four piece a capella group from Ontario. I’ve loved vocal jazz groups ever since my high school days so I was excited about this one and they didn’t disappoint. Their great vocals, instrumental imitations, beat-boxing and incredible stage presence really won over the crowd.

The other day I mentioned on Twitter that I was interested in checking out some Wreckhouse International Jazz and Blues Festival. Very quickly I had a few friends message me and recommend checking out The Bad Plus. So I did.

First of all, allow me to preface by saying my jazz knowledge is limited to Richard Cheese, so don’t expect me to be incredibly technical.

The Bad Plus is a unique band, head to toe. Different sound, different style, and a curiously distinct sense of rocking out. They have no trouble jamming until their fingers bleed or capturing the audience’s attention with a stunned silence. When they hit a good rhythm they rock it suberbly and it is not a performance I will soon forget. But I have to say I walked away from this show with a mixed opinion.

I hate keeping my thumbs from the up or down position entirely, but believe me when I say when they were amazing when they hit a good song, like David King’s Anthem of the Ernest (off the “Suspicious Activity?” album), but mostly incoherent and confusing when they played pieces like Mint by Ethan Iverson (off the “Prog” album). I couldn’t wait for that song to finish. It was very difficult to understand.

Don’t read into Prog the wrong way though. Reid Anderson’s song Giant, also performed last night, was from that album and another one of their amazing tunes.

The problem with some of their music was that if they didn’t tell you song names you would assume they were a high school band class, each instrument trying to outperform the other rather than working together. Those few songs were an improvizational mess. This problem made much of their music confusing.

But I can’t hang them out to dry, they were redeemed with popular covers like the “electronic masters” Aphex Twin or Rush’s Tom Sawyer, except jazzified.

For the spectator who would get bored watching three stationary instruments for a full show there is the drummer, David King, whose drumrolling theatrics is enough to entertain for a show of its own.

As a band that came highly recommended, I’m disappointed. As a band I knew nothing about, I’m impressed. These guys tour the world so they are doing something right, I just can’t quite figure out what it is.

Photos by Phil Hann