After the unfortunate cancellation of Orchestra Baobab, the Garifuna Collective from Belize makes a fantastic replacement April 2.
Here's the scoop...
From Belize, The Garifuna Collective a driving force in celebrating the rich cultural heritage and music of the Garifuna people, an Afro-Indigenous group community with a rich cultural heritage, originating from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and now residing in various countries, including Honduras, Belize, and the United States.
Their music is “full of surging seaside rhythms and yearning, soulful melodies that hang in the memory” (BBC Music) and has been described as “an extraordinary blend that layers soulful, indigenous and African rhythms with sweet, lyrical melodies” (NPR). The band’s energetic and evocative live shows draw from their extensive repertoire, mixing traditional Garifuna rhythms with contemporary world music grooves.
Singer/songwriter and percussionist Blandine Kaniki, winner of an African Entertainment Award 2015 as Best Female Voice, blends the soul of rhumba with urban music. The Congolese Canadian singer’s 2019 album L’Antidote featured a powerful collaboration with the legend of Congolese music Nyboma and lead guitarist Lokassa Ya M'Bongo.
Presented in association with Batuki Music Society. Tickets for The Garifuna Collective with Blandine Kiniki at Koerner Hall (273 Bloor St. West) on Thursday, April 2 at 7 pm start at $50. Get 'em right here. Watch a few clips of the Garifuna Collective in action along with some Garifuna documentary footage below.
Guitar ace Mike McKenna recalls his time with Luke & The Apostles, Ugly Ducklings, Mainline and more.
Goin' To Toronto by Mike McKenna
Join me for a trip back in time to the early days of the Canadian rock scene. We start in my early days with Whitey (Glan) and the Roulettes. Our next stop is Yorkville, where Mike’s Trio becomes Luke (Gibson) and The Apostles. After a stint with The Ugly Ducklings, Joe and I form McKenna Mendelson Mainline. Our trip continues through Diamondback, The Mike McKenna Band, Downchild Blues Band, The Guess Who, and Slidewinder. Our journey spans four countries with many interesting stories along the way. You will also hear from some of my friends and fans including Luke Gibson, Tony Nolasco, Dave Bingham, Peter McGraw and Pat Little.
Mike McKenna is a Torontonian through and through. As a Canadian musician he has traveled the world and played in nine Bands. If the Blues is his first love, then guitars are his second. He is renowned for his guitar solos and slide playing. Mike was inducted into the Canadian South Blues Society Hall of Fame in 2013 and was nominated for a “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Toronto Maple Blues Society in 2024. Mike has been told by many people that he should write a book. So here it is…
Get a copy of Mike McKenna's new book Goin' To Toronto from Friesen Press right here. Check out a few clips below.
Cheers to jazz pianist Renee Rosnes on a well-deserved JUNO win for her "Crossing Paths" salute to the inspiring music and artists of Brazil.
Here's the scoop...
At the JUNO's Saturday gala, Renee Rosnes received the Jazz Album Of The Year (Solo) award for her Crossing Paths (Smoke Sessions) album which artfully reimagines a well-chosen selection of quintessential Brazilian Songs, joined by two of Brazil’s greatest artists and composers, Edu Lobo and Joyce Moreno and also features Maucha Adnet, Chris Potter, Steve Davis, Chico Pinheiro, John Patitucci, Adam Cruz, and Rogério Boccato.
Recorded at Sear Sound Studio C in NYC, Crossing Paths was produced by Renee and Paul Stache while Renee arranged all the music. You can get a copy of Crossing Paths via Bandcamp right here. The 2026 JUNO is Renee's fourth Jazz Album Of The Year (Solo) award, she previous won for Kinds of Love (2023), Written in the Rocks (2017), and Life on Earth (2003).
Writes Renee: "I’m deeply honored to have received the 2026 JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year (Solo) for “Crossing Paths.” The recording grew from a long-held dream of celebrating the music of Brazil—music I’ve loved since I was in my teens. Heartfelt thanks to all the extraordinary musicians and vocalists who helped bring it to life, and to Smoke Sessions Records for their belief in the project. And thank YOU for listening!"
