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 Are you ready for some Divine intervention? Vocal powerhouse Divine Brown and a slew of other musicians kick off the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival on Friday. |
There's a show in the lineup for this year's 20th-anniversary jazz fest -- officially the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival -- called What Is Jazz? that features a jazz-funk fusion band (the Christian McBride Band), a multi-genre eight-string guitarist (Charlie Hunter) and a hip-hop DJ (DJ Logic).
But it might well be used to describe the whole festival, which is making a valiant attempt to bring in bigger, younger crowds by including funk, hip-hop, soul and world music in its lineup.
Purists may complain, but like all genres, jazz has no definition and no boundaries, and that's why you'll see Halifax rapper Buck 65, New Orleans soul-funk band The Neville Brothers and Brazilian samba singer and Bowie fan Seu Jorge on the festival's 10-day lineup along with more traditional jazz players like John Pizzarelli, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Alleyne and the Rob McConnell Tentet.
Not to mention Divine Brown and Jacksoul, who one-up the official Friday launch of the festival with a Harbourfront show on Thursday.
Despite her amazing five-octave voice and dynamic performance style -- honed in roles in Rent and Ain't Misbehavin' -- it took ages for Brown's self-titled album to come out, after which it soon went gold.
And while Jacksoul singer Haydain Neale channelled the sounds of Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson on 2004's Resurrected, his brand-new MySOUL contains covers of songs by Curtis Mayfield, Blue Rodeo, Radiohead, Teddy Pendergrass, the Guess Who and Ashlee Simpson (!).
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On Friday, Long Island trio De La Soul bring their innovative, soul-laced hip-hop, complete with oddball rock and pop samples and funky beats, to Harbourfront, while local singer Molly Johnson -- who has sung with rock, soul and blues bands in the past -- provides the official festival launch at Nathan Phillips Square.
The eclectic programming continues with Sunday's Real Divas event at Nathan Phillips Square, which ropes in more than a dozen female singers from all over the musical landscape -- including Liberty Silver, Lori Cullen, Eliana Cuevas, Andrea Menard and Heather Bambrick -- for one gigantic show.
On Tuesday there's a Hummingbird Centre show by powerhouse R&B singer and Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer Etta James -- who's won Grammies for both blues and jazz performances -- as well as New Orleans' famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band at Nathan Phillips Square.
And on Wednesday, avant-garde musician John Zorn brings his Acoustic Masada project, which takes liberties with traditional Jewish music, to the Danforth Music Hall, while our own Kardinal Offishall -- fresh from his three-trophy triumph at the MuchMusic Video Awards -- brings Jamaican-Torontonian dancehall hip-hop to the Opera House.
For more information, go to torontojazz.com.