Jazzeteria

The Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival is on now. We've managed to get out to a few events so far.

Saturday night was Leon Kingstone and Dan Eisen (sax and piano) at Commensal, a restaurant around the corner. The music was okay, but the cafeteria-style restaurant took away somewhat from the atmosphere.

Sunday night was PJ Perry (a four-piece band with PJ on sax) at The Rex. The Rex is the local jazz venue. It looks like a dump and the last time I was there they only took cash - no credit. PJ Perry was the first live jazz we saw, about twelve years ago, back in Edmonton at the Hello Deli. It was good to be able to see him again here. It was a great show. We're not used to being out that late on a Sunday night though - we're not as young as we were twelve years ago.

Monday night was Brenda Carol & ClaireVoyance with Christine Bougie (Brenda on vocals, Christine on guitar, with keyboard, bass, and drums) at the Hot House Cafe. I'm pretty sure I saw some of this band at the Hot House two years ago when I was out during the jazz festival. It was good, but tended toward prog rock for a significant portion of the time.

We're taking tonight off, but hopefully we'll get to a few more shows.