Renee Rosnes – Crossing Paths
Some paths meet at a single crossroads then move on along their predetermined journeys. Others crisscross again and again, each juncture altering their directions and destinations until the two become indelibly intertwined.
The latter has been the case for the renowned pianist and composer Renee Rosnes and her lifelong love of Brazilian music. The two converge with stunning results on CROSSING PATHS, Rosnes’ new release, instantly marking a highlight of her already remarkable career.
It finds Rosnes leading a stellar band exploring masterpieces from the songbooks of Brazil’s most revered composers, entrancingly melding the beguiling rhythms of bossa nova, frevo, samba, afoxé, and other styles with Rosnes’ visionary approach to modern jazz. The pianist is joined by a phenomenal band mixing American jazz masters (saxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Steve Davis, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Adam Cruz) with contemporary Brazilian voices (guitarist Chico Pinheiro, percussionist Rogério Boccato and vocalist Maucha Adnet) and the classical flutist Shelley Brown, who is a longtime member of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra.
Joyce Moreno
Thrillingly, the album is graced by special guest appearances from legendary artists and composers Edu Lobo and Joyce Moreno, who perform their own classic songs. Both provide a direct link from Rosnes’ contemporary interpretations to “the second generation” post-Bossa Nova era, granting this gorgeous new album the imprimatur of some of the music’s pioneering artists.
Like most North American listeners, Rosnes’ path first crossed that of the great Brazilian composers through the immortal songs of Antônio Carlos Jobim, soon followed by NATIVE DANCER, Wayne Shorter’s classic 1975 collaboration with Milton Nascimento. Her passion was truly ignited in her late teens when she discovered the iconic singer Elis Regina, who became a superstar in her native Brazil before her tragic death at the age of 36.
“I love her music,” Rosnes marvels. “Hearing Elis sing made an instant and indelible impact on me. Several of the songs and composers on this recording, I initially discovered through her recordings.”
While CROSSING PATHS is the first project that Rosnes has wholly dedicated to Brazilian music, it’s far from her only exploration of the songbook. Her adoration of the music can be traced throughout her career. Her Juno Award-winning 1996 Blue Note album ANCESTORS opened with Edu Lobo’s “Upa Neguinho,” and 1999s ART & SOUL included Egberto Gismonti’s “Sanfona.” Jobim’s catalogue is represented by “Modinha” on MANHATTAN RAIN (2012) and by “Double Rainbow” on her 2010 two-piano outing with husband Bill Charlap, DOUBLE PORTRAIT.
Rosnes’ most extensive opportunity delving into the repertoire came in 1998 when she was enlisted by Joyce Moreno (also known by the one-word sobriquet Joyce) for the singer-guitarist’s 1998 tribute album, ASTRONAUTA: CANÇÕES DE ELIS [Songs of Elis]. For that outing, she split piano duties with the late, great Mulgrew Miller and was thrilled to record the Jobim classic “Waters of March” with bossa nova titan Dori Caymmi sharing vocal duties.
“I was honoured to have been a part of Joyce’s special tribute to Elis,” Rosnes recalls.
Moreno, now 76, returns the favor on CROSSING PATHS to sing a mesmerizing rendition of her song “Essa Mulher,” originally recorded as the title track of a 1979 Elis Regina album and a year later by Moreno herself on FEMININA. The first verse unfolds as a graceful, delicate piano/voice duet before the band enters gently, highlighted by Davis’ sensitive trombone accompaniment.
The album’s other special guest, Edu Lobo, joins for two of his own gems. His relationship with Rosnes began when she received an Instagram message from the singer-songwriter praising her recording of “Upa Neguinho.” A digital pen pal friendship was struck up, bearing fruit on his pair of striking vocals on “Pra Dizer Adeus” and “Casa Forte.” Rosnes’ own voice can also be heard on “Pra Dizer Adeus” as she sings along in unison with her improvised piano solo. At 81, Lobo’s voice is only enriched by age, vividly conveying the songs’ emotional complexity despite language barriers.
