Settled In Shipping

Here's my first attempt at video-blogging. A couple of weeks back I got a guided tour of the new Montreal Jazz Festival exposition from ...

Given my well-documented geekery for all things Stevie Wonder, there was absolutely no way I was going to miss this latest edition of the SF...

It's a rarity that I get to perform on a real piano with this band. Thanks to Claude Thibault from SortiesJazzNights  for the quick uplo...

After an intense week of final prep, the Joe Bataan gig is in the past. It was not the first time I've learned another artist's repe...

One year ago, when Trio Bruxo was in São Paulo, vibraphonist, producer, and man-about-town Guga Stroeter was kind enough to show us around C...

Apologies for the blog silence. It's been busy behind the scenes here. Some of the reasons are listed below. September 9, 2011 marks ...

I took a bit of a whirlwind trip down to New York this weekend, with the express purpose of being a tourist in Bienestan , the fictional cou...

Nearly a month late, I just realized I never did a final summation on the Montreal Jazz Fest. The final show I saw was Malian vocalist Khair...

No, I'm not a guitarist. I have always been fascinated by the instrument, though. Also being in love with all things shiny, and having h...

Another Jazz Fest day dominated by the outdoor stages. Singer Magos Herrera kicked off the evening with a set of music from her new album Me...

After the modernist Latin jazz of John Benitez and Yosvany Terry, and the knockout salsa of La Excelencia, I was looking forward to hearing ...

When I arrived at Upstairs at 6:30 for the first of three sets by the John Benitez group (supposed to start at 7), there were no cymbals on ...

- Sunday: had the pleasure of hanging out with pianist Kiko Continentino, who absolutely schooled me in Carioca samba-jazz. He also e-mailed...

For Darcy James Argue's first official Secret Society show* in Montreal, he was blessed to be in Salle Gesù. I can't think of any ot...

Since her two sold-out shows at the Savoy last year, Gretchen Parlato has ascended the ranks of notoriety from being considered a "sing...

Marc Ribot is no stranger to Montreal, though most of his appearances have been in the smaller venues of Divan Orange and La Sala Rossa. In ...

Milton Nascimento was one of the first Brazilian artists I really got into. When the Festival announced he was coming to this year's edi...

The collective trio, Farmers By Nature, was easily the bright spot in this year's Suoni programming for me. Two thirds of the group have...

Yesterday the outdoor programming for Jazz Fest was announced. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. Between having to relocate stag...

These last weeks of May are busy ones. Lots of announcements follow: Thursday, May 19 , Montreal Gazette columnist Sue Montgomery has organ...