Tag: Toronto

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Ep. #278: Jane Bunnett

Jane Bunnett is a world-renowned jazz musician and composer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. A Juno award winner and Grammy award nominee, Bunnett is a highly accomplished saxophonist and piano player well known for her incorporation of Cuban music and collaborations with Cuban musicians; her 1991 album, Spirits of Havana, is considered one of the greatest jazz records ever. Her group, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, release their new album, Oddara, is out October 14 via Linus Entertainment and will be touring throughout Canada and the U.S. between September and November. Bunnett will be appearing at the Guelph Jazz Festival on September 16, as part of Song Everlasting, an all-star tribute to the late pianist, Don Pullen. Jane and I met on the terrace of her Toronto home recently to discuss raccoons, spices, the evolution of a rooming house in Parkdale, where goes the neighbourhood, chains, the Gardiner Expressway, the stupid annual Toronto Air Show, Yours to Discover, attending five different Toronto high schools after attending a free school, painting and clarinet, street tough, music in the family and a new house with a piano, sister Sarah, the youngest kids don’t seem to matter as much, big brother’s music collection, piano lessons and bailing, too much playing and jazz, off she went to San Francisco, Charles Mingus, The Colonial Tavern, Don Pullen, improvisation and the flute, Toronto’s New School of Music and Howard Spring, “Nostalgia in Times Square,” snobby record store employees, Toronto’s underappreciated history as a jazz mecca, Claude Ranger, Mark Miller, ahistorical, a range of instruments, the social aspect of music, Mexico and Cuba, discovering greatness in Santiago de Cuba and Havana in 1982, the great percussionist Guillermo Barreto, her partner and collaborator Larry Cramer, the stories behind her all-female Cuban group Maqueque and their new album Oddara, David Virelles, the spirit and fiery energy of a little girl, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, remembering Don Pullen, In Dew Time, Ajay Heble, the esteemed ensemble playing this tribute, Howard Johnson and Saturday Night Live, the Maqueque song, “Dream,” and that was that.

Related links: janebunnett.com guelphjazzfestival.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #276: Katie Monks of Dilly Dally

Katie Monks and Liz Ball are members of an explosive Toronto-based rock band called Dilly Dally. High school friends, Monks and Ball grew up loving Nirvana, Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs among others, eventually honing their own chops as guitarists and songwriters and forming Dilly Dally. In the fall of 2015, the band released its critically-acclaimed album Sore, via the Toronto label Buzz Records, and have been touring steadily ever since with forthcoming dates at Arboretum Festival in Ottawa on August 17 and many European and American shows, beginning at the end of August and leading into September and October . Here, Katie and I discuss the fact that Liz is probably sleeping, setting the record straight about info in the ‘official’ Dilly Dally bio, things from the past get soupy, why her and friends gravitated towards sad, junkie, self-destructive artist boys like Kurt Cobain, Christopher Owens, and Pete Doherty, kill yr idols, maternal instincts, getting it together, bowing down to nobody and respecting life, compassion, owing your fans, Toronto hype, the mythology around tortured artists and success, the music industry, Kurt Cobain was likely smart, a switch, being a woman and helping other women, growing up in Newmarket, living the dream, seeking chaos, the Toronto real estate-related arts exodus, 2013 Toronto, construction in the city, Drake, Rob Ford, Fucked Up, the Blue Jays, and the Raptors and Toronto getting more worldwide attention, the Dilly Dally song “Purple Rage” and the Prince song “Purple Rain,” loving problematic Prince and Purple Rain, her brother Dave who plays in Tokyo Police Club and what their musical upbringing was like, a Beatles chord book, older sibling shop talk, safe European flights, a Dublin family reunion, touring the U.S. during the actual presidential election this fall, the unmediated truth, the future of Dilly Dally and the song “The Touch,” a postcard of a dead cat, and that was that.

Related links: dillydallyband.com buzzrecords.ca vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #271: Andy Shauf

Andy Shauf is a talented songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist who originally hails from Saskatchewan. Over the past four years, Shauf has released critically acclaimed and vibrant pop records whose dark textures contain clever lyrics and infectious melodies. He made quite a statement with 2015’s The Bearer of Bad News and has possibly even topped that wondrous record with this year’s conceptual LP, The Party, which is out now via ANTI- and Arts & Crafts Records. He’s been busy touring and will be playing the Hillside Festival in Guelph the weekend of July 22 before heading across the United States with case/lang/veirs. Here, Andy and I discuss being in Winnipeg vs. being in Regina, the East India Company restaurant, Portage and Main, missing home and moving to Toronto, renting a condo and buying a piano and a bed, elevators are hell, dizziness and astronaut material, entering outer space on a big plane, celebrity condo, Andy’s excellent cross Canada adventure to get a new van, on the level, making The Party in a former CBC Radio studio in Regina, Jason Plumb of the Waltons, recording and working in seclusion, people who think they know what to do, the live band, being a multi-instrumentalist, drum lessons, attending a Christian high school and not thinking about that stuff too much, Olivier Fairfield, Josh Daignault, Colin Nealis, the band Fet.Nat, poaching musicians, The Party and Blake Edwards’ 1968 film starring Peter Sellers called The Party, the loose concept of The Party, drinking alcohol at a party, dumb things Andy does at parties, party life, The Party’s characters like Jeremy, Sherri, Alexander, and Martha, character studies in songs and giving them lives, “Jack and Diane II,” getting into Randy Newman, pop-punk and Elliott Smith, finding his voice and writing 100 songs, artistic trajectories and foresight, critical feedback loops, Saskatchewan gives you time, when Andy’s music transcended Canada and he got busy, gradual success, writing one new song, playing the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the song “To You,” and then things elevated.

Related links: andyshauf.com vishkhanna.com

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