  Canadian rock institution Randy Bachman will be headlining a free concert in Dundas Square during the Luminato festival. (Michael Peake, Sun Media)
|
TORONTO - Randy Bachman says he'll be happy to be takin' care of business June 5 at Yonge-Dundas Square, to effectively kick off the music portion of the 10-day Toronto arts and creativity festival known as Luminato.
This year's Luminato event, which runs until June 14 and has already announced a theatre and dance program, is focusing heavily on music, specifically the guitar.
"I thought (Luminato) was more uppity, classical, baroque-ish -- whatever you want to call it," said Bachman, the guitarist and co-songwriter previously for both The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, in an interview yesterday with Sun Media.
"This (free Yonge-Dundas concert) is really a people show, and in the last couple of years I've become a real 'people' commodity with my Saturday night radio show (CBC Radio One's Vinyl Tap). And so then when I found out the theme was guitar, I was very comfortable with that. So to be able to do this and know it's outdoors in Toronto and accessible by everybody, it's just fabulous."
Luminato's music program was unveiled yesterday at a news conference at the Hard Rock Cafe, whose upstairs Club 279 is the designated "artist lounge" for late-night jams by musicians.
While Bachman plays at Yonge-Dundas Square, just a few blocks away at Massey Hall on the same night will be Emmylou Harris, Patti Griffin and Shawn Colvin with jazz guitarist Buddy Miller in a show called Three Girls And Their Buddy.
Among other Luminato events, on June 6 at Yonge-Dundas Square a new Guinness Book of Records mark will be attempted, for largest guitar ensemble. This free monster jam session will feature as many guitarists who show up, playing 10 of the greatest Canadian tunes. Germany holds the current Guinness world record, when 1,802 guitarists performed Smoke On The Water.
The World of Slide Guitar on June 7 is an all-day concert featuring Derek Trucks Band, Jerry Douglas and Daniel Lanois, among others, at Yonge-Dundas Square.
The entire music program and ticket information can be viewed at luminato.com.
Bachman, who will be joined by special guest Duke Robillard at his June 5 show, says he has just reached a deal with E1 Records to distribute his Live At Montreal Jazz Festival DVD and his most recent CD, Jazz Thing II. He also has just signed up to host a TV show, Road To Guitar.
"That's going to be a two-hour main show, and 13 one-hours after ... It's travelling all over the world trying to find the origins of guitar," said Bachman. "So it's going to Spain, Egypt, then going to the Gibson Factory, the Fender Factory, meeting players, learning licks from every guitar player that I know, sitting with them talking, 'Why do you play Fender, why do you play Gibson? All these things that make it a really interesting guitar thing. I've become a guitar spokesman guy, just because I've done it for so long."
Bachman told The Canadian Press yesterday he's working on a new rock album that would feature Neil Young and his BTO bandmate Fred Turner.
