I love that nobody knows what to call this album. Four? ZOSO? Stairway To Heaven? The album with the old man with a bunch of sticks on his back? Whatever you call it, it remains one of the all time greats. And it’s always been a part of my life.

The album was released in 1971. Its been blaring out of cars and bedrooms since then. Growing up, ‘Stairway To Heaven’ was the song that defined us. Appropriate because I’m not even sure what the lyrics mean. I mean – what the hell is a ‘bustle in a hedgerow?’ I heard ‘Stairway’ on Q10Zeppelin  a couple months ago and it was like hearing the song for the first time. I couldn’t move. All I could envision was the performance at Massey Hall. Over the years I’ve seen countless bands ruin Zeppelin. We’re going to fix that. On April 16 you will see the album performed perfectly for the first time in history. That’s a bold statement but I’ve got the guys to do it.

The first call I made when I started the series in 2003 was to Rick Vatour. I told him about the idea for Classic Albums Live (CAL) and made sure he was on board. Arguably, no one anywhere else in the world can play drums like Rick Vatour. There’s an indefinable quality to his touch that not only mirrors John Bonham – but honours him. 

Dom Polito lives in a world of guitars and amps. The small basement in his house is a collector’s paradise. Every time I go there he has a new sound that he wants to show me: “Here’s the third guitar sound for ‘Rock n’ Roll!” I told him to pack up his entire basement and move it to the stage for the Massey show. He said “of course.”

And Nick Hildyard. July 2003.  My first (CAL) Zeppelin show. Weeks before the show I was scrambling to find a singer that could not only hit the notes but had a deep relationship with the music. I ended up auditioning Nicky over the phone. There was no doubt, he was the guy. He just walked in with The Hammer of the Gods swinging from his belt buckle and began wailing. I couldn’t believe my luck. Nick has gone on to tour endlessly with CAL. He’s been trained as a classical pianist. This is the secret of performing Zeppelin. There’s an orchestral flavour to their work that so many people overlook. Nicky helped me discover this. 

We’re bringing a big band to the stage. There’s a ton of overdubbed guitars (on the album). One of the musicians is upset that he finally gets to play Massey Hall but his only guitar part in the show is to go ‘wee wee diddly diddly’ for ten seconds during ‘Misty Mountain Hop.’ But that’s the CAL way. There are some serious Zep Heads who are waiting for the harmony guitar to go ‘wee wee diddly diddly’. 

Led Zeppelin rule supreme. Their work – the albums – document a band that pursued greatness at any cost. There’s not a bad song anywhere. No filler songs. Every album has a feel and a vibe. In the 70s they were dismissed by the critics – in fact they were hated. They barely had songs on the radio. But they sold kajillions of records and broke box office records wherever they played. They were the peoples band more than any other band and remain that way to this day.

Performing Led Zeppelin’s fourth album at Massey Hall will be a defining moment in many of our lives. This is serious stuff. We’ve proved ourselves with the Beatles and Pink Floyd but there’s something death defying about boasting a ‘note for note – cut for cut’ claim when it comes to Zep. Expect lots of guitars and mandolins and soaring vocals and drums that sound like cannons. Expect song after song of absolute perfection. Expect greatness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tlSx0jkuLM

Craig Martin is director of Classic Albums Live which performs Led Zeppelin IV in its entirety, note for note, cut for cut at Toronto’s Massey Hall on Saturday, April 16, 2011.

Jill Hennessy

So, I’m playing Massey Hall… I just like saying that.

Personally, I still can’t quite believe that it’s happening. Perhaps within the next few days someone will e-mail me with the news that there was some confusion with the booking and that my services are actually required backstage in the green room filling platters with Timbits and Peek Freans cookies – and of course, keeping up the ice levels in the beer tubs.