CROSSING PATHS opens with a spirited take on Gismonti’s “Frevo,” with Rosnes, Pinheiro, and Brown as the fluid frontline. Brown is one of Rosnes’ oldest friends, dating back to their days as roommates at the University of Toronto. The session offered Rosnes her first opportunity to play with Pinheiro, surprisingly given how magically their two voices combine on their exhilarating duet inventions here, which follow a virtuosic turn by Patitucci on electric bass.
“There’s a wildly compelling athleticism to Egberto Gismonti’s music,” says Rosnes. “Whether listening to it or playing it, you get pulled into a strong vortex of energy.”
Caetano Veloso’s “Trilhos Urbanos” is a Brazilian anthem depicting the bustling streetcars of his Bahia hometown, Santo Amaro, here fueling lively solos by Davis, Pinheiro, and the leader. While she could have opted for any number of familiar Jobim melodies for the date, Rosnes chose the more obscure “Canta, Canta Mais.” The song is stirringly rendered by the Rio-born contralto Maucha Adnet, who spent ten years singing with Antonio Carlos Jobim and his Nova Banda. Adnet invited the band to join her with vocals, in keeping with the lyric (which translates as, “Sing, Sing More”). The album concludes with a return to Jobim for “Caminhos Cruzados,” which translates to “Crossing Paths” featuring a second intoxicating Adnet vocal and a poignant piano solo.
“There’s a certain vulnerability to Maucha’s voice,” Rosnes says. “Even though I’m not conversant in Portuguese, it’s easy to hear that she is a gifted storyteller. There is a beautiful humanity and spirituality coming through the lyric.”
Chris Potter joins the ensemble for three tracks. Lobo’s classic “Casa Forte” features a sprightly soprano solo leading directly into Rosnes dancing across the keys. Gilberto Gil’s “Amor Até O Fim” finds his muscular tenor sparring with Rosnes’ grooving Rhodes, while Milton Nascimento’s “Estórias da Floresta” reprises the tenor/Rhodes combo over an evocative rhythm forest conjured by Cruz and Boccato. The piece comes from Nascimento’s 1990 album TXAI, which was inspired by the composer’s desire to bring more attention to the plight of the Amazon rain forest and its indigenous people.
The song’s environmental concerns resonate with Rosnes’ own, which she’s expressed on albums like her 2018 release BELOVED OF THE SKY.
While CROSSING PATHS could be seen as a departure for Rosnes, it arrives as the culmination of a long-held dream, realized brilliantly. “This project was sparked in my mind about three decades ago,” she says. “I’ve always been passionate about the music of Brazil, and finally, the time felt right to embark on it. With this band, I knew I was with players who hold great respect and love for this music, and that together we could make these songs come alive in the way I had imagined.”
Tune into Toronto's Jazz FM 91 for Alex Pangman's Swing Set #200 with special guest Col. Tom Parker on Saturday at 7 pm.
Writes Alex...
"This Saturday, Colonel Tom will be my special guest to celebrate 200 weeks of Swing Set on JazzFM 91 we will play some swinging music (maybe even some Bob Wills and Joe Venuti) and have some laughs. Tune into 91.1 FM at 7 pm ET in Southwest Ontario or worldwide on the app."
Nic & The Narcs just shared "Nobody Move" off their Crimewave album out April 3. See 'em with Shredded Beef at The Cameron House on April 11 at 4 pm.
From Nic & The Narcs HQ...
"ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID OR WHAT CAUSE OUR NEW SINGLE DROPPED TODAY LIKE CHARGES AGAINST CROOKED COPS LOL BUT SERIOUSLY, ITS CALLED "NOBODY MOVE" AND ITS NOT ABOUT TORONTO AUDIENCES, IT'S ABOUT FUCKIN' ROBBING SHIT AND WE ARE PUTTING THE FULL ALBUM OUT APRIL 3. RELEASE SHOW AT THE CAMERON HOUSE ON APRIL 11."
