Corby's Orbit

Corby's Orbit
Listening in All the High Places illustration by John Kricfalusi

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Playlist For Show Of 27 June


Host: Paul Corby

( brought to you by Marriott Nets, Holiday Outs, and Ramada Marauders )

5-7 p.m. online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.com .  Canadians in Asterisk’d RED.

5:00 Paradisiac

*Rival Sons ~ Keep On Swinging ~ Head Down @ Mod Club Thursday 4 July & @ TURF
*Joel Johnson ~ Insanity ~ Blues Joose vol. II NEW DISK VOTE at  http://aboriginalpeopleschoice.com/artist-search/2014/ 


Rick Estrin and the Nightcats ~ Smart Like Einstein ~ You Asked For It LIVE NEW 
DISK (Alligator)

Eddie Clearwater ~ Messed Up World ~ Help Yourself (Blind Pig)

*Troiano feat. Roy Kenner, (18 Sept. 1979) ~ Repossession Blues ~ Bootleggers Choice ~ Live At Dollar Bill's NEW DISK

5:30 Tantricity 

*Rough Trade (20 Jan. 1980) ~ Sexual Outlaw ~ Bootleggers Choice ~ Live At Dollar Bill's

*Carole Pope ~ World Of One ~ Transcend @ Wrongbar, with Peaches, Saturday
Beck ~ Blue Moon ~ Morning Phase NEW DISK @ Sony Center tonight

Funky Lowlives mixed by Stephane Pompougnac~ Latazz ~ Costes Étage 3 

Rickie Lee Jones ~ Coolsville ~ Naked Songs @ Danforth Music Hall Friday, 5 July
Sam Cooke ~ Somebody Have Mercy ~ Live At The Harlem Square Club 1963


6:00 TURF Peace

*Deer Tick ~ Trash ~ Negativity ~  @ TURF Friday

*New Country Rehab ~ Rollin' ~ Ghost Of Your Charms ~ @ TURF Sunday

Tift Merritt ~ Trouble Over Me ~ Bramble Rose ~ @ TURF Friday

*The Strumbellas ~ The Fire ~ We Still Move On Dance Floors ~ @ TURF Saturday

Maxwell ~  Ascension  ~  Urban Hang Suite @ Massey Hall  Friday 5 July

CARTOON BY CHARLES BARSOTTI (Sep. 28, 1933 – June 16, 2014)


6:30 Flavourous 


John Sebastian ~ Red Eye Express ~ The Best Of... @  Hugh`s Room Sunday

*Morlove ~ Relative Chemistries ~ All Of My Lakes Lay Frozen Over

* Grand Voyageur ~ Some Beautiful ~ Fire / Works  NEW DISK

*Jim Fidler ~ Downtown Girl ~Singalongs And Shanties 

Warren Zevon ~ Rub Me Raw ~ The Wind

Tara Williamson ~ Come My Way ~ ndn Summer EP  NEW DISK

Joshua Redman ~ Soul Dance ~ Trios Live  NEW DISK  with a glaze of Toronto Music Listings applied liberally
D*Note ~ Scheme Of Things ~ A Compilation Dorado




Saturday, June 21, 2014

Playlist For Show of 20 June


Host: Paul Corby

( brought to you by Jalapeno Pinatas, Smoking Potlaches and Hoopla Dancers )

5-7 p.m. online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.com .  Canadians in Asterisk’d RED.

Guest: Jasmine Netsena

5:00 Jazz You Wish

Yearnin' Learnin' ~ Earth Wind and Fire ~ @ Sony Center Tuesday, 24 June TD DOWNTOWN JAZZ
Lettuce ~ 4 On 6 ~ @ Nathan Phillips Square Wednesday, 25 June 8:00 p.m. TD DOWNTOWN JAZZ
Roberta Flack ~ Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?  ( Lyric by Gerry Goffin (February 11, 1939 – June 19, 2014 ) http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/20/gerry-goffin-five-of-his-best-songs

Robert Randolph and the Family Band ~ The March ~ @ Nathan Phillips Square Sunday TD DOWNTOWN JAZZ

