Jimmy Bowskill took the stage at midnight at the Toronto Downtown Jazz
Festival for the first of two "Midnight Blues" shows to be held during the
festival (next Saturday it's Rita Chiarelli). Jimmy made a lot of new fans,
as he always does - it will be a national pastime watching this wonderful
young musician evolve. The festival has never presented a lot of blues on
the mainstage and except for Dr. John next Sunday, these midnight shows are
all we've.
However this year, the after hours "hang" that receives a special license
to serve liquor until 4 am, will not be at Traders's Lounge as in previous
years but at the Rex and Sage, and for the first time ever, a couple of
nights at the Rex will be dedicated to the blues. That's tonite the 26th,
(Sunday) and Monday the 27th. Many festival artists drop in to jam, though
it's impossible to predict what will happen. Last year, Wynton Marsalis
came by after his concert and played for hours - hardly left the stage.
Then he couldn't play his date at the Montreal Jazz Festival because he
wrecked his lip having too much fun in Toronto.
I have been invited to be the host for the two blues evenings - this will
be reminiscent of my Thurday residency at the Tranzac where I had the
opportunity to jam with the most amazing players every week. My special
guests at the Rex will be John Showman and Andrew Collins, fiddle and
mandolin respectively, from the phenomenal Creaking Tree String Quartet,
who blend all genres of music, classical, bluegrass, jazz... and now
they'll be getting into the blues!
Blues players: I hope you'll consider coming out or dropping by after your
gig. If you have a complete band, you're welcome to do a song or two with
your guys. Please talk to me when you get to the club. I'll have the jam
list. Otherwise I will be having fun creating some some spontaneous
combinations players.
Blues Fans: Please come to Rex if you're still awake at 1am. The blues was
meant to be played at this late hour! Sage will ne presenting DJs into the
wee hours.
The Rex Jazz & Blues Bar (we need to continuously remind them of their name)
194 Queen Street West. (2 blocks west of University Ave)
Sunday and Monday, June 26 & 27 12:30 to 4AM
If you have any questions call me at (416) 461-0638 brian@blain.com)
***This was today's submission for my "blues blog" ahere I write about
books I've read and listened to it acoustivcally. Now I better go to bed.
In addition to getting a newsletter to press this week-end and keeping all
the on site computers working, I've been trying to get the old Epiphone out
of the case in preparation for my gig this afternoon at the Distillery Rib
Fest (I play from 1:30-2:30). The Distillery is also featuring an art
exhibit and a Farmers' Market. Check it out (at the foot of Parliamemt
Street)
And since I'm sending this to the world, let me also remind you that my
"bluesgrass" trio will be performing on Wed the 29th, Thurs the 30th and
Friday July 1st at the Bay Cafe at Bay & Queen - kitty corner to the Jazz
Festival site. We'll be playing from 2:00 to 4:00pm.
Hope to see you out at one of these gigs. If you'd like to read my blog,
it's posted at http://brian.blain.com. I' ll be trying to post daily during
the festival (something I've never eben approached in the past...but it
makes for interesting reading if you're going through something similar.
Putting out a CD, scrambling for gigs and media, and trying to carve a
"profile". If you need my Electronic Press Kit (EPK) go to
http://www.brianblain.ca. My page at NorthernBlues Music is
http://www.northernblues.com/bio_blain.html
Yhanks for reading all this