brainstorms

Thursday May 26, 2005

random notes: the distillery district jazz festival...

toronto's distillery district is one of my favorite places[1] to visit. this past weekend (and again this weekend) it hosts its annual distillery jazz festival. i was there last saturday, and hope to be there again this sunday. a few quick notes:

mark sepic: caught the tail end of his show at the fermenting cellar; his concluding (abbreviated) flamenco piece was very fluid and moving. he does school shows (and builds instruments on the spot for the kids) so i will recommend it for my son's school.

luluk purwanto & helsdingen trio: very good, energetic electric violin by luluk. interesting phrasing at times, with some indonesian riffs and instruments for added color.

the spirit of jazz: while i was outside waiting for flying bulgar klezmer band, my family enjoyed the spirit of jazz, a tour through the history of jazz (in style) for kids. [next day, my son floored me by asking me to play something jazzy in the car. [we listened to hard and soft bop all the way...]

flying bulgar klezmer band had a scheduling problem but its lead david buchbinder brought in another ensemble. alas, no match for the flying bulgars. there was a huge, somewhat disappointed crowd at the center of the distillery that afternoon... [i had waited for an hour]

mark laver and pete johnston: this duo did an excellent job improvising (bass, sax) to a charlie chaplin silent classic modern times with paulette goddard. an interesting choice [crushing, dehumanizing effect of industralization] and a wonderful idea. my son watched it with the same intensity he reserves for the kratt brothers's shows.

[1] i have no idea how long the district's artsy denial of cheap junk food and other stripmall-grade "conveniences" will last, but i will enjoy it while it lasts.