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In this issue:
1. Spring Music Festivals
a) Lula World
b) Small World South Asian Music Festival
c) Rhythm & Jews film festival
d) Other upcoming events
2. Adam Solomon: on film, on radio, on CD
3. Charlie Gillett on BBC with Hugh Masakela and K'Naan
4. Summer Music preview
5. African Notes:
a) Mali in NY Times
b) Stephen Lewis & the Nobel Peace Prize
c) Sudanese documentary on Google video
1. SPRING MUSIC FESTIVALS
May is filled with some really interesting musical
events, including:
a) Lula World: May 3-14
The Lula Lounge (www.lula.ca)
is for many people (like me), the best music club in Toronto:
it's rooted in Latin music, but also with a wide-ranging
eclectic selection of world-wide music from Toronto and around
the world.
This is the 4th annual "Lula World" festival, featuring as
eclectic a selection as you could hope for. It opens May 3 with
"Bollywood Fever",
includes CD releases by Adam Solomon & Tikisa,
KellyLee Evans and the BeBop Cowboys and more variety than there is
room to describe here. Cuban, Columbian and Salsa music, as
well as "The Friendly Rich Vaudeville Show", described as "Lawrence Welk meets Pee Wee's Playhouse", and
much more.
Fri. May 12
features an interesting double bill: Maracatu Nunca Antes, a
20-person Afro-Brazillian drum troupe (see
http://www.nuncaantes.ca),
along with "Fado Blues", with Catarina Cardeal and Mike Siracusa.
See http://lula.ca/lulaworld_4.aspx for details.
b) Small World Music South Asian Music Festival May 3-26
This is the fourth annual festival for Small World. It kicks off
with "Bollywood Fever", which is a fundraiser for the Monayr Asha
Aid Foundation:
Across the Third World, millions of children are denied the
essential experiences of education simply because their families
need their labour to survive. The Monayr Asha Aid Foundation has
been created with the goal of changing this dynamic and creating the
knowledge base among young people to ensure sustainable development,
and social justice.
There are 4 other shows by Canadian and Indian artists, including
Toronto's autorickshaw.
See http://smallworldmusic.com/concerts.html for details
c) "Rhythm & Jews": May 6-14
The Toronto Jewish Film Festival presents: "Rhythm & Jews: The
Black-Jewish Musical Connections". 12 films at the Bloor Cinema, and
the Al Green Theatre For info visit
www.tjff.com.
A PDF file with details is here. (Requires Adobe Reader) Tickets at 416 324-9121
Some highlights include:
- Immaculate Funk: May 6, 11:45pm. Profiling Jerry Wexler,
one of the true giants of R&B (in fact, he actually invented the
term!). Producer and recorder of Ray
Charles, the Drifters, Etta James, Solomon Burke, Joe Turner, Aretha
Franklin, Dusty Springfield's knockout Dusty in Memphis
album, Otis Redding, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and dozens more
legendary musicians. Narrated by Kris Kristofferson
It is almost impossible to imagine rock & roll or R & B without
Jerry Wexler. For more about him see:
-- A Salon profile:
http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2000/09/05/wexler/
--
"Everything you need to know about Jerry Wexler" on the BBC website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/wexlerjerry.shtml
-- Rhythm & The Blues: Wexler's autobiography written with David
Ritz
-- Making Tracks: The History of Atlantic Records by Charlie Gillett
- Strange Fruit. May 9, 4pm. The story behind the famous
Billy Holliday song about lynching
- Hitmakers: The Teens who Stole Pop Music. May 14, 5pm.
About "a bunch of Jewish kids from Brooklyn": Leiber & Stoller,
Carole King and other great songwriters of the 50's and early 60's,
with many performance clips.
Plus films about Blue Note Records, Paul Robeson, Porgy and Bess
and more.
d) Other upcoming events (See
www.to-music.ca/events.htm for details and more shows)
Apr. 29: Ethiopian and Sierra Leone concerts
Apr. 30 & May 7: live webcasts from the New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage Festival
May 3: Kevin Breit at Hugh's Room
May 8-9: Mary Gauthier at Hugh's Room
May 13: Njacko Backo at Gladstone Hotel (free, 5-8pm)
May 19: Chasaya Sichilima CD Release at the NOW Lounge
2. ADAM SOLOMON
One of the finest African guitarists in Canada, "The Professor" has
a triple header coming up in the next week:
a) Move Your World: Sat. April 29
Part of Sprockets International Film Festival for Children. This is the world premiere of the documentary by Lalita Krishna,
featuring music by Adam Solomon.
Click here for more info.
"Meet Maria, Kourosh and Chaminda – three spirited youths who,
through writing and rap, spoke out about poverty and disease in
Africa. Of one thousand contestants from across Canada, they won the
life-altering opportunity to travel through Tanzania with a group of
their Tanzanian peers"
b) 'Here & Now": CBC Radio 1: Wed. May 3
Adam will be the house guest on Here & Now from 4-6 pm. Radio
1 (99.1)
c) CD Release: Thu. May 4
One of the big events of the spring: the release of Adam & Tikisa's
new CD, Mti Wa Maisha (Tree of Life). Part of "Lula World", co-sponsored by Music Africa. $10. The night
begins at 8pm with the screening of Jambo Kenya, an award-winning
documentary by Lalita Krishna about Canadian teens visiting Adam's
native Kenya. Featuring music by Adam and Amin Bhatia.
