From the category archives:
One of the best parts of working at the Halls is getting a sneak peek and enjoying great music by some of this country’s greatest songwriters. We’re pleased to share the experience with you with the video, below, we filmed early this Fall of Whitehorse performing an acoustic version of the track “Killing Time is Murder” from their debut self-titled EP.
DNA. These songs are in all of our DNA. I love the Rubber Soul / Revolver time period. It was like something was rumbling. We knew change was coming and The Beatles lit the flares.
Here’s a quick selection of my 5 favourite songs from Rubber Soul and Revolver. Please note, I could change my mind an hour from now.
NOWHERE MAN
The vocal intro freezes you in time. The guitar solo sounds like space travel. John sings like a young man who realizes he’s getting smarter.
I was a longtime fan of the Constantines, a band I went to see lots of times over the last 10 or 12 years. I remember once I climbed down into a volcano in the Canary Islands with their album Shine A Light on my walkman, which I felt was an apt right soundtrack.
I saw Bry play a couple songs solo at a songwriters’ night maybe 8 years ago and was absolutely blown away by the power of the Cons being all the more potent from being delivered so quietly by the one guy. I felt like I was seeing Bruce Springsteen Nebraska or Jeff Buckley, or Dylan, but of my own time. Anyway, that one show of his was a massive influence on me and he’s finally made a solo album.
I’ve been a fan of Wilco‘s music since AM was released. I’ve probably seen them a dozen times in many incarnations. At The Horseshoe, in-store at HMV on Yonge, Molson Park, ACC among them. I even saw Wilco at The Bluebird in Denver while they toured that first album – playing Uncle Tupelo songs to fill out the set. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to this week’s pair of Massey Hall shows. Though they are fantastic in virtually any environment, to me, they are a band most suited to this kind of concert venue and there’s no doubt these shows will be a highlight of the concert season for many in attendance.
By now you’ve likely seen the video that has been circulating of Jeff Tweedy covering the Black Eyed Peas. Below, we’ve compiled our current 5 favourite YouTube clips of Tweedy/Wilco in anticipation of the bands arrival in our humble Hall.
Enjoy!
The “funkiest saxophonist on the planet” returns to our world this Thursday with a show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on the CNE grounds in Toronto. There is no question the man has earned his legendary status nor can you dispute the quality and diversity of his collaborations. Here, we’ve compiled a list of our favourite YouTube clips of Maceo Parker performing with some pretty epic performers and legends in their own right including James Brown, Dave Matthews Band, De La Soul, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
James Brown – Get it Together (live from the Apollo)
James Brown – Get on the Good Foot
Keith Richards – Big Enough (from Talk is Cheap)
If you ever search “Jazz at Massey Hall” on Twitter, you’ll notice that multiple times a day, every day, people are listening to and praising that Greatest Jazz Concert Ever. “The Quintet” performed on May 15, 1953 – Dizzy, Mingus, Max Roach, Charlie Parker and Bud Powell all together on the same stage. This was the first and only time these jazz heavyweights ever performed publicly together and was said to be the last “recorded meeting” of Parker and Gillespie. The recording itself was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and is regularly referenced and name checked (such as it was on HBO this past season on an episode of Treme for example).
Even as recently as this season, during the first concert in our Jazz @ Massey Hall series (the Chick Corea Trio), bassist Christian McBride tweeted:
“An AWESOME night in Toronto last night. I love that town. It’s hard to play Massey Hall and not think of Bird, Dizzy, Bud, Mingus and Max. - 5:30 AM Oct 6th, 2010 via web”
Sound Advice on Soundboard: The Seasons Project Podcast
Click on the above link to hear the latest Sound Advice on Soundboard podcast by Rick Phillips. This edition features the award winning Venice Baroque Orchestra and violinist Robert McDuffie. Together they perform in Toronto (on Tuesday, October 26, 2010) The Seasons Project – Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons followed by Philip Glass’ The American Four Seasons.
For further information go here and here.
Guest contributor, Rick Phillips is a classical music writer, teacher, producer, broadcaster and tour host, based in Toronto.
About a decade ago I would sit in the window seat at a coffee shop called ‘Kalendar’ on College Street almost daily. Refill upon refill I’d down the spiced coffee while talking about life and music with other musician regulars. It became a sort of unspoken home away from home and a place of solitude and inspiration and represented the endless possibilities of our futures.
Much like the river in Bruce Springsteen’s accomplished work of the same name, it represents a centering point; and here, for his character (said to be originally written for his brother) a place that he could come back to throughout the many triumphs and challenges that come along in life. A place that symbolized hope and freedom and promise and passion even while staring in the face of personal and even economic hardships.
And though the character in his story realizes that “the river is dry” he is still lured to that place of his younger, optimistic self as a way of connecting with that hopeful spirit that keeps him going….
We all need that place. Even though I rarely find myself in that corner window seat any longer, I still use it as a landmark in my personal timeline, often remembering and learning from those conversations and individual moments so long ago now.
In this weeks Listening Booth, we recommend listening to the story, which unfolds in Bruce Springsteen’s The River. We are honoured to welcome the Boss and the world premiere of the documentary titled The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town with its gala screening as part of TIFF this Tuesday evening at Roy Thomson Hall.
You know when you just get caught off guard? You get sideswiped by a melody so infectious that you can’t help but pay attention? “Already Yours” off of Pink Strat, the debut record from Afie Jurvanen, the musician known simply as Bahamas, is one of those tracks. The brilliant thing, lyrically, about this particular composition is that the restrained storytelling perfectly and subtly reveal layer upon layer of complexity. It’s effective in its sparseness, conversational tone and echoing in contradiction of that feeling of closeness, yearning and persuasion.
Then you’re introduced to a single note kick drum beating, gradually progressing into what sounds like a heartbeat matching the music and melody to the personal tone of the story. As he begins to explain the intricacy:
CONTINUE READING >
Chicago
February 04 2012
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Jim Cuddy Band
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Brandi Disterheft
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