Clad in spandex and sparkle, the Toronto Blues Society’s new chair,stepped onstage and used her silvery brocaded wingspan to hush down the crammed crowd at Massey Hall last Friday night.
She then proceeded to introduce the 37th annual Women’s Blues Revue.
Ms. Wint began her hosting duties by acknowledging the guidance of outgoing TBS president Derek Andrews, and by delivering a warm dedication of the evening’s music to the memory of the beloved Toronto keyboardist Stacie McGregor, who has left us just recently.
A crackling introductory fanfare, appropriately entitled “Fire”, showcased all of the musicians’ major skill sets, including sweet vocal harmonizing by star bassist Angelique Francis and gritty guitar wrangler Selena Evangeline. Then the band, under the direction of first-call sax ace Elena Kapeleris, settled into a simmer on Church House Blues, the title track from the most recent album by Crystal Shawanda. Last seen swirling up a storm on the closing number at February’s Maple Blues Awards, Crystal, the pride of Manitoulin, arrived in a floor-length mermaid shawl and marveled aloud at her opportunity to shake up the grandest hall in Toronto with some blues. She then demonstrated, with her musical guarantee, how wang dang doodle would indeed be pitched – ALL night long.
Next up, the Revue’s former music director, Rebecca Hennessy, who stepped down two years ago to devote more time to her solo career and motherhood, returned to the show as one of the featured headliners. She arrived with trumpet in hand to sing some songs from her Joy Will Find Us album from this past year and one selection from her next. Her innovative and lyrical approach to her intimate compositions warmed the audience and provided her and her horn cohort with some peak blowing time. In the crucial footwear category, which tended, amongst the singers, unanimously towards heels, Rebecca emerged at this point early in the evening, as the clear champion with her magnificent sparkle boots. She closed her set by debuting “Loading Docks and Fire Escapes,” drawing on the emotions of a
touring musician, which she recently composed with pianist Jesse
Whitely, for release in 2025.
A long-time favourite of T.O. audiences, Ms. Tanika Charles, in a black bowed babydoll, emerged into the spotlights next, and immediately commanded the room’s attention with her lit personality and her passionate authority in delivering a song. She got down soulfully into the fever of her closing number, “Endless Chain,” until, at the crescendo, guitarist Emily Burgess stepped into the gap and ripped one of the most powerful and propulsive solos of the evening, startling many, waking up some basement blues ghosts, and inspiring a wave of applause that might have wobbled the walls of a smaller venue. “It was fun to play,” she commented brightly afterwards.
Tanika Charles. Photo by Johnny Max.
Emily Burgess photos by Paul Corby and David Hynes
Intermission was abuzz with amazement at the high caliber of the
musicianship and the variety of styles on display up to that point in the program. The merch table was aflame with vanishing swag as Johnny Max loudly hawked the product ringside – “Hot Blues here! Get it while it’s hot!”
Then Kellylee Evans strolled onto the stage, using her conversational Caribbean insouciance to immediately shrink the hall down to the size of a cozy kitchen, and directly connecting with all of us at once. She explained this superpower with her origin story: “I’m from Scarborough.” Her summery dress and open red strap heels neatly served to temporarily divert us from the unexpected raging firepower of her voice. A wilding of the blues took place at her hands as she sauntered around the stage, locking in tightly with the band. Her voice ranged from pillowy soft to clenched resolution in a rapid succession of moods and stances. Ms. Evans closed with the title track from her recent EP, Show Love, which she will be unpacking further on an upcoming two-weekend tour of Ontario and Quebec, culminating in her Hugh’s Room Live debut on Friday the 13th of December, where she will unveil a new record, Winter Song.
Kellylee Evans photo by Johnny Max
Quisha Wint, in shimmering black, returned to the stage to provide us with a detailed and respectful profile of each of the all-star musicians who had been so diligently picking and chopping away all night. Following that, Diana Braithwaite entered the ring in her sky colours, ready to lay the blues down for good and all. She began by summoning the libidinous lyrics of Slim Harpo’s classic song through a gender change to represent herself as the buzzing Queen Bee. She proved her point well, and went on to introduce a special surprise vocalist – Quisha Wint! Together the two blues veterans made a lot of chemistry happen, weaving lines together along with some intense posturing and, on Diana’s “Wonderful Train” song, setting keyboardist Jenie Thai free to do
her amazing rhythmic thing, meanwhile cueing some intense
harmonica chatter from Angelique Francis WHILE she continued to hold up the sublime bass presence that she had maintained throughout the night.
Quisha Wint, Jenie Thai and Diana Braithwaite. Photos by David Hynes and Paul Corby.
When it came to the closing jam on “Dust My Broom,” everybody onstage was ready to dig into the groove, providing every blues fan in the room with big smiles and some chair-rocking delight, (although, to my knowledge, no one got up to dance). Emily Burgess brought it all home with some expert and elegant finger-picking slide work.
When all was said and done, there was still more to come. All of the singers returned to the stage to take it to church with a newly meaningful rendition of “Let It Be.” Rising over these “times of trouble” full of “broken-hearted people” the ladies allowed that there was “still a light,” and this proposition was delivered with such intense whispers and howls and moans, and with such unanimity, that we were made to believe that perhaps, as this event proved, the sisterhood might indeed be right.
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