Mose Allison took over the Fleck Dance Theatre on Tuesday night as part of the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival. The 81-year-old Mississippi born jazz singer, pianist and composer blessed the audience with his joyful spirit and accomplished easy going singing and piano playing. An unassuming blues based, jazz piano player whose influence is felt through his well known songs - many of them performed by the biggest rock acts. His accompanists, Neil Swainson on acoustic bass and John Sumner

The final day of the Art of Jazz, Global Jazz Village - Italian Style, started off a little late. A combination of bad weather, a little rain and a cold front rolling through town caused a minor delay. Spirits were not dampened, a large gathering of people were in and around the Trinity stage checking out the Cuban element, Anacaona Cuban Big Band an all female orchestra, formed in Havana in the thirties and known as "Las Mulatissimas del Sabor", this glamorous all female orchestra was founded i

A full day of jazz at the Distillery Historic District beginning bright and early at 12 p.m. The jazz starts with a workshop by Roberta Gambarini, by all accounts a tremendous educational workshop, carried out by Ms. Gambarini with pianist Don Thompson and bassist Neil Swainson in support. A trio performance at an outdoor patio in front of the Boiler House Restaurant, the Women In Jazz stage tucked away under a tent found the Dave Restivo Trio with Alyssa Falk, also a noon time start. The Fermen

The fourth annual Art of Jazz celebration just managed to melodically squeak by this time around. The Toronto Italian community and major sponsor Mario Romano are deserving of thanks for keeping the celebration alive. The free out door shows all had good turn outs in spite of some cooler temperatures rolling in from the north on Sunday. The first show of the celebration took place from 6:30 8:00 pm, Friday June 5th at the outdoor Trinity Stage and featured The Sicilian Jazz Project, this was a h

Somewhere There, a comfortable performing arts studio in the west end of Toronto, an area known as Parkdale. A forty seat room, located up a steep flight of stairs, no windows in the studio, no extra’s of any kind, the bare necessities. Just enough to get the music out and sometimes recorded. Improvised music. Jazz comes to mind when improvised music is mentioned but you may be hard pressed to find recognizable jazz in these confines. It’s there, somewhere there, lies the fundamentals of jazz, y