I do an open format radio show on Radio Regent online out of Regent Park in Toronto every Friday from 5 p.m. til 7,called CORBY's ORBIT playing everymusic, so far no Death Metal or light opera but who knows?http://www.radioregent.com/
Illustration by John Kricfalusi
Corby's Orbit
Listening in All the High Places illustration by John Kricfalusi
Ringleader and musical director for song crafters from around the world, Jeremy Ledbetter has finally taken the time to stand up and write his own album, with structural support from Rich Brown and Larnell Lewis, two of the most ferocious musicians in Toronto. The new record, GOT A LIGHT? is surprisingly... beautiful. With a chromatic kaleidoscope of patterns and palettes the songs light off candles and lanterns more than fireworks. Jeremy will let us in on his aesthetic ambitions and his upcoming CD release at Lula Lounge this Wednesday when he syncs into Orbit Friday at 5:15.
And at 6:00, we will hear from inspirational east coast duo Fortunate Ones who have released their second full-length album, HOLD FAST, full of good advice and exquisite harmony, this past month. It's a long rambling road that leads them to Toronto's Adelaide Hall on the 19th of October, but they have a summerful of sunny music to hold us over until then. Brian Gladstone will be live at 6:15 to preview his new disk Brianology, debuting at Hugh's Room Live next Thursday the 13th. Also featuring new music today by Jeremy Dutcher,Wax Mannequin and Willard Bond.
Contemporary vocalist Lenn Hammond, organizer Masani Montague and iconic singer Jay Douglas enjoying the easy vibes at a serious Toronto reggae summit.
In the fifty years since reggae music began to germinate on Canadian soil, the community that supports it has shown demonstrable ingenuity in publicizing and presenting itself to an ever-increasing fan base. Its combination of aggressive street-level marketing, immediate radio support for releases and shows, and collaboration with enthusiastic stores, distributors and artist co-operatives has also set an example for watchful entrepreneurs in other genres of music. Reggae strategies and sounds have always been quickly adopted and deployed, undercutting local reggae’s struggle to be heard as unique and meaningful. Even the word “roots” as a descriptor of music has been appropriated.
What has failed to materialize, to propel these artists beyond Canada since the reggae wave crested in the 1990’s, is the cohesion required to portray a united front to the global marketplace. The predominance of slippery cash transactions, an inured alienation from the musicians’ union and the media, and the dissipation of venues, radio stations and record stores have all served to block the arteries of the music and have, unfortunately, made the once-healthy competition for an audience meaner and more desperate.
Enter Masani Montague, who has long been a distributor of diasporic-themed books and records in Toronto. Her pivotal moment came while attending the Jamaica Music Conference four years ago and realizing that she was the only Canadian there. The open co-operation, the sharing of strategic data and the positive awareness at the event made it obvious to her that there was a different way to effect progress, and that she was going to have to make it happen in the third largest Jamaican city in the world: Toronto.
Ron Nelson and Kwasi Bonsu >>>>>>>>>>>
“It was long overdue,” she insisted, “Should have happened twenty, thirty years ago. It’s easy to make the music but what do you do next? Black musicians have not grown past their local limitations in answering this question.“
So this past month, in the welcoming rotunda of The City of Toronto’s Metro Hall, she assembled a slate of knowledgeable and articulate panelists, grouped according to their field of expertise, including production, promotion, media, branding, copyright and intellectual property, radio, management, grant writing, accounting and book-keeping and women’s issues. With occasional pauses to calm the exuberant social sounds of old friends reconnecting, group after group laid out guidelines for a realistic consideration of musicians’ career goals and obstacles.
The seminars were run tightly and respectfully, (and filmed and compiled for immediate public Facebook review). Among the outstanding voices heard were foundation community radio personalities Ron Nelson and Sweet T., pioneer artists like Jay Douglas and crossover flag bearer Michie Mee, contemporary singers Tasha T., Mel Dubé, Lenn Hammond and Carl Henry, publisher Donna Makeda, reps from flexing nowadays bands The Memberz, House Of David Gang and Freedubstar and entertainment lawyer Lloyd Stanbury, as well as Masani herself.