Watch the Nic & The Narcs' videos for "Nobody Move" and "Crimewave" along with a live performance at the Horseshoe Tavern from 2024.
Enigmatic UK experimental folk duo MILKWEED make their Toronto debut with LostWorldSounds at BSMT 254 on Tuesday, March 31. Check the clips!
Here's the scoop from Not Dead Yet...
Over the past year, the world has finally started to catch up to MILKWEED. The anonymous duo has spent the last several years mining literary rarities and dismantling the code wrapped within them, finding new futures for stories unheard. Self-described as ‘slacker-trad,’ many are starting to see it for what it is - rethinking of tradition, dissolution of old modes and a true blur between the found and the created. Where do stories come from and who gets to tell them? All wrapped in gauzy loops, damaged percussion and distant melody. Watch the accompanying video for MILKWEED's "Folklore 1979" created by Greg Butler and Oh Kestrel Films below. You can find MILKWEED's three releases, 2025's Remscéla, 2024's Folklore 1979 and 2023's The Mound People, on Bandcamp right here.
They’ll be joined by Toronto’s own psychedelic folk wanderer, Michelle Breslin aka LostWorldSounds, who uses field recording and sound collage to recreate the feelings of the world around them. Michelle Breslin's releases, including 2025's Stranger Butterflies – which seems well suited to MILKWEED – are available on Bandcamp right here. Watch a LostWorldSounds performance below.
Advance tickets for Not Dead Yet's presentation of MILKWEED's Toronto debut with LostWorldSounds at BSMT 254 (254 Lansdowne) on Tuesday, March 31 at 7 pm are $24.94 and available right here.
Remembering important but unjustly overlooked producer Tom Wilson with a discussion of his work, some Sun Ra outtakes from 1956 and more.
Writes Irwin Chusid...
Tom Wilson was a legendary record producer in the '50s and '60s. He produced four Dylan albums, and the first Simon & Garfunkel, which was a commercial failure. So Wilson added a rock backing track to the duo's acoustic recording "Sounds of Silence," and helped invent folk-rock.
He signed and produced the first two albums by the Mothers of Invention and the Velvet Underground. A decade earlier, after graduating Harvard in 1955, he founded Transition Records and produced the first albums by Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Donald Byrd. He later produced Nico's first, and co-produced the Soft Machine's debut. In 1978, at age 47, he died of a heart attack.
In 1967 and '68 the charismatic Wilson hosted a free-form radio program called "The Music Factory," sponsored by MGM-Verve. The debut episode of that series, gone from radio since 1967, will be aired on my WFMU program... listen here: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/68065
Listen to a Tom Wilson Jazz Sampler put together by Marshall Crenshaw who, despite setbacks due to the pandemic of 2020 and the passing of director Sacha Jenkins last May, is continuing work on his Tom Wilson documentary – right here. Watch a discussion of Tom Wilson's work with Richie Unterberger, an Rock's Back Pages interview with Marshall Crenshaw talking about his Tom Wilson research, followed by some Transition-era Sun Ra studio outtakes and a couple of 1967 clips from Tom Wilson's short-lived radio show The Music Factory. Read the Tom Wilson feature "The Man Who Put Electricity Into Dylan" by Michael Watts (Melody Maker, January 31, 1976) right here.
The rippin' 1984 garage punk debut album from Austin's Poison 13 is being reissued by Red Parakeet Records on June 5th. Now available for pre-order!
Here's the scoop from Tim Kerr...
"Poison 13 started when Mike asked me if I would help him start a band. The first song we wrote together was One Step Closer. I was the music, he was the words. We were going to play once and it was going to be his night since it was his band. It kept going. This was the first record and came out around the same time as Lime Spiders and the Nomads first. It was all done in one night with Spot at the controls . It's out on vinyl again thanks to Joe at Red Parakeet (smile). It's up for pre-sale. You can get it at RedParakeetRecords.com."
