Njacko & Friends: supporting Bazou at the Gladstone, May 12

This is the third annual fundraising event for this project to raise much-needed funds for Njacko Backo’s childhood school, École St. Albert Le Grand in Bazou Cameroon. The school, which receives no government support was lacking in so many basic facilities, that Njacko and his wife Valery, on visiting in 2009, decided to embark on a 5-year project to help. In the first two years, they raised over $8000 for which helped with building rehabilitation, latrines, soccer equipment and music instruments. This year, the goal is to raise $8000. For more about the project, click here The annual Gladstone event … Continue reading

Some event notes

See the newly updated event listings (www.events.to-music.ca), for details of these and many other shows. A few items of note: The Lula Lounge has a number of interesting shows coming up: “world jazz” on Friday nights (early show before the salsa takes over) including& Haitian roots (Feb. 24) & Mexican jazz (Mar 2) in the next couple of weeks Benefit for the Peruvian migrant workers killed recently in that traffic accident. Mar. 1 Akwaba Dance Company, Feb 26   Batuki Music Society with a couple of shows to watch for: The first of an “Africa Up Close” series in the … Continue reading

Njacko Backo: Children’s camp, Children’s book- Aug. 22-26

Summer’s not over yet.  An opportunity for kids… Garrison Creek Art Centre’s African Safari, August 22-26 Njacko returns to the Garrison Creek Art Centre for a one week summer day camp where children will sing, dance, play music, and make an African animal sculpture! For photos from previous summer camps, and to see other camps being run this summer, please look at their website: www.garrisoncreekartcentre.ca. For registration and more details, please contact garrison-creek@sympatico.ca See the full gallery on Posterous   Njacko’s 1st Children’s Book: Baki and the Magic Egg/Baki et l’oeuf magique Njacko’s first bilingual children’s book Baki and the … Continue reading

May 21: “An Evening (and afternoon) for Bazou”

On Saturday, May 21, Njacko Backo & Valery Woloshyn are hosting their second benefit for École St. Albert Le Grand, the school Njacko attended as a child in Bazou Cameroon. The money raised from last year’s event provided some urgently needed infrastructure repairs to the school, and also funded the purchase of some traditional African instruments. This year’s event will help provide sanitation facilities including the rebuilding of latrines and construction of a handwashing station. This year, there are two different events. The afternoon (3-5pm) is a children’s event with  Soli & Rob with Alistair Ant!, Marni’s Move-in Music, Bellwoods … Continue reading

Event notes

Event listings (www.events.to-music.ca) have been updated. A few upcoming shows of note: Tonight (May 6) a rare chance to see music from Equatorial Guinea featuring Anastasio & Zalang Band in a free show at the Melody Bar, Gladstone Hotel. 1214 Queen W., 7-10pm. Part of “Gladstone World” co-presented with Batuki Music. Details on Facebook May 7-15: Toronto Jewish Film Festival. As Hot Docs winds down, this winds up, and it always features some music-themed films. This year’s include: “The Three Lenny’s”: a series of films featuring and about Leonard Cohen, Leonard Bernstein and satirist Lenny Bruce. Also, look for The … Continue reading