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T.O. Music Pix Newsletter #59: June 20/08
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In this issue
1.Hot Summer Music, Part 1
2. Books
3. RIP, Bo Diddley

 

1. HOT SUMMER MUSIC TIME - Part 1

This summer is shaping up to be as good as it gets here for world and roots music. The events page listing is as long as it's ever been, with details of shows, links about the artists, etc.

But to get an idea just how impressive it is, check this page that lists just some of the great names playing Toronto over a one month period.

A few performances that have been announced relatively recently include: Pete Seeger, the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Rachid Taha, Ronnie Spector with Darlene Love & Merry Clayton, as well as the lineups for Afrofest and a partial lineup for Bana Y'Afrique festivals.

Tonight is the full launch of the Toronto Jazz Festival, which includes the best lineup of world and roots music it's carried in years.

Other big names coming in the next month include: Al Green (woops, he was last night's kick-off to the Jazz Festival), Dr. John, Blind Boys of Alabama, Pinetop Perkins, Gilberto Gil, Sergio Mendes, Salif Keita, Van Morrison, and...

And, besides the two African festivals, other free goodies include: most Harbourfront shows through the summer, including such great shows as: Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Orchestra Baobab, plus a lengthy list of performers at Canada Day events (including Jackie Richardson & The Cougars, "Journey of the Canadian Fiddle" with Anne Lederman, and Martha Wainwright). Also a big lineup on Canada Day Queen's Park (Kobotown is the house band for the day!).

Details of course are at http://to-music.ca/events.htm; below are a few notes and links about some upcoming performers:

Dr. John (Jun. 20, Toronto Jazz Festival)
"With each passing year, it becomes more evident that Mac Rebennack, aka Dr. John, is America's premier roots musician. This is not negotiable". -- Josh Alan Friedman, from Tell The Truth Until They Bleed: Coming Clean in the Dirty World of Blues and Rock 'n' Roll. See book note later in the newsletter.

 

"The Grand Divas of R & B" (Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love & Merry Clayton) (Jun. 21, Toronto Jazz Festival)
In the same book, the author recalls his brief romantic and professional life with Ronnie Spector (formerly of the Ronnettes, and formerly married to Phil Spector). He met her at Doc Pomus's apartment (see note below on Books), an event that "resulted in a breakneck romance that sucked every minute of my life for four months. Ronnie was Godzilla disguised as Gidget. Doc helped me regain my sanity in the year it took me to recover." The details of his time with her is recounted in a chapter entitled "Mr. Nobody".

Merry Clayton is best known for her powerful background and accompanying vocal on the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter". On this YouTube clip, you can listen to the original, set against a powerful collage of still and film images of the Vietnam War background the song was a part of. Starting about 2:45, check Merry's voice finally breaking (and Mick's reaction) on the third chorus repetition, "Rape! Murder! It's just a shot away..."

 

Pinetop Perkins (Jun. 26, Sound Academy)
Earlier this year, Pinetop won a Grammy for the album he did with David "Honeyboy" Edwards. It might have been one of the most appropriately named albums in some time: Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas. Edwards was 92, and Pinetop will be turning 95 this July.

There is a profile of Pinetop in the current (and final issue)  of No Depression magazine. Here's a little clip taken at his 94th birthday party. (The camera operator seemed a bit more unsteady than Pinetop).

 

Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko CD Release (Jun 28, Hugh's Room)
Jayme is a Canadian banjo player who went to Mail to explore "the African Routes of the Banjo". Mansa is a kora player and griot from Maili. Their new CD, Africa to Appalachia, is a wonderful evocation of that continent- and ocean-crossing musical connection. You can see a video here of them playing the Malian classic, "Jarabi" at Hugh's Room last summer, and listen to some of the CD via this e-card.

As they were last August (photo on right), they will be joined by singer Katenen "Cheka" Dioubaté.

 

Sergio Mendes (Jun. 28, The Music Hall)
He's been playing bossa nova, jazz, funk for decades. And here's proof: A 1967 video of him in town at the (then) O'Keefe Centre in a show titled, "The Rock Scene: Like It Is".

 

Salif Keita (Jun. 29, Jazz Festival)
Nothing else to add. Watch and listen to "Folon".

 

Jun. 30: Lee "Scratch" Perry
A Yahoo biography says, "Some call him a genius, others claim he's certifiably insane, a madman". A huge figure in reggae and one of the inventors of dub. And where did that dub sound come from? He recounts the story in this interview:

Well, I used to watch some sex films, what you call blue films. I used to buy those films for myself in England and everywhere, and watch those blue films when I was in my studio. Then, because of that, the music have to be sexy to turn on people, to make them want to dance, and to make them act like they are fucking. That’s how the dub come into it, because the dub is really a part of sex; it’s a sexy kind of creation. Sex in your thought and sex on your mind, and when you go to sex a girl tonight, you put all that in the music and call it dub.