Seriously, as a musician, I started singing and playing guitar on Yonge St., Queen St. West and the Bathurst and Bloor Subway station beside an incredibly delicious smelling bakery. Playing Massey Hall was (and is) a dream that dared not to be dreamt. Artists I revere have trod upon these boards. Maybe I’ll play barefoot to feel the divine vibes. It’s either that or I’ll wear a pair of insanely high platform heels and run the risk of falling off the stage and crushing a good number of Burton Cummings fans in the first two rows. Either way, it will be an exceptionally exciting evening.

Jill Hennessy is a musician and actress who will perform on Friday (Oct 15) supporting fellow Canada Walk of Fame inductee, Burton Cummings

Randy Bachman

This coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Glenn Gould Studio welcomes the legendary Randy Bachman, for special two-hour live tapings of his award winning radio show “Vinyl Tap”.

His website promises the shows will showcase history unfolding and recreated “from Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul to Gretsch…from echo, flanging, distortion to overdrive – to showcase effects heard on some of the greatest records in the world.”

Truly, a rock n’ roll lecture straight from the source!
All shows are completely sold out but you’re able to hear them on CBC radio one, Saturdays at 7pm (8pm AT, 8:30pm NT) and you can check out previous shows here.

Jann & Midi

Jann Arden is no stranger to funny. The woman who has built a career on baring her soul and wearing her heart on her sleeve is quite frankly, hilarious. I’ve known this about Jann for some time, as does anyone who has seen her being interviewed or has witnessed her unscripted stage banter during one of her concerts. But when she began following Massey Hall on Twitter, and vice versa, I finally caught a glimpse of what it’s like to live inside Jann Arden’s head.

Every day, me and the over 10,000 people following her updates, are kept abreast of Jann’s whereabouts, her ponderings, conversations with herself and the, ummm, habits of her dog Midi, a regular fixture on Jann’s Twitter updates.

Midi, her teeny tiny little dog, often travels with her on tour, loyally by her side on busses, planes and in hotel rooms. You can bet that Midi will be nearby when Jann takes the stage at Massey Hall for 4 shows this month.

Jann & Midi check into Massey Hall January 27, 28, 29 & 30th.

Here are just a few of the most recent tweets by Jann that have made me literally spit coffee out of my nose.

“I am going to shower now. May shave my legs even…Or maybe just one leg and one armpit? Yeah, that’s all I have time for today.”

“I guess I should turn the treadmill on…I’ve been standing on it watching the Food Network.”

“George Strombo is one hot babe…very darling indeed. And also, the dog just peed.”

“Dear Jesus, when I turned 46. I woke up and my neck was gone. Just thought I’d let you know…”

Caroline Hall is the Marketing Coordinator for Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-oaGzyL8Mo

Brooklyn Rider and two members of Masters of Persian Music.

Ancient and refined, Persian classical music remains one of the hidden gems of world traditions – hidden until recently, that is. With beautiful poetry by Rumi and other Sufi poets, soaring vocals, exquisite melodies and powerful rhythms, this music is now winning an increasing number of listeners among classical and world music enthusiasts.

One of the key reasons for this growing audience? The Masters of Persian Music, an ensemble that has produced several sold-out North American tours and a Grammy award-winning CD.

The current incarnation of the Masters of Persian Music (the group has changed membership over the years) is kicking off a thirteen-city, three-week North American tour soon, with a show at Roy Thomson Hall on February 5. This tour, titled “Three Generations,” spotlights the talents of two of the pre-eminent figures in Persian classical music: Hossein Alizadeh, maestro of the Tar (plucked lute) and Kayhan Kalhor, the world’s greatest virtuoso of the Kamancheh (spike fiddle). Also featured is the remarkable young vocalist Hamid Reza Nourbakhsh, the leading disciple of the legendary Mohammad Reza Shajarian.

If you aren’t yet among the burgeoning ranks who have come to appreciate the intricacy of Persian music this show will be the perfect place to start. And if you already are, it’s a rare chance to hear some of the genre’s foremost artists in action.

Alan Davis is the Founder and Executive Director of Small World Music.

