Images from Toronto Jazz Festival

Out and about

They say (I don't know who) that everybody has to see the Rolling Stones live at least one time. My friend Jacquie is someone who felt the need to see them twice in a row and I was lucky enough to be her guest at the concert on Thursday Night at the ACC. I've since seen a couple of reviews and all agree that they delivered, despite some nay sayers that poo=poohed their 50th Anniversary Tour as a bunch of geriatric rockers still cashing in. The reviews I read didn't say much (if anything) about Mick Taylor's presence - and he was very present, though Mick J. never introduced him. Maybe the reporter didn't know who he was. He played some fine guitar but like the rest of the boys was not the "flawless" presentation that is de-rigeur these days if you want to be on the big stage. Well the Stones are still breaking all the rules, and many of those guitar intros were pretty loose...you could say they had a fumbeling tumbeling quality. There were many loose, spontaneous moments, and of course, that's what people really want to experience. They want to have been there when the Stones did something that they never did before and will never do again. At the very end of the finale, once the last chard had be strummed, somebody started up another groove on the guitar - it must have been Keith. You could see the close up of Charlie Watts on the big screen and his expression was saying "When's it gonna end?"

At the Toronto Blues Society Talent Search Finals (Night 2) I heard three fine blues bands. Sorry I missed the three that played on Friday night but I was gigging in London. The winner was Sugar Brown, who played on the night I wasn't there. I suspect he gave the rawest representation of the blues and it's to the credit of the judges that they were not swayed by a more slick presentation, though it might have a better chance of success in the music mainstream.