Category Archives: funk

PRISM + the John Scofield Uberjam Band at the 2014 Toronto Jazz Festival

Dave Holland on bass, Kevin Eubanks on guitar, Craig Taborn on the Fender Rhodes and Grand Piano and Eric Harland holding it together on the kit, make up a ground-breaking quartet called PRISM. An amazing show of talent by the Grammy award winning Dave Holland and this supergroup. Awesome!

Prism

Prism

Prism

Prism

Prism

Prism

Prism

 

John Scofield, a legend in the jazz world, brought his newest project ‘Uberjam’ to the Toronto Jazz Festival this year. Featuring John on guitar, Andy Hess on bass, Tony Mason on drums and Avi Bortnick on guitar and samples/effects.

John Scofield Uberjam Band

John Scofield Uberjam Band

John Scofield Uberjam Band

John Scofield Uberjam Band

John Scofield Uberjam Band

John Scofield Uberjam Band

John Scofield Uberjam Band

John Scofield Uberjam Band

As a guitarist myself, these two bands gave me a lot to ponder. From Kevin Eubanks fluid finger-picked solo’s to John’s masterful virtuosity in all things jazz-guitar, I was inspired to go home, lock the door and not come out until I had practiced my guitar for two months straight! And that wouldn’t be enough.

To see all the images from this show, and others, here is the main gallery link

Toronto Jazz Festival Gallery II

Nels Cline/Julian Lage Duo, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Lettuce, Joey DeFrancesco Trio at the Toronto Jazz Festival

Nels Cline/Julian Lage Duo

The last few days have been a blur of shows. On Tuesday I headed down to the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern on Queen to catch a set of experimental & improvisational guitar with Nels Cline and Julian Lage. Both extraordinary guitarists.

Nels Cline/Julian Lage Duo

Julian was playing on a beautiful guitar made by Toronto’s own master luthier Linda Manzer

Nels Cline/Julian Lage Duo

Nels Cline/Julian Lage Duo

After this I got a quick streetcar up to Grossmans to get a fix of the Don Valley Stompers with Miz Debbie. Blues, gospel, jazz along with New Orleans dance. There was a group of dancers in attendance paying homage to the great swing dance styles. This place was boppin on a Tuesday night!

The Don Valley Stompers

The Don Valley Stompers

The Don Valley Stompers

On Wednesday, the day it poured like crazy, I made it to the Main Stage tent reasonably dry, but not after a double back onto the subway to get to the downtown underground PATH network. Ended up at a deadend and just went to street level and got a little rained on.

On the main stage this evening, from New Orleans, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and from Brooklyn, NY, Lettuce.

DDBB got the party started with some heavy ‘brass funk’ and loud colourful shirts!

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Miss ‘Ippi was invited up to dance and be serenaded to

Lettuce, who I missed last time they were in Toronto, brought their skill as the masters of old school funk.

Lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce

 

It was still raining a little bit when this show finished, and a jazz festival program made for a lousy umbrella, it quickly fell apart before I got on a streetcar back over to the ‘shoe to shoot the last set of the Joey DeFrancesco Trio. Nice crowd on hand here.

Joey DeFrancesco Trio

Joey DeFrancesco Trio

Joey DeFrancesco Trio

 

These posts do not have all of the images from these shows in them. All the images can be viewed at the following links in either a viewer, by clicking an image, or by ‘piclens’ , a nice full screen slide show with navigation.

2014 Toronto Jazz Festival
2014 Toronto Jazz Festival Gallery II

all comments welcome, thanks