Art of Jazz Celebration 2008: The Refined Brilliance of Heart and Mind
By Raul D’Gama Rose
June 23, 2008

This hot night in June, at a 200-year-old venue infused with the pioneering spirit, it was possible to be captivated and inspired, excited and entertained in a magical way that brought back personal memories of hearing Miles Davis blow his heart out at the foot of the Swiss Alps... This is what Baraka heard when Monk and Trane played their hearts out at Carnegie Hall in '57. And this is what it was also like to be in a room full of music with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus (the musicians singularly responsible this life lived for jazz alone)... This is what possessed Sheila Jordan to pursue Charlie Parker... to write her Book of Life in the idiom of jazz! This is what it was like on this night when a few hundred of us came to the Fermenting Cellar to hear Egberto Gismonti, the third honoree of The Lifetime Achievement Award on the concluding night of the 2008 Art of Jazz Celebration. Read Article

Women making jazz inroads
By Cathy Riches
June 20, 2008
womenspost.ca

…So when I noticed that the Art of Jazz — a five-day celebration held at the Distillery District in the beginning of June — was devoting two afternoons to “Women in Jazz,” my first reaction was a tongue-in-cheek “Right on, sisters!” But then I got to thinking: This is 2008. So why are we still making the distinction between male and female musicians? It’s true that women have long been accepted as singers and, occasionally, piano players, but are they still struggling to carve a place for themselves as drummers, saxophonists, and bass players? Read Article

Art of Jazz Celebration 2008: A Tale of The Sorcerer and The Storyteller
By Raul D’Gama Rose
June 19, 2008

… in an atmosphere where time had almost stood still... and waited for Sheila Jordan and Steven Kuhn to duo unforgettably, as Randy Weston and Billy Harper had done just a day earlier, and Hermeto Pascoal would once again rejoin his old friend, Jovino Santos Neto, conducting the Art of Jazz Orchestra, playing Pascoal's wildly original music. The Storyteller and the Sorcerer dropping by to the same venue, on the same day? What are the chances? Read Article

The Art of Jazz Celebration
By Bob Bernotas
June 18, 2008
WNTI Radio, serving New Jersey and Northeast Pennsylvania

From Wednesday, June 4, to Friday, June 8, Toronto's visionary Art of Jazz organization, for the third consecutive year, transformed their city's picturesque Distillery Historic District into a dynamic 'Global Jazz Village' to host its Celebration 2008. Read Article

Miles Davis once famously suggested that the term “legend” ought never be applied to those people still alive—artist or otherwise. But there are times when a person—artist or otherwise—achieves so much in his lifetime that one is forced to apply that very epithet to describe the person in question. Yesterday, Toronto honored one of them: a legend, who long ago became part of the folklore of jazz in this fine city. Read Article

Before he even sits down to play, Randy Weston fills a room... a venue if he has to. Then he pulls back the piano stool, stretches out his arms and the sounds of an Ancient Future fill every available space, push out the wall, climb embankments, rattle open windows, knock on every door in every available city to herald the music of the wisdom of the spirits! Read Article

She hits, builds, prods — and explodes — all the things a drummer's 'supposed to do' — but more than that, she gets right down to business. From the first beat, her commitment and pinpoint focus was total. Her swift stick work, and the range of changing textures she continually projected from her kit was astonishing, and it drew the audience right in. Read Article

If you take away the African from Jazz, Blues, and Gospel, you have nothing left ...

Randy Weston's been offering such insights and wisdom for close to 60 years, and on this particular visit to Toronto — along with the empathic tenor saxophonist, Billy Harper — he grandly gifted our city with the sounds of Mother Africa and her progeny, the jazz tradition. Read Article

“In my opinion he is one of the most under-rated pianists in jazz”. This is how Sheila Jordan introduced her friend and frequent musical accompanist Steve Kuhn for his Piano Workshop at the Art of Jazz. Read Article

“This has to be the best music festival in Toronto”, said the stranger sitting next to me at Nancy Walker’s Trio gig at the Art of Jazz. It would be hard to disagree with that comment, after spending an afternoon and evening in the Distillery district taking in a full line up of concerts. Imagine swinging music, beautiful weather, a free intimate outdoor concert and you would have the performance of 2008 National Jazz Award winner Nancy Walker at the Women in Jazz Stage. Read Article

Mark Kneeshaw learned to play the blues on the final day of the third annual Art of Jazz Celebration. The 40-year-old Toronto photographer was one of several adults who got an accelerated harmonica lesson at the Jazz For Juniors Clinic yesterday afternoon. Instructor Mike Stevens had promised that participants would learn to play four songs in an hour. Read Article

ART OF JAZZ TRIBUTE TO JOHN NORRIS In the Distillery District in Toronto on Thursday. When the Toronto-based advocacy group the Art of Jazz pays tribute to a Canadian jazz great, it's by letting them do what they do best. For multi-instrumentalist Don Thompson, two years ago, that meant assembling several all-star groups in which he could demonstrate his absolute command of bass, vibraphone and piano; for trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, last year, that meant gathering some of his closest musical collaborators so that might express his distinctive improvisational vision clearly and memorably. Read Article

People who knew Cindy Blackman as Lenny Kravitz's drummer might be surprised to find her leading a quartet at the Distillery District's Art of Jazz Celebration tomorrow. But the Ohio native has solid jazz chops and has collaborated with the music's heavyweights, such as Pharaoh Sanders, Cassandra Wilson and Freddie Hubbard. Read Article