‘This is
the long-awaited release from one of Canada’s premiere African
guitarists/songwriters…Mti Wa Maisha (Tree of Life) is a
delectable sampling of styles from the African continent.’ – Patsy Stevens, Producer, CBC
See also Opiyo Oloya's review at
www.to-music.ca/adamcd.htm
I was out of the country and missed Tikisa's concert at
University of Toronto last month, but heard wonderful things about the
show. Great music, great energy, with the audience jumping and
dancing -- in an auditorium setting! Tikisa means "shake" in
Swahili, so come out to the Lula Lounge and tikisa!!
See www.adamsolomon.ca.
For photos of Tikisa's U of T show, see
http://photography.utsc.utoronto.ca/recent/Tikisa/index.htm
3. CHARLIE GILLETT: Hugh Masakela and K'Naan
Charlie's "Radio Ping Pong" guest on his BBC Radio show Mar. 25 was
the great South African trumpter, Hugh Masekela. The two hour show
is archived on the Mondomix website at
http://www.mondomix.com/en/radios.php.
Go to the Charlie
Gillett section, and pull down the Hugh Masakela show (in 2 parts).
Wonderful stuff -- especially hearing Masakela talk about Louis
Armstrong: the first time he heard his music and what Armstrong
meant to him, and many other musicians. "He taught everybody to
say 'Yeah!'". He was "a channel for happiness". He quoted Armstrong
as saying "As soon as you lose your child side, you're doomed"
Notes and the playlist from the show are posted at
http://www.charliegillett.com/playlist.php?date=25March06
May 13, Charlie's guest will be the Somali-born Toronto hip-hop
singer, K'Naan. It will be available online for a week. Go to
http://www.charliegillett.com. Go to the
"BBC London" tab at the top, and click on "Latest show on
demand"
4. SUMMER MUSIC
Looks like a great summer. For now, a very brief list, as this newsletter is already long
enough. I'll be updating the website
events page with details.
Some highlights (and what highlights!):
Salif Keita (I think the greatest voice in Africa), Solomon
Burke, Etta James, Amadou and Mariam, Afrofest, Kekele, Konono
#1, Seu Jorge, Ska Cubano, Toronto Jazz Festival... and that's
all in the space of about 3 weeks!
5. AFRICAN NOTES:
a) Mali in NY Times:
A large feature article on Mali and its music in the April 4
New York Times.
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/travel/02mali.html
A couple of non-musical but very important African items:
b) Stephen Lewis & the Nobel Peace Prize
There is an effort underway to nominate Stephen Lewis, the
U.N. Secretary General's special envoy for HIV/ AIDS in Africa.
He has committed vast amounts of energy and passion to
lobby for treatment and prevention of the disease -- and for those
who suffer directly and indirectly from it.
A campaign is underway to recognize him -- and more
importantly this work -- through a nomination for the Nobel
Peace Prize. You can sign the online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/Jambo/petition.html (I can
also send an email petition that can be forwarded). From the
website:
He has visited & wept with the adults & those children
that have been orphaned, by H.I.V./ A.I.D.S. He has consoled and
supported the grandmothers ,that are attempting to rear those
children. Stephen Lewis constantly advocates for women's rights,
and the rights of sex trade workers; many of whom, are little
more than children themselves. He seeks to provide condoms and
cheap medications for their treatment. When parents have died,
young women seek a means to earn enough money to support their
siblings. The sex trade is the most lucrative way for an
unskilled women to earn money. The sad result ,is that the young
women also contract A.I.D.S. thereby leaving the very young
without any support at all.
Stephen Lewis advocates constantly with tenderness,
intelligence and a saintly zeal, that is profoundly
moving. Stephen Lewis needs recognition, not for himself, but for
his cause
See also
http://www.stephenlewisfoundation for background
c) Sudanese documentary:
The following information was sent to me recently
"The Art of Flight, Davin Anders Hutchins' guerrilla documentary
about Sudanese refugees in Cairo will be made available free to a
worldwide audience for a limited time in its entirety on Google
Video. Screened at various international film festivals,
it essentially summarizes the events leading up to the Dec.
2005 police massacre of Sudanese refugee protestors outside UNHCR's
office in Cairo.
The Art of Flight also features an original score composed by
Hutchins and
Al Khafiyeen, a band of Sudanese refugees living in Cairo.
“If the Egyptian government knew what I was filming, I would
have easily
been arrested,” says Hutchins.
The Art of Flight is one of the first new independent
documentary films
made available on Google Video
(http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6467988025807238754&q=the+art+of+flight&pl=true).
Anyone wishing to view the film simply clicks on video.google.com
and
searches for “The Art of Flight.”
John Leeson
www.to-music.ca
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