Michie Mee,. Ron Nelson and Slingshot from King Turbo Crew
Noted attending dub poet / media omnivoreClifton Joseph (below) remarked, “I stand in gratitude
for all these chunks of information and perspectives I’ve picked up, such as the importance of encoding meta data on recordings, and the truths spoken by the women panelists about suppression and addiction. It was a noble effort, and there were lots of possibilities for positivities, but I found the absence of many key players disturbing. Unfortunately it was a pyrrhic victory. WHY? WHERE IS THE PROBLEM?” The non-appearance of many prominent musicians and organizers was remarkable indeed for a free event, centrally located, on two sunny weekend afternoons in April.
“We are challenging at least thirty years of disorganization,” replied Masani, “It is a fragmented audience; some of those who knew about it were skeptical, jealous, some thought they should be doing it instead, and many have just lost hope. Next year the outreach will be broader, with new panelists, new topics, and we will include more of a performance aspect to attract outliers, to create interest and, most importantly, employment for local musicians.”
This year’s concert attraction, starring Jamaican star Nadine Sutherland (left), was held in a west end venue and had very little crossover participation with the conference. During the women’s seminar, however, Nadine’s wisdom and heartfelt discussion of the music’s twin flashpoints of sexuality and spirituality turned out to be a meaningful high point of the weekend, along with Michie Mee’s testimony to the whirlwind days of Toronto reggae in the 80’s:
“It was a bit overwhelming being a 14-year-old and writing a record deal. Not understanding what exactly we were doing, and what platform we had, we jumped bravely into it . We styled ourselves, with the roundaway girls doing our hair, going to Bi-Way, getting the glue, adding a few sequins, practising in the community.
Crack was there – hustlers proud of you, giving me jewellery to wear. There was no management appearing, no one was interested in us, much less in protecting us, ‘cause we were bringing a new genre. We wanted to prove that it wasn’t just disco. It felt really good being a hip-hop artist, but still being a part of the reggae community. I knew I couldn’t write reggae cause it’s a different scene, and spiritual, so, when I was writing and growing up it was hip-hop, but I was bringing the Jamaican funk; nobody else was taking that chance. There were older people actually doing the same things like me but they weren’t documented.” Women's panel Michie Mee, Natasha Von Castle, Nadine Sutherland and Donna Makeda
Kwasi Bonsu, head of the Jamaica Music Conference, attended the entire weekend and remarked that, “If you want to make something vital in reggae, whether you want to admit it or not, you’ll have to come to the source. Come to Jamaica to see how it’s done first.”Must Jamai-Canadians return to the place where they began and know it for the first time? For her next step, Masani has big plans along these lines.
“I plan to take a large group of stakeholders to the Jamaican conference this fall. Until Canadian reggae artists can take on the serious job of creating a strong and united international identity, selling them worldwide is like taking sand to the beach.”
(Originally published in Roots Music Canada) Tasha T. and Lady Sharon
Canadians in Asterisk’d RED. Click on photos to enlarge.
5:00 Amicable Separations
* Ryan Hicks ~ Pulsing Colours ~ Pulsing Colours NEW DISK
* Lindi Ortega ~ Until My Dying Day ~ Liberty NEW DISK
* David Myles ~ Dreaming ~ Real Love ~ @ The Mod Club tonight & tomorrow
The Byrds ~ It Happens Each Day ~Cruising Altitude ~ Byrds Byrds Byrds @ Hugh's Room Live Saturday
5:20 Anima Rescue Mission
* Valeria Matzner ~ Contemporaneo / Interview / Ilusion / Lotus Flower ~ Anima NEW DISK ~ CD Release @ Lula Lounge Wednesday 6 June as part of Lulaworld
Ursula Rucker ~ Lonely Can Be Sweet ~ Silver Or Lead ~ @ Lula Lounge Thursday 7 June as part of Lulaworld
Iggy Azalea ~ Impossible Is Nothing ~ The New Classic
5:40 Mondo Mandolin
* Andrew Collins ~ The Grumpus / Interview / Coming Into Hard Times Blues / The Hat / Banish Misfortune (live) / Just A Gigolo ~ Tongue & Groove NEW DISK ~ CD Release @ Lula Lounge Sunday 10 June as part of Lulaworld
* Michael Bridge ~ Intoxicating ~ Overture NEW DISK
6:00 Alt Control Realities
* Judy Brown ~ He Got Me ~ Say It NEW DISK
Robert Randolph & The Family Band ~ I'm Not Listening ~ We Walk This Road ~ @ Lee's Palace tonight
