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T.O. Music Pix Newsletter #85: Aug. 6/09
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I'd been out of town for a couple of weeks, so this is a quick note to indicate that the event listings are now being updated again, with a number of August/September (and later) shows. A few items to note:

Excellent music coming up this weekend includes:

  • The Afro-Indian-Caribbean funk of Funkadesi from Chicago playing two shows: tonight at the Lula and a free show Friday evening at Yonge-Dundas Square
  • Kiran Ahluwalia makes a rare return visit to her former Toronto home tonight at Harbourfront. Earlier this year, she won the Songlines magazine award for World Music Newcomer of the Year. (Well, she was more or less a "newcomer" in the U.K.)
  • The fourth annual Mamaya festival, a Guinean tradition which "acknowledges and celebrates the unity of all people", organized by Guinean griot Katenen "Cheka" Dioubaté. The free festival is on Saturday afternoon at the Distillery District, and a launch party ($10) Friday night at 224 Parliament.  http://www.mamayatoronto.com/
  • Tamsir Seck hosts his second annual Senegalese Xawaré drum and dance festival Saturday night at 237 Sackville St. It'll be a late show (probably close to midnight). Tamsir will be performing with Cheka at Mamaya, so he (and you) will have time to get over to his party after Mamaya!
     

Festival season is still on including:

  • Aug. 14-16 & 21-23: Planet IndigenUs at Harbourfront -- and around Toronto. Musical highlights include "Africa meets First Nations" featuring Donné Roberts, Tanya Tagaq Gillis and Digging Roots. Details on the Harbourfront website. (Note: co-incidentally, Songlines magazine from the UK has just published their new issue with three articles on Australian aboriginal music. The issue has been delivered to subscribers, and should be on newsstands sometime this month. See their interactive sampler here: http://www.songlines.co.uk/interactive/062/)
  • Aug. 15: The 7th annual Michezo Festival on Toronto Island
  • Aug. 22-23: African Dance Festival at Yonge-Dundas Square
  • Aug. 29-30: AfriVillage Festival, Bloor St., Ossington to Crawford
  • Note that Bana Y'AFrica festival (scheduled for Aug 14 & 16) has been postponed. Update TBA
     

Also note:

  • Sep. 4-7: the Hot & Spicy Food Festival at Harbourfront features Irma Thomas, Rebirth Brass Band & Terence Simien among others
  • Sep. 12: Two concerts marking Ethiopian New Year's, most notably the pairing of Ethiopian sax legend Getachew Mekuria with Dutch punk-art group The Ex. The pairing was captured in a documentary screened last summer at Harbourfront. Get a taste of their sound here on YouTube. Presented as part of the Wavelength series. Also, at the Opera House: singer Tamrat Desta with other guests including Saba from Jaivah/Nouvel Exposé.
  • Sep. 24-Oct. 4: The lineup for this year's Small World Festival has been announced. The highlight is a concert pairing Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer. That show is also one of the opening performances at the new Koerner Hall, part of the renovated Royal Conservatory of Music
  • Massey Hall/Roy Thomson news: the 2009-10 lineup will be announced Aug. 10. Meanwhile, tickets for Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks Live" concert go on sale the same day. ($95-$250)
  • Lucinda Williams is doing a "30th anniversary" tour with two shows (Oct 10-11) at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The shows span her career, with the first night covering songs from 1979-99.
     

See www.to-music.ca/events.htm for details on these and other shows. More updates to be posted soon.

 

Film: Soul Power - A concert for the ages

What a concert that was!

1974, in what was then Zaire. Three nights, with performers including James Brown, The Crusaders, Celia Cruz & the Fania All Stars (with Ray Baretto and Johnny Pacheco), Miriam Makeba, Franco & OK Jazz, Tabu Ley Rochereau, BB King, Bill Withers, The Spinners, Zaiko Langa Langa, Wendo Kolosoy, Etta James, the Pointer Sisters, Manu Dibango and a lot more...

The concert, was to be part of the setting for the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" fight with Muhammed Ali and George Foreman. This documentary was put together from footage rescued & reconstructed from unused outtakes of the Oscar winning documentary When We Were Kings.

An excellent film and story, now playing at Canada Square (Yonge & Eglinton). Bonuses include some tremendous (sic) fashions, and what must have been one of the great trans-Atlantic flights ever!

See the film's website linked above, and more information and video excerpts are on the Mondomix website. (Note: not all the performers listed above are in the documentary (and Manu Dibango is shown performing on a Kinshasha street with a group of children). Perhaps some of the missing acts will be included in the DVD to be released later this year. Each of the musicians perform one song in the film, except for the star of the show, James Brown who deservedly gets more time. (And don't leave the theatre till you catch his last message to everyone following the closing credits).

Note: at a recent weekday evening showing, there were only 6 people in the audience; perhaps you should catch it while you can!

Here's a YouTube clip of Celia Cruz at the concert (a different edit of the song used in the film). Some more background about the concert is in Gary Stewart's book on Congolese music, Rumba on the River. See this section on Google Books.

 


John Leeson
www.to-music.ca