5:20 For Your Inflammation

*Arsenals ~ Evil ~ @ The Orbit Room tonight 
Foxy Shazam ~ Unstoppable @ Lee's Palace Tuesday
*A Tribe Called Red ~ General Generations ~ NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY SATURDAY
*Tanya Tagaq ~ Rabbit ~ Animism POLARIS PRIZE NOMINEE NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY SATURDAY
NOMO ~ The Book Of Right On ~ Mbira Night tonight @ Island Cafe



5:45 Slipping The Surly Bands

*Miranda Mulholland ~ Bar Rage ~ Whipping Boy NEW DISK
*Poor Angus ~ Something I Can't See ~ Gathering
*Mike Celia ~ Dry Out ~ Falling Backwards NEW DISK @ The Local Thursday, 26 June
LP ~ Levitator ~ Forever For Now NEW DISK ~ in Cleveland tonight


6:05 Ubiquitous Incandescence

*Gathering Sparks ~ Louisiana Blues ~ @ The Tranzac Sunday 7:30 Singalong Soiree ~ BEATLES NIGHT!

*The Jerry Cans ~ Qanuhingittug ~ Aakuluk ~ @ The Tranzac Saturday 9 p.m. NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY SATURDAY

*Jasmine Netsena ~ Hold On / Interview / Sweet Companion ~ Take You With Me NEW DISK @ Free Times Cafe Tuesday, 25 June pwyc ~ VOTE HERE > http://aboriginalpeopleschoice.com/artists/jasmine-netsena/ 



6:25 Penitent Anguish Sheen

Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters ~ Good News ~ Good News NEW DISK

*Jane Bunnett & Maqueque ~ Ain't No Sunshine NEW DISK ~ Opened TD DOWNTOWN JAZZ last night

*Elizabeth Shepherd ~ Born To Be Blue ~@ Musideum Saturday 7p.m. & 9 p.m. & @ Nathan Phillips Square Monday 12 noon TD DOWNTOWN JAZZ


6:40 Question 'n'  Dancer

The Dell Vikings ~ Cool Shake ~ The Very Best Of...

*Jane's Party ~ 'Til You Got Yours @ The R.O.M. tonight for SUNBURN

*JD EDwards Band ~ This House Will Stand ~ @ Hugh's Room tonight for In Cash We Trust


Charlie Parker remixed by DJ Spooky ~ Koko ~ The Savoy Remixes with a cosmic dusting of Toronto Music Listings sprinkled liberally o'ertop




*Clara Engel ~ A Pound of Flesh in Particular Shards ~ Looking - Glass Fire NEW DISK @ Jam Factory Co.
2 Matilda St., Toronto, Ontario at 3:00 p.m. Sunday







Friday, June 20, 2014

Jasmine Netsena and National Aboriginal Day Saturday

Toronto celebrates the Indigenous Arts Festival this weekend honouring the contributions, heritage and future of Aboriginal, Metis, Non-Status and Inuit Canadians...

My guest on the show today will be
Jasmine Netsena, 

She will be appearing at the Free Times Cafe, 8:30 Tuesday, with Missy Knott, 

presenting her debut disk, a finely crafted collection of resonant  country and blues entitled
Take You With Me

I advise you to allow her to do just that




Elsewhere and Otherwise:

 June 20, 6:30 to 10 p.m.; June 21, 2 to 11:45 p.m.; June 22, 2 to 10 p.m.
Location: Fort York National Historic Site, 250 Fort York Blvd.
Festival details: http://www.toronto.ca/fortevents 

- Sunrise Ceremony and Flag Raising, June 21 at 5:30 a.m.
Location: City Hall podium roof, 100 Queen St. W. 

- Na-Me-Res Pow Wow, June 21, with grand entry at noon
Location: Wells Hill Park, 145 Hilton Ave. at Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue West
More details: 416-651-6750 ext. 2233

- Aboriginal History Month celebration, June 26 from noon to 8 p.m.
Location: Yonge-Dundas Square
This event is sponsored by the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. More information: http://www.ncct.on.ca 

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Raffa Dean


I spent two days on Governors Island in New York Harbour last weekend inviting strangers to come and play the Conundrum III, a 13 foot cedar strip canoe covered with rawhide which produces deep drum tones. I was attending the Figment Festival of Interactive Art with my friend, the designer of the drum, David Hynes and drum shaman Adele Passmore. I was so impressed by the participants, young and old, and their reactions to the feeling of drumming communally in an open space.