Hall & Oates ~ What You See Is What You Get ~ Our Kind Of Soul ~ @ ACC Tuesday 5 June
The Heptones ~ Tickle Me ~ Good Vibes
Impact All Stars ~ (Just Another Man) Upbeat Version ~ Forward The Bass
6:30 Aches & Shakes
Illustration by Alex Gross
* Cris Cuddy ~ The Night The Lights Blew Out (In St. John's Newfoundland) ~ Dream On NEW DISK
* Ron Hynes ~ Later That Same Life ~ Later That Same Life
* Miller/McDonald/Cormier ~ Alasdair Na Stòp ~ South Haven NEW DISK
* Joe Bowden's Timeless Quartet ~ There Is No Greater Love / Toronto Music Listings / Take Five
Folk Alliance International executive director Aengus Finnan
A significant, almost suspicious number of folk folks were noticed rootsing around in broad daylight at the Rivoli on Toronto’s Queen Street West on the Friday afternoon of Canadian Music Week. The scoop is that Folk Alliance International will be holding their 2019 Conference at the recently reopened Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montréal next February.
Centered on the theme of The Spirit of Creativity, performances, panels, summits and showcases will host appreciations of the creative spark, and inquiries into its partnership with its occasional collaborators, such as spirituality, addiction and mental illness.
The hotel has been repurposed to include an artisans’ market, high-end, homemade, and bistonomic cuisine, and the au courant fineries of artificial turf carpets, bedroom swing-sets, 1-Gig connectivity and abundant ping pong tables. Attendees will have the option of never having to interface with the furies of a Quèbec February.
Highlight of the week (Feb. 13-17) will be a 50-year anniversary celebration of the recording, by André Perry, of “Give Peace A Chance” – which will take place in the hotel’s Suite 1742 (the same suite number as that of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s iconic Bed-In for Peace). All participants will be included in a Guinness Book-ready performance that will echo throughout the entire building / city / known universe.
At the Rivoli schmooze, FAI executive director Aengus Finnan (top) and Canadian representative Treasa Levasseur (right), artist manager (and FAI programming coordinator) Amie Therrien, Folk Music Ontario executive director Alka Sharma and promotional staff swung and hung with musicians Oh Susanna, Lindsay Ferguson, members of Winnipeg’s The Mariachi Ghost (above), and Brian Blain, along with promoters, producers, and publicists of national prominence. All will be remixed in hi-def when we gather togather again in some serious weather next year. All we are saying is, start learning the lyrics from now:
“Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation, Flagellation, Regulation Integration, meditations, United Nations, congratulations…”
Promoter Ian Davies and artists Brian Blain and Lindsay Ferguson at the Folk Alliance International event during Canadian Music Week.
Originally published at Roots Music Canada; take a second to support them on Patreon!
Today is the beginning of one of Toronto`s great annual sound smorgasboards: Lulaworld at Lula Lounge Two of the most exciting acts on the schedule are visiting the Orbit this Friday.
With the release of her new disk Anima, award-winning Valeria Matzner presents her rich voice in a world-jazz fusion setting. In tunes co-written with her masterful pianist Scott Metcalfe, and inspired by her upbringing in Uruguay, she sets her spirit aloft and free. At 5:15 we will have a chance to sample some tracks ahead of her showcase next Wednesday at 7 p.m. Then, at 6 p.m., profound manifester of complex mandolin compositions and co-founder of The Creaking Tree String Quartet and The Foggy Hogtown Boys, Andrew Collinsbeams in to preview Tongue & Groove, a new disk by his trio, featuring Mike Mezzatesta and James McEleney. They construct brave combinations of bluegrass, folk, jazz, classical and swing. They are at Lula on Sunday, June 10th.
From the outside, the new record by The Young Novelists, In City & Country, is a lyrical
investigation of small town Ontario life and its (in)compatibility with the perpetual,
peripheral option of the big-city escape hatch. However, through the complex motivations that
web these songs, and the architecture of bandshells and old churches, lit by
intently melancholy chordal twists, a fearful suspension of volition becomes
the tonal center and conflict point of the album. Indecision unites the crises
of this bucolic, often gothic collection of characters and narrators.
