Cassandra Wilson celebrates 30 years of New Moon Daughter @ Koerner Hall, Wednesday

Cassandra Wilson reprises the music of her acclaimed 1995 album New Moon Daughter with the musicians who cut it. 

 

Toronto Jazz Festival presents Cassandra Wilson

at Koerner Hall (273 Bloor St. West) 

Wednesday, June 24

Tickets: Starting at $95 available here. 

The Grammy Award-winning jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi makes her Koerner Hall debut with an all-star band from her critically-lauded New Moon Daughter (Blue Note) album from 1995 including Sisters Euclid guitarist Kevin Breit, bassist Lonnie Plaxico. guitarist Brandon Ross and percussionist Jeffrey Haynes in addition to Swiss-born, NYC-based harmonica ace Grégoire Maret (who has worked with Herbie Hancock, Sting, Pat Metheney).      

Critic Gary Giddins described Wilson as “a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack who has expanded the playing field” by incorporating blues, country, and folk music into her work. Her honours include two Grammy Awards, the Django d'Or Award, the Edison Award, and a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. Ms. Wilson also performed in one of the leading roles for Wynton Marsalis’s Blood on the Fields, the first jazz album to receive a Pulitzer Prize. In 2022, she was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship and was named an NEA Jazz Master alongside Stanley Clarke, Billy Hart, and Donald Harrison.      

Wilson’s tour celebrates the 30th anniversary of her release New Moon Daughter, which artfully blended jazz and Americana, and catapulted her to a new echelon of fame in the jazz world – hitting #1 on the Billboard Jazz Chart, and earning her a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. Her Koerner Hall performance features four of the musicians who joined Wilson for the New Moon Daughter recording. 

Watch a few of Cassandra Wilson's performances below. 

Remembering guitar great LeRoy Crume on his birthday

Soul Stirrers guitarist LeRoy Crume cut "Funky Walk" with brother Dillard after numerous records as the Crume Brothers.

Fabienne Delsol shares trippy new video for "She Is Gone"

"She Is Gone" is taken from Fabienne Delsol's fifth album "Indigo Red" out July 10th via Damaged Goods!

Happy Birthday Ernest Ranglin!

Celebrating the 94th birthday of Jamaican music legend Ernest Ranglin with some footage with Monty Alexander some rare tracks.

It's Juneteenth – Happy Freedom Day!

Juneteenth celebration at Eastwoods Park in Austin, Texas. Photo by Grace Murray Stephenson on June 19, 1900.

Friendly Rich launches new album "A Bruised Sunset" @ Sellers & Newel, Friday

Friendly Rich presents music from his new recording "A Bruised Sunset" with the Lollipop People at Sellers & Newel on Friday at 8 pm.

Here's the scoop...

Friendly Rich will release his 12th studio recording, A Bruised Sunset, in the most intimate Toronto venue, Sellers & Newel (672 College). Don't miss this special event on Friday June 19th, for just $20. We'll have a limited run of CDs and Zines (artwork by Lewis Mallard) for sale at this show, printed in the UK courtesy of Skill Records.

To order advance tickets to the show, email: sellers <at> sellersandnewel <dot> com. Check out the FB event page right here. Watch the animated clip for "A Bruised Sunset" below. 

The Lollipop People are:

Rebecca Hennessy, trumpet

Tim Shia, drums

Nichol S Robertson, guitar

Michael Herring, bass

Tania Gill, piano

Julia Hambleton, bass clarinet

One For The Weekend: (The New) Orchestra Baobab

The new version of Orchestra Baobab (below) – entirely different from the legendary ensemble you knew – has a new single "Togne Bakhoul" and a UK/EU tour.

Orchestra Baobab – Made In Senegal

‘Togne Bakhoul’ is the first new release in almost a decade from the legendary Senegalese group Orchestra Baobab, heralding a new collaboration between the Orchestra & Strut Records. 

Formed over 50 years ago as the resident band of the Baobab Club in Dakar, their timeless fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms, Wolof griot traditions, mbalax, Congolese rumba and jazz continues to resonate across generations and continents. Now, the celebrated big band marks a new chapter in their illustrious history

"Made In Senegal," to be released by Strut Records UK in conjunction with Madoky Music in October 2026, is Orchestra Baobab's first new studio album since "Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng" in 2017 — celebrating home, heritage, love and resilience, recorded entirely in Dakar.

With the sad passing of Baobab's founding guitarist Barthélémy Atisso (in 2021) and saxophonist/percussionist Rudy Gomis (in 2022) – who together helped create the group's signature sound –  the new version of Orchestra Baobab has very little real connection to the group that began in Dakar back in 1970. Today's line-up – led by 77 year old saxophonist Seydou Norou “Thierno” Koité (who was a member of Baobab's contemporaries in Senegal: Le Sahel and Super Etoile de Dakar), with Zacharia "Papino" Koité (lead vocals), Korka Dieng (lead vocals), Taga Koité (drums), Moussa Cissokho (percussion), Yahya Fall (rhythm guitar), Malick Sy (bass), René "Bolero" Sowatche (guitar), Wilfrid Zinzou (saxophone/trombone) blends veteran musicians with a younger generation determined to preserve Baobab's enduring sound. Made In Senegal is another modern Baobab classic — the perfect time for a new generation to discover one of Africa's greatest ever big bands.

More to come, but for now, check out their beautifully composed new track ‘Togne Bakhoul’ (with lyrics by Rudy Gomis) along with a 30-minute performance from 2025. You can catch the new version of Orchestra Baobab on tour in Europe and UK – see dates below.