 

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 (Jul. 2, Harbourfront) (photo, right)
Last summer, Fela's youngest son knocked everyone out with a masterful performance on the same stage. Astoundingly, I've heard from someone who saw him there, and again a few months ago, that he is much better now. A must-see show for African music fans... and FREE. Here's a video clip from 3 years ago.


 

Orchestra Baobab (Jul. 3, Harbourfront)
One of the greatest African bands ever (and still). And FREE. A video of "Nijaay" from 2004

 

Grupo Vocal Desandann (Jul. 4, Hugh's Room, plus Afrofest, Jul 5-6)
One of my favourites: gorgeous (mostly) acapella music from this Cuban group, all of whose members are descendants of Haitian immigrants. Here's a short video collage of their recent performance at the Art of Jazz festival here. To get a better sense of their sound, visit their CD Baby page which offers 2 minute clips of all the songs of their 1999 CD, Descendents.

Their Hugh's Room show will be with Jane Bunnett.

 

Afrofest, Jul 5-6
The twentieth anniversary of the largest African music festival in North America. Three stages of free music over two days, crafts, workshops, food, beer and sun. Pretty hard to find a reason not to go.

This year, besides Desandann (above), features two different nominees for recent BBC World Music Newcomer Awards (Dobet G'nahore from Ivory Coast and Mayra Andrade from Cape Verde), along with new Senegalese star Fallou Dieng, four different performers from the African Guitar Summit (playing with their own bands), and many more. All performers and links are posted here: http://to-music.ca/events.htm

 

Pete Seeger (Jul. 6-7, Hugh's Room)
The first Toronto appearance in years by this giant of American music. My clearest memory of him was a rare (and famous) TV appearance on the Smothers Brothers show in 1967 (and 1968). Seeger had a new song, "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy (and the Big Fool Says to Push On)". The clear political message (and connection to President LBJ) kept many record stores from carrying it. So he accepted the Smothers' invitation to perform on TV for the first time in 17 years... but CBS cut that song. (It was carried in Canada, on CTV). Eventually, publicity forced them to relent, Seeger re-did his performance and it was broadcast a few months later.

You can watch it on this clip, which includes a medley of American war songs. Seeger's account of the story is here. He can still perform the same song... nothing seems to have changed.

 

Alejandro Escovedo (Jul. 7, Mod Club) (and Buddy Miller, Jul. 14)
Two "artists of the decade" will be playing in town, a week apart.

No Depression magazine, the main publication for the Americana/alt-country scene for many years has just published its final issue, featuring on the cover, guitarist, singer and producer Buddy Miller, naming him their Artist of the (still only 3/4 complete) Decade.

Miller has put out a series of excellent albums over the years, produced Solomon Burke's recent and excellent Nashville album, and can often be found playing guitar with Emmylou Harris. (At his last Toronto show, in 2005, he said with amazement, that he'd "pay to be able to stand on stage every night, hearing that voice come out of the monitors".) This summer, he's playing guitar with the Robert Plant/Allison Krauss tour (at Molson Amphitheatre July 14). Here's a video of the three of them singing together. And, in keeping with the war themes mentioned previously, here's a music video of his version of "With God on Our Side".

Ten years ago, in 1998, the same magazine named Alejandro Escovedo their artist of the 90's. The reason for that decision early in that decade, was fear for Escovedo's health and life. However, he recovered, is still around, and will be playing in town on July 7.

 

Master Musicians of Jajouka (Jul. 15, Phoenix)
Small World Music is bringing back this amazing group from Morocco who perform "the oldest music on earth" (William S. Burroughs), led by Bachir Attar, part of the Attar clan who may have been making this music for 4000 years. Her's some video.

 

More news to come; much more music to come....

 

2. BOOK NOTES

I included two quotes above from a recommended new book, Tell The Truth Until They Bleed: Coming Clean in the Dirty World of Blues and Rock 'n' Roll (paper), a series of profiles of music figures, wriitten by Josh Alan Friedman, and published by Backbeat Books.

Its lead chapter, a very lengthy profile of Jerry Leiber (half of the great 50's-60's songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller) is worth the prices of admission alone -- certainly for those with any interest in the pop music scene of the day, how it came about, its stars, low-lifes, gangsters and everyone else.

The book also has a chapter on the great songwriter, Doc Pomus, "For me, Doc Pomus' loss to New York City was worse than losing the Statue of Liberty." Others profiled include Mose Allison, the hard life of Tommy Shannon,  David "Fathead" Newman, and others. Here's a review of the book.
 

Previously, I had highly recommended the Doc Pomus biography, Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life & Times of Doc Pomus. The book is now out on paper. Just as highly recommended, for a lower price!

 

3. RIP, BO DIDDLEY (June 2)

A true original, and one who never got his due. Here he is, alive and rocking. That's "The Duchess" on second lead guitar.

 

John Leeson
www.to-music.ca