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Red Parakeet Records are very excited to reissue the 1984 debut album by Poison 13 on vinyl for the first time in over 40 years. This exclusive reissue is available on black or splatter vinyl in a beautiful gatefold jacket with photography by Pat Blashill. Includes inner sleeve with the original handwritten lyrics by Mike Carroll, and brand-new liner notes by Tim Kerr.
Reissue artwork prepared by Aaron Tanner. Vinyl mastering by Sean Glonek at SRG studios, and lacquers cut by Scott Hull at Masterdisk. Records pressed at Gotta Groove Records in Cleveland, OH.
Watch the 1984 video clip for "One Step Closer" and some live footage from a Poison 13 reunion show from 1996 following the tracklisting below.
Taken from the analog tapes recorded by Mike Rep Hummel, Short Sagas of Sorrow finds Tommy Jay in singer/songwriter mode.
‘Short Sagas Of Sorrow: The Lost 1974 Tapes’ from Tommy Jay
A true Ohio outsider legend in every sense, Tommy Jay along with his producer/co-hort Mike Rep Hummel were recording like crazy Dionysian gods in the mid 1970s and we’re so glad they did.
What we have here before you is an unreleased 1974 studio album with another book of classics intertwined within, and if you’ve been following Tommy’s hypnotic trajectory with Mike Rep, True Believers, and the HarrisburgP layers over the years, it’s another long-awaited reward for your faith in this underground system you’re invested in.
Pure Ohio Gold as they say, and as a recently unearthed recording, we’re proud to present it for the first time anywhere, solidifying Tommy Jay’s pillar-like influence in the sick and twisted Harrisburg underground.
Forever underrated, Tommy shines hard here for the singer-songwriter era, keeping that creeping “punk edge” just under the surface for extra tension, even in 1974. In another world Tommy Jay would be as well-known as Skip Spence or Ron House, but his star still rises, albeit slowly & surely. Much like a companion LP to 'The Grim-O-Comix Sequence' and his his essential 'Tall Tales of Trauma' LP, 'Short Sagas of Sorrow' fills yet another void with it’s deep lo-fi goodness that has no problem hitting all of your unprotected sweet spots.
Tommy Jay's Short Sagas Of Sorrow is being released by HoZac Records in a vinyl pressing of 500 copies. Shipping late April or early May. Get it directly from HoZac Records right here.
Listen to the version of "Gusto Hungry" off Tommy Jay's Tall Tales of Trauma below.
Check out "Shakey" author Jimmy McDonough's chat about his new Gary Stewart biography, Neil Young and more on the Rock's Back Pages Podcast.
Here's the scoop from Rock's Back Pages...
For this episode we invite the very entertaining Jimmy McDonough to join us — all the way from Portland, Oregon — and discuss his career as "the king of the crazy biographers."
Our guest explains how he moved (back) to New York from Indiana in the '80s and how he got his foot in the door at the Village Voice with a 1988 profile of country singer Gary Stewart, the subject of his new book. We then hear about the long and painful saga of his extraordinary Neil Young biography Shakey (2002) — and his singular approach to the biographical trade.
Clips from Amy Linden's 1995 audio interview with Al Green give us the opportunity to ask Jimmy about his 2017 biography of the Reverend Green, after which we finally get to the 40-year gestation of I Am from the Honky Tonks and the story of his obsession with his doomed honky-tonk hero. He explains why the book felt like a mission and why Gary Stewart could and should have been a country superstar.
After Mark quotes from featured writer John Morthland's review of the Monterey Pop Festival (with a namecheck for the late Country Joe McDonald) and from a 1975 interview with Tammy Wynette – another of our guest's biographical subjects — Jasper wraps things up with remarks on the Australian Folk Bitch Trio and the man who manages Yungblud (and "eats challenges for breakfast").
Many thanks to special guest Jimmy McDonough. Gary Stewart: I Am from the Honky-Tonks is published by Wolf+Salmon on April 2 but it's available for pre-order here right now.
Listen to Rock's Back Pages Podcast Episode 224 right here. Catch Jimmy on his "Ain't No Grave" reading tour... see dates below.