Portrait of Mozart painted posthumously by Barbara Kraft, 1819.

Five years ago, when Peter Oundjian was relatively new in his position as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director, he announced the Mozart@249 festival at the TSO’s annual season media conference. He explained that he didn’t think we had to wait until the all important 250th birthday to have an excuse to have a Mozart festival so he was going to get a head start on everybody else. It was rather endearing, although we all knew it was really just clever marketing. But who cares? What’s not to love about Mozart, especially in the dark cold days of January?

Well here we are five years later and the annual January Mozart Festival is so popular that the TSO artistic team just keep programming it – hence Mozart@254. The festival opened last night and runs until January 24 at Roy Thomson Hall and includes appearances by American pianist Jonathan Biss, Canadian soprano Shannon Mercer, the National Arts Centre Orchestra under its conductor Pinchas Zuckerman, and even a program with Canada’s favourite “Mountie,” actor Paul Gross. Of special note are the January 20 and 21 concerts with a roster of world-class female artists in a program devoted to the women in Mozart’s life; it will feature conductor Jane Glover, pianist Imogen Cooper, violinist Anne Akiko Myers, and violist Teng Li.

Will there be a Mozart@255? Well we will have to wait until next week’s season launch announcement to find out. But with over 600 compositions, there is no shortage of Mozart repertoire. In the meantime, come down to RTH over the next two weeks and enjoy some of the world’s most beloved music.

Heather Clark is the Director of Marketing and Development at Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4fc1cQI2Q

I hated New Year’s Eve when I was growing up.

The enforced frivolity drove me crazy and every emotion seemed fake. After midnight, when the horns had been blown and the noisemakers had been discharged, I would wander around the party muttering to anyone who would listen, “Well, do you feel any different? I sure don’t.”

I swear one of the reasons I got into show business was to have something I could stand to do on New Year’s Eve. Producing comedy shows at my comedy clubs gave me a context for my fun. Then, when Massey Hall approached me to produce a “comedy extravaganza” nine years ago, I leaped at the chance. Surely there was an audience who wanted to laugh – without being totally liquored up – in an august environment, a place that had been a venue for some of the greatest comedians of our time?

This has been a show comics have begged to be a part of, and why not? It’s not just the best gig in the city, it’s the best gig in the country. My problem is to choose from so many worthy candidates. To do my job properly requires me to be a chef for the evening.

Let me explain.

Over the course of the evening I’m serving a multi-course “meal,” and that means I’m taking the audience on a journey. As with any well-planned feast, the courses should not repeat themselves, and all the food groups must be represented.

The main course is the host, who introduces the show and keeps it moving in between acts. The host should be funny and well-known. This year, the host is Gerry Dee, whom everyone knows from his third place victory in Last Comic Standing and his comic sports commentaries on The Score. Gerry has been selling out mid-size theatres in Toronto, so he should be familiar to a large part of the audience.

The headliner is another important course. It’s an important job to end the show – you need to be very good to make people laugh after they’ve seen a half-dozen acts – and this year, Nikki Payne will easily do the job. Nikki has also been on Last Comic Standing, but she’s been making waves lately guesting on a lot of TV shows.

I like to err on the side of intelligence wherever possible, which explains my choice of Glen Foster, also known as “That Canadian Guy.” A veteran of Just for Laughs, Glen is your man if you’re looking for news and social satire in the manner of Jon Stewart or Bill Maher.

It’s important that the evening reflect Toronto’s multicultural traditions, and who better than Kenny Robinson, founder of the urban comedy movement, to do just that? We’ve also got to have at least one woman included, and besides Nikki there’ll be Jen Grant, a Vancouver comic who’s been living in NYC. I like to book one wild card every year, too: if you liked Andy Kaufman in his prime, wait until you see Terry Clement! Rounding out the show and with strong youth appeal are Rob Pue, Mark Forward, and Sam Easton.

