Steve Marriner harp attack

Watch Steve Marriner take off on his signature instrument, the mississippi saxophone though he plays a dozen other instruments

Matt Weidinger at Hughs Room

I had only seen Matt Weidinger in a back-up role, but backing up EVERYBODY! He was a real utility man and probably qualified as a "hardest working" sideman in the west end.  When he appeared on the scene as the "new kid on keyboards" he made a big impression and I remember someone telling me he had bought a house.  You don't usually hear musician and homeowner in the same sentence - not nowadays.Good for him!  Now I finally got to see him doing his own thing and it's not blues but it sounded fine to me

August Knight Elmo Art show

Toronto artist (visual and musical) August Knight invited the entire board of the Toronto Blues Society to a special event called Toronto Rocks at the legendary El Mocambo.  Nobody in my circle knew this guy, but a couple of us thought it's a great chance to check out that classy joint and maybe discover a new artist. We were told some blues artists would be performing, including Paul Reddick, but it was mostly a who's who of the Toronto indie music scene who came to play a tune while Knight's portraits of them was projected on the big screen (and on numerous big-screens scattered around the room. The artwork was amazing, woodcut prints that started as sketches (of 30+ local musos) which were digitized, enhanced and finally rendered in wood using a laser. Knight explains, “I met this woodworker in Hamilton, Wilma Nardone, who introduced me to the essence of wood. So, I could actually burn the energy of these artists into the wood itself. Then it was like, ‘Okay, now I’ve got something cool.’ So, the wood was really a big part of it.” It was a great event and well-attended, but I've got a feeling it was mostly a big guest list so he must have had some sponsorship or other funding. A dozen or so of the depicted artists showed up to play a song or two and I did a sweep of his "wall of fame" and captured some snippets of a few of them

Bill King plays Marvin

Bill King is in his home-away-from-home, the Redwood Theatre, which is a long bike ride from his home in the west end but that hasn't stopped this nearly octegenarian from pedalling over (if the weather is friendly). Maybe not so much these days. He's quite omnipresent at most of the shows I've attended and has forged a great relationship with Maria and Robert who own that historic theatre. There was never much live music at the Redwood, which is just a couple of blocks from my place, and I might have been the first bluesician (of this generation) to play on that stage when I used that space to shoot a video of "I'm Not Fifty Anymore" with Steve Marriner and I'm proud to say I introduced Bill to Maria who knew nothing more about him than he was a fine ivory tickler. I filled her in on his history with Beaches Jazz, Jazz Report Magazine, the National Jazz Awards, great photographer, playing with Janis and I'm still leaving out stuff - oh yeah, and since then, a prolific author and blogger. He is unstoppable. And even though I only played with him once, his keyboard playing alone makes him a jazz giant in my mind. Listen to his tribute to the legendary Marvin Gaye