Open-ended. Evocative.
Literate head novelistas, Graydon James and Laura Spink, have been working on this project “since almost before
the last album (2015’s well-regarded and award-winning made us strangers).” They first had the impetus for it in 2014. A Canada
Council Grant put the idea into action. “It’s been really interesting just to
talk with people about these stories, finding out lots of interesting things,
each unique to its own place. It’s pretty applicable to everyplace you go.”
says Graydon.
“Ridgway (the subject of Back To The Hard Times) has probably
about 1200 people living there, down on the shores of Lake Erie. There used to
be the Crystal Beach Amusement Park from the late 1800’s til 1989. It was
called the Coney Island of Buffalo –a couple of roller coasters, Glenn Miller
Orchestra in the Crystal Beach Ballroom. Now there`s nothing but a breakwater.
At some point it didn`t work anymore and then what do people do?”
there's a broken bike in our backyard /
shouldn't have to be so hard / worrying at that scar is gonna leave a mark /
cold sand on the beach & cold stars, out of
reach you're trying out your speech as the days turn dark
~ Back To The Hard
Times
Something’s
building up: the tension between holding onto the past with one hand and trying
to reach into the future with the other becomes a tangible ache. Problems defying analysis spark the song
titles: “Don’t Wait”, “Now’s The Time” and “I Moved On” advise expedience and
boldness, while the helpless ennui of “All Alone” and “Living Without A Sound”
singe the heart with their hard consequences.
Reconciliation
for these lost voices is ultimately realized within the organically lush sound
of the group’s SoCal-grade harmonies: they arch like parallel lines etched in
infinity, evoking the poignance that the lyrics often understate.
Laura, Simon & Graydon at Radio Regent
James’ reserved
Jackson Browne-tinted delivery supports Spink’s earnest emotional resonance unilaterally
and then flowers like incense flumes in the duets, and occasional sublime four-part
passages. Subtle bends in the songs’ trajectories keep the backgrounds episodic:
engorged with a furious buzz and burr (reminiscent of Neil Young’s White Falcon
guitar) one minute, and reduced to a night bird note or two the next.
“(Guitarist) John Law
takes the most vague ideas I throw at him,” says Graydon, “like"make it
really rock!" or "something like a sonic tapestry" and he makes
up these solos. He has a really great knack for exceeding my expectations.” The
progression on this disk from
folk-roots to folk-rock will pose a challenge to some of their audience.
``You`d be surprised how many people don`t like drums,``smirks Spink.
Outstanding summer jam ``Come Round Again`` will certainly magnetize more new
fans for the Novelists, and their core audience of new-folk bro`s and bae`s, sprinkled
with Mariposa elders who delight in the band`s relevance to the Coldplay
generation, will be throbbed out by the intensified social scope of their
songwriting.
The predicaments they are encapsulating are
of the moment, extending across the societal boundaries that separate city and
country. When you climb inside the music, it summons a quiet remembrance of
your early memories of a moaning church organ. Or is it the thrum an alien
cruiser? And how will it all end?
Find out as The Young Novelists bring In City & Country live to Toronto this week.
* Near East ~ Muzafir / Interview with Near East / Caravan
( live ) ~ Near East NEW DISK~ CD launch @ Small World Music Center Saturday
6:40 Behind The Beyond
Dionne Warwick ~ Promises, Promises (Dedicated to Kathleen, Doug & Andrea) ~ The Dionne Warwick Collection
The Dells ~ I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself ~ The Dells Sing Dionne Warwick's Greatest Hits
Jewels & Binoculars ~ Bob Dylan's Things Have Changed ~ Floater ( Bob Dylan's 77th Birthday Party @ Hugh's Room Live Wednesday & @ The Dakota Tavern Thursday )
And at 6:00, we will hear from inspirational east coast duo Fortunate Ones who have released their second full-length album, HOLD FAST, full of good advice and exquisite harmony, this past month. It's a long rambling road that leads them to Toronto's Adelaide Hall on the 19th of October, but they have a summerful of sunny music to hold us over until then.