And so our comedic “meal” is complete, capped off as the cast assembles on stage to sing “Auld Lang Syne” with the Jaymz Bee Combo. It’s the after-dinner mint, and I hope to share it all with you at Massey Hall this New Year’s Eve.

Mark Breslin is the founder of Yuk Yuk’sand Producer of the annual New Year’s Eve Comdey Extravaganza at Massey Hall.

Conductor Roberto Paternostro

Did you ever think it was possible to watch Mozart’s Papageno in the Magic Flute prance through the forest looking for his Papagena, and the very next minute become entranced by Calaf in Puccini’s Turandot performing Nessun Dorma? It didn’t even occur to me that I could until I found out about Bravissimo! Opera’s Greatest Hits.

The beauty of Bravissimo! is that it gives you a window into all styles of opera. There are irresistible excerpts from some of the most famous arias ever composed – Carmen, Samson and Delilah, La Giaconda – and from many of opera’s other canonical pieces. The aforementioned Magic Flute? Possibly the best instance of opera comique around. Madama Butterfly and Turandot, meanwhile, cover the romantic end of the operatic spectrum. And with my university days now behind me, I must say I’m happy to brush up on some literature with a bit of Victor Hugo and Alexander Pushkin – novelists who have also shared their words in operas such as Rigoletto and Onegin. The combination of score and libretto can bring everything from countryside romances to political revolutions alive.

As an intern for Attila Glatz Concert Productions, I’ll have the opportunity to get a sneak peek during rehearsals this week, before the big night. I am looking forward to seeing how the singers switch musical styles from one opera to another. (I’ll be tempted to join in, but knowing my singing skills I should probably leave that for another time!)

It’s the opera performance even the most timid neophyte can love. And just maybe, you might hear an extra voice in the audience singing along. That’s the beauty of the Bravissimo! effect.

Mijana Veljkovic is the Marketing and Communications intern for Attila Glatz Concert Productions Inc., which is co-producing Bravissimo! Opera’s Greatest Hits and New Year’s Day Celebration: Salute to Vienna with Roy Thomson Hall.

Ivars Taurins as Herr Handel. Photo by Johnnie Eisen and courtesy of Tafelmusik.

The world is a funny place, and this year I found myself in the position where I was the one ordering those same posters for Tafelmusik, and negotiating the signage for the subway ad campaign as Tafelmusik’s Marketing Coordinator. From the day I started working here I’ve been Messiah crazed, in fact, coordinating the advertising campaign for a Toronto tradition that I have yet to see!

Tafelmusik’s Messiah concerts and Sing-Along Messiah are the heart of Tafelmusik’s Toronto performance season. We have an audience of dedicated Sing-Alongers who have been coming annually for as many as eighteen years. These dedicated followers stand in line outside Massey Hall in the cold, sometimes for hours, to ensure that they get the seats they want with their friends and family. We handed out flyers recently at Union Station, and had people thank us for reminding them to buy a ticket. That’s what really convinced me there has to be something magical about this – being thanked for a flyer!

I had the pleasure of escorting Tafelmusik Chamber Choir Director Ivars Taurins to the radio station to record the on-air advertising for the Sing-Along. He slipped into the Maestro Handel character like he was meeting an old friend, with the ease and familiarity that only comes from years of shared history. All of the staff are alight with anticipation, and everyone has a story about “one time at Sing-Along….” One of our dynamic box office duo even has an annual Messiah party!

Most people who come to the concert already know what to expect, but first-timers like me need to know that seating is by general admission, and divided into voice parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. (I’ve been told that there are always too many sopranos and not enough tenors.) You’ll need a score with which to sing along, which you can buy at Massey Hall on December 20, but if you aren’t a singer don’t fret – you don’t have to sing if you don’t want to!  Also, the performance is of an abridged Messiah, one with all the best parts and in which the audience sings all the choruses. If you want to delve even deeper into the wonderful world of the Sing-Along Messiah, here are ten tips for enjoying the show.