You can tell a lot about a person's character by the way that they drum. At the crest of a moment, you can choose to either settle in or swing forward. Those who habitually say "you can't push the river" or "it is what it is" will never develop the propulsive and gregarious character necessary to be a great drummer. In Brooklyn, especially, I learned, there is a specific culture of drumming, as there is in other blessed parts of the world, even in Toronto. The trip was illuminating. When I got home, there was an urgent message for me to call Roscoe Christie. It was some very bad news that he had for me.

About Raffa Dean now.

As a constant showman and exemplar of progress and forward energy, our city has benefited hugely from the restless impetus of this Jamaican born Canadian, a drummer, songwriter and singer. After a secret struggle with stomach cancer, he moved on from his earthly mission this past Monday. At the end of a life of creating so much cheerful harmony and rhythm here in Toronto and around the world, the breadth of his loss is still unfathomable to us.

Humourist of the highest order, dancer, Ashanti, father, social critic, Rastaman, raconteur, historian, counselor, spirit guide, fashion icon, musicologist, ventriloquist (he could speak quietly to you from across a noisy room), herbologist, peaceful warrior, significant Canadian ambassador, singer  and  joueur de batterie. Consider the French word: batterie.

Born in Kingston, on the seventh of November, 1959 to a musician father, Keeble, and his wife Marlin,the family moved to Malton in 1975. he grew up among tightly focused musical friends of Jamaican background; he at first  formed a dance group called United Soul with future reggae luminaries Roscoe, Devon and Chunky. The dedication and discipline of this outfit soon sparked an inspiration to play music. Everyone wanted to play the drums, but when they heard Raffa's style, each quietly decided to try some other instrument. His technical skills became so famous in the west end that he was soon called to Montreal, at the age of seventeen, to play drums for the crown prince of reggae, Dennis Brown.

Eventually, the great band Twentieth Century Rebels evolved from this scene, playing importannt Toronto venues and releasing a popular EP Rebelution. The band eventually came to an end, with  Raf choosing to form an ambitious super-group, One Love, featuring the outstanding talents of Tony Campbell, O.J., Charles Sinclair, Bobby Ruglass and a young Michael McClarty. Touring Quebec during the years of Rene Levesque's leadership, when Canadian revolutionary thought was at its peak, the band's liberating reggae message galvanized the Quebecois. 

The demands of the road life became too stressful, however, so Raf began to concentrate on local work in Toronto, backing visiting Jamaican artists with the bands Livestock and Hit Squad. In the mid-eighties, while nurturing Andru Branch's Halfway Tree project, he joined Boncongonistas. Originally formed to study African music, the band soon became a popular dance hall / hip hop attraction with the addition of Mister Metro, Devon Martin, Crash Morgan and the chance for Raffa to come to the front of the stage on lead vocals.                                           

 He continued to answer the occasional call of major Jamaican acts to perform worldwide. He was in Berlin in 1990, playing with Garry Lowe and The Itals, when the Berlin Wall came down. He brought in the nineties for CITY TV in sub-zero temperatures on New Year's Eve with Boncongonistas at Nathan Philips Square. His influence on the music of Big Sugar helped to solidify that band's  reputation as the first successful reggae crossover band in Canada.  When he opened for the Rolling Stones at Maple Leaf Gardens with them, he drew enthusiastic compliments from Charlie Watts for his intriguing command of both the reggae and blues rock idioms.  He went on to found and collaborate with bands too numerous to mention, including Dubmatix,  House Of David Gang, Dreamband, Resinators and most recently FreeDubStar.

As a friend and adviser to the community, he laid up many riches in Heaven, though very few here on earth. He always had an eye on the universal truths, practised humane judgement, reminding us constantly of the heroic context of our shared spiritual journey and quoting the  profound teachings of His Majesty King Haile Selassie I, known as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and The Conquering Lion Of The Tribe of Judah aka Rastafari, and all of his musical disciples.

While staying loyal to his friends, his philosophy and his family, Raffa also lived through some extremely difficult days. Eviction, financial disappointments, the heart-breaking loss of his son Sealand in 2010, a debilitating injury in a hit and run accident and mean-spirited rejection by many of his peers. The pain of his illness and circumstances would have crippled the faith and powers of any lesser mortal. It is part of his legacy that he remained  strong in performance and dignity until the end. I last heard him sing at the Cadillac Lounge in April roaring out the Delroy Wilson classic: "They're trying to conquer me / they never will conquer me."

