I haven't taken in much jazz yet during the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival so I decided to treat myself in high style and visit the Jazz Bistro - that gorgeous space on the former Senator site for their Sunday brunch show.
It was so wonderful to see Micah Barnes in performance with a trio that included his brother Daniel Barnes on drums. I took a workshop with Micah a while back and if you read that blog post you will know I think he's the cat's meow! His two sets talked about that ever popular topic love - new love, infatuation and then the wrinkles of love...I had never seen Micah perform before and he is utterly delightful - sweet, sly, funny and wise.
To add the cherry on top - the fabulous Jackie Richardson sat in for a few numbers in the second set. I enjoyed myself so much I'm going back next Sunday. 12:30 show time in case you're interested.
I can't tell you how much the workshop meant to me - still thinking of taking some more private sessions. I encourage all performers to take one - check out the Singer's Playground website.
The Jazz Bistro has a lot of great stuff going on - last night the featured artist was Ranee Lee and they are also hosting Molly Johnson and Roberta Gambarini - will try to make that one too.
Luminato was also going on last week and I took in the free performance of "Dance, Lhasa, Dance" at David Pecaut Square. A great cast of musicians, singers and dancers paid wonderful tribute to songstress and composer Lhasa - taken from us too soon. Our friend Joyce from Vancouver who is at the Chan Centre at UBC has booked them for the upcoming season. Wow.
We also took in the Atom Egoyan directed Chinese Opera at the Macmillan Theatre. Fascinating.
On Thursday I am excited to say I will be going to hear Gregory Porter at the Enwave Theatre.
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