This week I’ll hear the choir and orchestra in rehearsal, and hear first hand the music that brings 2,700 voices together each year to rejoice. And on the big day I’ll be there at Massey Hall, in a Santa hat handing out candy-canes, sharing in the excitement of the line-up and audience. And, finally, I’ll understand what the Sing-Along Messiah is really all about!

Laura Hagglund is the Marketing Coordinator of Tafelmusik.

Photo courtesy of: John Beebe of John Beebe Photography

There’s definitely no place like home for holiday music. Home to Toronto are an array of Christmas concerts — some are new, but others, such as Nathaniel Dett Chorale’s “An Indigo Christmas…,” return every year.

As is tradition with this holiday concert, now in its 11th year, the chorale performs at the Glenn Gould Studio.

The 21-member chorale will perform a blend of contemporary and traditional compositions, featuring carols, spirituals and folk songs.

While the concert retains its main “An Indigo Christmas…” concept every year, its theme, repertoire and guest performers are different. For example, in 2008, the concert’s theme was ‘great joy.’

The founder and artistic director of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, founded the chorale in 1998, naming it after acclaimed African-Canadian composer R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943).The chorale’s repertoire focuses on Afrocentric music that includes classical, gospel, jazz, folk, blues and spiritual genres.

For more on the Nathaniel Dett Chorale and its founder, click here.

The “An Indigo Christmas… In Silent Night,” concerts will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 16 and Saturday, Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $39 and are available by calling Roy Thomson Hall at 416-872-4255, or online at www.roythomson.com

Q&A
~ With Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, founder and artistic director of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, talks about “An Indigo Christmas… In Silent Night.” ~

Q: What makes the concert such a popular one for audiences?

A: I think that Christmas is a time when many people want to hear good choral music. It puts them in the mood to celebrate. The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, for 11 years, has offered a varied assortment of seasonal Afrocentric music, including guest artists our audiences might not otherwise hear. An Indigo Christmas has quickly become for many people a seasonal ‘not to be missed’ event.

Q: What are some of the songs included on the repertoire list, and why did you choose them?

A: There are African folksongs including “Tambokenu Mwane” and “Nama Emonate”; a suite of traditional Christmas spirituals including “Rise Up,” “Shepherd,” “What Month Was My Jesus Born In” and “Shout for Joy”; a gospel version of “Mary Had a Baby”; some vocal jazz arrangements of traditional carols including “The Coventry Carol” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”; and some contemporary arrangements of spirituals including “Children, Go Where I Send Thee” and “Rockin’ Jerusalem.”

In addition the jazz duo Joe Sealy and Paul Novotny will offer selections from their brand new CD entitled “Songs” and from their recent [Christmas] CD. “The Man in the Red Suit.” I chose this repertoire for the variety of mood and styles, and the diversity of rhythm and tempo. There is also a storytelling component that overarches the entire programme.

Q: What is the inspiration behind this year’s concert?

A: “In Silent Night,” subtitled “A Christmas Vignette in Pastel” was the inspiration for the programme.

Q: How did “In Silent Night” come about?

A: A few years ago the Brazeal Dennard Chorale, musical colleagues of mine in Detroit, released a Christmas CD entitled “In Silent Night,” which was how I got to hear the piece. The idea was born then to create an intimate, acoustic programme centered around a child of hope born in the still of the night. Daily children are born reminding us that we are all children at heart, reminding us to be hopeful, reminding us to ‘turn away from rancor and come the way of friendship’. My friends in Detroit were willing to share several selections from their CD that are now out of print, and around which I could build a programme similar to but quite different from theirs. And so “An Indigo Christmas… In Silent Night” was born.

Q: What can audiences expect this year?

A: Audiences can expect an intimate yet lusty concert that will take them on an emotional sleighride from introspection to toe-tapping, sending them into the rest of the holiday season with a heart-warming glow.

This piece is cross-posted at 680 News.