At a funeral home too small to contain the throng last Sunday, and at a glorious memorial tribute later that day at Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park, his neighbourhood and musical community gathered to play, sing and talk about the great talents and love that he exuded. Every major local performer of Canadian reggae from the last forty years was there.

While his memory is still fresh in our minds, let us turn to his finer thoughts and cherish his example so that we can continue to live upfull and strong, and carry his lessons forward into the future. Go in blessings my brother, Paul Anthony White, aka Raffa Dean.




Saturday, June 14, 2014

Playlist For Show Of June 13


Host: Paul Corby
( brought to you by Raffa Tafari, Jah Ronto and Boncongo Vistas )

5-7 p.m. online http://www.radioregent.com/ and at tunein.com .  Canadians in Asterisk’d RED.

Guests: Fernanda Monteiro y Luisão Pereira of Dois Em Um, Bruno Capinan, Kyp Harness and Andrea Menard

5:00  Second Sky

Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars ~ Seconds ~ In The Name Of Love ~@ David Pecaut Square Saturday



Dois Em Um ~ Saturno / Interview / Matine / Mar Nos Alhos ~ Agora  NEW DISK 

@ Lula Lounge Tuesday 17 June with Bruno Capinan

Dizzy Gillespie (Boots Riley remix) ~ Show 'Nuff ~ Re-Bop: The Savoy Remixes

Rahsaan Roland Kirk (Mocean Worker remix) ~ Siss Boom Bah~ Cinco De Mowo

5:40 This One Was Born In Zion
*Dreamband feat. Raffa Dean ~ Disciples Version ~
 Memorial Tribute to Raffa Dean @ Daniels Spectrum Sunday, 3:00-9:00

Come, let us sing for joy to Jah;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.

Prince Far-I ~ Psalm 95 ~ Psalms For I



5:50 Doing Over The Maximum 

*Kyp Harness ~ Gunpowder + Money ~ Armageddon Blues  NEW DISK / Interview / Start Anew (live) / You're The One (live) @ The Local 29 July

6:20 Azure Like It

*The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer ~ My Paradise ~ A Real Fine Mess @ The Dakota Friday, 25 July NEW DISK


The Black Keys ~ Bullet In The Brain ~ Turning Blue @ ACC Tuesday, 16 September  NEW DISK

6:30 The Medium Is The Music Messenger >>>>>>

*Andrea Menard ~ I Love My Life / Interview / Answer The Call / Shambhala /

 LIFT CD release @ Musideum Monday 16 June w. Robert Walsh and George Koller  NEW DISK

*Tower Of Song / Glenna Garranone & Oliver Swain ~ Unicorn ~ In City And In Forest NEW DISK

6:45 Ways Of Hearing

Mocean Worker ~ Shake Ya Boogie / Tickle It / Ole Baby with a fine dusting of TORONTO MUSIC LISTINGS strewn across them

6:50 Shrapnel Happenings

TV On The Radio ~ A Method ~ Return To Cookie Mountain @ David Pecaut Square tonight

*N.Q. Arbuckle ~ Eternal Father Strong To Save  ~ The Future Happens Anyway  NEW DISK @ Roncy Rocks Saturday 6 p.m. @ Roncesvalles Village











Thursday, June 12, 2014

New Orbit Swirling Into Existence

New music, new vibes and a marvellacious show of convos and live performances galore tomorrow, featuring 
Andrea Menard celebrating the CD RELEASE OF " LIFT " , music full of glowing health and healing @ MUSIDEUM, 401 RICHMOND STREET WEST, SUITE 133,
TORONTO on Monday, June 16th @ 8:00 pm 


Kyp Harness

His new CD has been delivered to Stephen Harper. Take a listen to his stories and imagine what might happen to the head of state, upon his first listen to this:

"Sometimes you turn and wonder / If your country's anything it ever claimed to be."


and Dois Em Um 
from Bahia, The Land Of Happiness and home of the most sumptuous music on earth.






Until that time, by all means, stay tuned to the tunes, and, whenever possible, look up and listen out!