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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qq0a5AvbAE

Whitehorse (featuring Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet) perform at Winter Garden Theatre on February 24, 2012 with very special guest Amelia Curran

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfWEPu0w-7w

MICHELLE
This is Paul being Paul. An instant sing along. This song makes me put the kettle on and prepare tea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKvee-w0uBc

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS
I would easily fist fight anyone who doesn’t like this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a3NcwfOBzQ

ELEANOR RIGBY
Clearly Paul had now become the greatest composer ever to walk the face of the earth. There is empirical data to back up this claim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LOgMWbDGPA

NORWEGIAN WOOD
We all love the sitar, but listen how hard John is attacking the acoustic on this one. The most perfect 2 minutes known to mankind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGufQk9QOdM

Craig Martin is director of Classic Albums Live which performs The Beatles ‘Rubber Soul’ and ‘Revolver’ in their entirety, note for note, cut for cut at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, Friday, January 27, 2012

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfmTSntving

Guest contributor Feist performs a sold out show at Massey Hall with special guest Bry Webb on December 1, 2011

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!

On people talking during a show:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew3AOlbJXos

Trades shirt with a fan:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpf80yl4vB0

“You’re forfeiting your memories…”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi3NItlp2ms

From a Strombo interview Tweedy articulates his view of the tortured artist (watch from :45)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZLPrS1UORk

and because there’s no better man than a family man:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE5baqSyOmk

And just for fun, here are some of my favourite songs, in no particular order:

On and On

How to Fight Loneliness

I Must be High

Pick up the Change 

Reservations

Sky Blue Sky

Someone Else’s Song

At Least That’s What You Said

I’ll Fight

Art of Almost 

Stephen McGrath is Soundboard Editor and Media Relations Manager at Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall 

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)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dwXGmdrQoQ

James Brown – Get on the Good Foot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqvyW_LXC04

Keith Richards – Big Enough (from Talk is Cheap)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUWwloAToSE

Red Hot Chilli Peppers – If You Want Me To Stay (from Freaky Styley) Sly cover

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZtnu9WqT8I

Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Hollywood (Africa) (from Freaky Styley) Meters cover

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syya5A5Dqdo

Dave Matthews Band – What Would You Say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc7HwQXSdeA

solo with George Clinton and P Funk All-Stars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjpGFUiyXtk

De La Soul – I Be Blowin’ (from Buhloone Mindstate)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRX_NaH05kM

Bootsy’s Rubber Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctYOU4U62v4

For a chance to win tickets to his show on Thursday, just let us know what you think and feel free to share links to your favourite Maceo videos that we may have missed in the comments section below - there does seem to be an endless supply of ‘must watch’ clips out there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIqygr9UVrc

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”

Of course, jazz music has an impressive history at Massey Hall. A long list of the genres greats has filled the historic Hall with their incredible music.

Rick Phillips from Sound Advice recorded a podcast (which includes interview snippets with Toronto-based Michael Kaeshammer) about this years Jazz @ Massey Hall series. Check it out here.

What jazz concert at Massey Hall have you seen? We’d love to hear from you in the comments area below, especially if you attended the show in 1953!

Stephen McGrath is Soundboard Editor and Media Relations Manager at Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RR8zDTc0DE

Stephen McGrath is Soundboard Editor and Media Relations Manager at Massey Hall & 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:

The listeners heart races right along with the tempo.

Bahamas has enjoyed considerable critical acclaim, including a JUNO nomination and Pink Strat was named to this years Polaris Music Prize long list – Bahamas plays at Glenn Gould Studio this November, his first proper headlining show in Toronto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A65BbJMCyA4

Stephen McGrath is Soundboard Editor and Media Relations Manager for Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall.

1.) MASTERCLASS – “Like Me”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx8ou9a-Ip8

2.) AUDIENCE SINGALONG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6v508p4f5Q

3.) MUSICAL GENIUS – “with Feist at Mod Club”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8GN_7pXuiE

4.) this one is in two parts – Here he challenges Andrew WK to a Piano Battle…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEBfkh_Dstg

4 1/2) Here is the actual “piano battle” that took place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-nWg6aUsVw

Chilly Gonzales performs at Glenn Gould Studio September 14, 2010