They came to see a Cuban Latin Jazz Master, the headliner of the concert and the magnetic draw for a packed house, the great trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, Arturo Sandoval. What they got as added bonus was one of the most dynamic Latin Jazz trios on the planet. Opening for Maestro Sandoval was Toronto’s own, by way of Cuba, the Hilario Duran Trio, made up of Roberto Occhipinti on bass and Mark Kelso playing drums. The trio played at a very high level of excitement with a glorious sound. They

The 22nd anniversary of the Toronto Jazz Festival was one for the record books with more venues, more musicians and more aspirations of becoming the very best North American jazz festival. There literally was something for everyone. That seems to be the theme for most festivals these days, but with 50 venues, 350 concerts and an estimated 1,500 performers this event aims to please. The big shows focused on piano, the Grandmasters series, featuring Ahmad Jamal, Michel Legrand and Dave Brubeck. Mi

The Art of Jazz Celebration is an amazing event. This year, the theme was about a Global Jazz Village and it lived up to the name in spirit, music, musicians and audience participation. The inaugural year, 2006, I considered this a spring jazz festival, and a great one at that. It was much more; it was enlightenment for many, including myself. I felt like I was in jazz heaven that first year, witnessing performances by jazz giants, famous names like Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, John Hand

Starting out on electric piano Hermeto Pascoal the 2008 Art of Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, introduced his music to the audience in layers, as if pulling open the pages of a dynamic novel, the performance opened up to reveal more of the fascinating imagination of this spectacular master multi-instrumentalist performer. In the first song of the evening Pascoal would give the audience a taste of his versatility. Switching from the electric piano to electronic wind synthesizer and add

The Boiler House is an upscale dining establishment in the Historic Distillery District, it is not a great jazz venue for a powerhouse jazz quartet, it’s better than being outside in the rain, but not by much. The room has a very good lay out for a dining establishment with nice private booths and a 2nd floor balcony for intimate dining. The non-obstructed seating amounts to about forty seats, the obstructed view seating, about one hundred seats. People were in the aisles; they were peaking arou