Remembering Ontario-born Buster Harding who's songs and arrangements cut during the swing to bop era should be better known.
Canadian Ambassadors
Born in North Buxton (near Windsor), Ontario in 1912, Lavere "Buster" Harding grew up in Cleveland, Ohio took up piano early on and formed his first band as a teenager. Sometime after his return to Canada in 1932, he joined Myron "Mynie" Sutton's Canadian Ambassadors, considered to be the first all-black dance orchestra in Canada.
Incidentally, the Canadian Ambassadors briefly included Harding's fellow North Buxtonite, pianist Lou Hooper who had similarly been raised outside of Canada in Ypsilanti, Michigan, studied at the Detroit Conservatory and had performed/recorded through the 20s with banjo player Elmer Snowden and clarinetist Bob Fuller under various handles like The Three Jolly Miners and The Three Monkey Chasers in Harlem before becoming the in-house pianist for Ajax Records and accompanying blues singers Lizzie Miles, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith and others. As a music teacher in Montreal, Hooper taught the young Oscar Peterson – but back to Buster.
In 1939, Harding took a job as a writer/arranger for popular bandleader Teddy Wilson where he created the blaring percussion-heavy whumper "Booly Ja Ja" very atypical of the sedate swing of the urbane pianist. Listen to "Booly Ja Ja" below. It's hard to believe something this crazy was recorded and released in 1939... I can't think of any of any other jazz recording from that time that's nearly as explosive. The only orchestra that could come close to matching that intensity was Cab Calloway's band. And after Harding did a bit of writing and arranging for Coleman Hawkins, that's exactly where he went. In the flamboyant Calloway, Harding found a like-minded musical conspirator with a blasting horn section being driven by a suitably propulsive rhythm engine. Watch a Cab Calloway soundie for Harding's "Virginia, Georgia and Caroline" from 1942 temporarily available right here. After a productive few years (1944-46) with the hugely popular Calloway orchestra – co-writing "We The Cats Shall Hep Ya," "I Want To Rock," "Tappin' Off," "The Hi De Ho Man (That's Me)" and many more – Harding began taking on freelance writing/arranging work for Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw ("Little Jazz," "Bedford Drive"), Jonah Jones ("B.H. Boogie," "Lust For Licks"), Count Basie ("The Mad Boogie," "Rails," "Hob-Nail Boogie") and Roy Eldridge ("Yard Dog," "Poor John," "Little Jazz Boogie").
In 1949, Harding was hired by Billie Holiday as her musical director for a Decca session which resulted in the recordings "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do" and "Baby, Get Lost" as well as some compositional collaborations with Holiday on a few songs – including "Please Don't Do It In Here" and "You'd Do It Anyway." He continued working as Holiday's pianist on live dates through the early 50s although he soon took up with Dizzy Gillespie and the two worked closely together for the next few years before Harding connected with keybordist/bandleader Bill Doggett through the later 50s and early 60s, penning "Hometown Shout," "Birdie," "Blues For Handy." "High and Wide," "Bill Dogs It" during his stint. Among the last credited recording appearance of Harding is a 1963 budget-line Bossa Nova cash-in set for Pickwick involving drummer Osie Johnson, flautist/saxophonist Sam Most, bassist Jimmy Jones and trumpeter Louis Metcalf. Two years later, Harding passed away in New York at the age of 53.
Perhaps due in part to the fact that Harding never released a recording under his own name and rarely had his photo taken with his more famous collaborators (other than the Jet Magazine snapshot with Dizzy Gillespie at Dizzy's home in Corona, Long Island from 1955), he is largely a forgotten figure today.
Sadly, Harding's important writing and arranging contributions to jazz music during the transition from swing to bop have been largely overlooked, rarely even rating a mention in most attempts to document the era. Many self-styled jazz authorities remain blissfully unaware of Harding's accomplishments today. A much deeper study of Harding's life and work, along with a retrospective collection of his songs and arrangements recorded by more popular figures, is long overdue. For the moment, here's just a small sampling of Buster Harding's musical legacy.
