Art & Culture Maven

Coleman Lemieux & Co Open The Citadel Dance Centre February 14

2012-02-13T09:10:00.004-05:00

From a media release:

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie Announces the Opening of the Citadel
- A New Centre for Contemporary Dance in Regent Park - on February 14, 2012

Toronto - Opening on Valentines Day in Regent Park is a small centre for contemporary dance - but a small centre that augers something very big. The renowned dance company Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie (CLC) proudly announces the opening of the Citadel, a new centre for contemporary dance in Toronto's Regent Park community. A ribbon-cutting ceremony, celebration and Open House will take place at the newly-renovated former Salvation Army building on February 14, 2012 from 5pm-6pm.

Designed by world-renowned Diamond + Schmitt Architects, the Citadel is nestled just south of the Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre at the corner of Parliament and Dundas Streets in Regent Park, across the street from the neighbourhood's billion-dollar transformation from concentrated public housing to mixed community.

The Citadel offers a home to CLC's celebrated contemporary dance company, and includes a theatre and a studio space, pay-what-you-can yoga classes offered by The YogaBeat and a host of innovative initiatives and activities. The building includes an 1,800 square foot studio/theatre for dance productions; a 900 square foot studio for rehearsals, yoga classes, workshops and community classes; an office space for Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, and accommodation for visiting out-of-town artists.

• The first work to be presented there will be Les cheminements de l'influence, a world premiere solo by Laurence Lemieux in honour of her father Vincent Lemieux, one of Quebec's most celebrated political scientists, from February 15-25, 2012.

Bill Coleman and Laurence Lemieux first met as members of Toronto Dance Theatre in 1992. They developed solo choreographic careers as well, and each created dance works involving the other. When the couple decided five years ago to move the company - founded in 2000 - from its original home base in Montreal to Toronto, they settled on the 6,500-square-foot Salvation Army Citadel, a former soup kitchen and worship hall built in 1912.

They didn't realize that their newly-purchased home was just across the street from what was to become one of the most ambitious urban renewal undertakings in Toronto history: the Regent Park Revitalization Project.

Regent Park residents now have a dance theatre in their community. It is something they have wanted for years, but that doesn't often appear near public housing neighbourhoods.

"The wonderful thing about Coleman and Lemieux is that they did not simply relocate into a building in the Regent Park neighbourhood, but became important partners in the revitalization," says local City Councillor Pam McConnell.

CLC have, since first getting involved in the Regent Park community, brought their extraordinary creative vision to the production of a series of events marking significant occasions in the neighbourhood revitalization process, such as street openings and school closings. CLC's activities within the Citadel and beyond serve as a "safe space" for existing and returning social housing tenants to mix and meet with new condo and townhouse owners.

In the words of Mitchell Cohen, president of Regent Park's private sector developers The Daniels Corporation, "We are truly fortunate that Bill and Laurence chose to settle in our neighbourhood. Their desire and ability to engage folks in the local community, as well as the larger artistic community, is particularly exciting."

A key tenet of the revitalization is the inclusion of both rent-geared-to-income and market units together in the same community. Toronto Community Housing is reintegrating social housing with surrounding neighbourhoods to establish mixed income, mixed use communities and provide opportunities for affordable home ownership.

When Regent Park is completed over the next ten to fifteen years, 12,500 people will live across 69 acres of the largest publicly funded community in Canada. The plan includes the replacement of more than 2,000 existing Regent Park units with modern units, and the introduction of approximately 3,000 market units for sale.

With the Citadel, Coleman Lemieux continue their outreach efforts to revitalize the place of dance and art in our society. Its Brick by Brick fundraising campaign towards the renovation of the Citadel continues.

Obeah Opera February 16 to March 4 in Toronto

2012-02-13T08:54:00.003-05:00

From a release:

Obeah Opera
bcurrent & Theatre Archipelago present
Obeah Opera
a World Premiere Production
Previews February 16-19
Opens February 22 - March 4, 2012*

TORONTO - Set in the late 17th century, Obeah Opera tells a story of life and work among women silenced by the most infamous 'witch-hunt' in history. Tituba and a handful of Caribbean women imported as slaves into the American colony of Salem are arrested and accused of practicing obeah! A healing art seen only as blasphemy and witchcraft through the eyes of the local Puritans.

We follow Tituba's journey in the days before her capture, her incarceration, and her stand on trial in this uplifting Caribbean themed opera. Sung in complete a capella form, and performed by a cast of fifteen, Obeah Opera explodes myths surrounding the Salem Witch Trials, unravels the branding of obeah with evil and witchery, ties it back to its true spiritual nature rooted in West Africa, and finally gives voice to a group of women whose story has been missing from history books.

*currently, Previews February 16-19 & February 22 & 23 are sold out

Obeah Opera
By: Nicole Brooks
Director: ahdri zhina mandiela
Musical Director: Tova Kardonne

Candy: Nicole Brooks
Sarah: Saphire Demitro
Elder: Macomere Fifi
Tituba: Joni NehRita
Mary: Saidah Baba Talibah

918 Bathurst Centre for Culture
918 Bathurst Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5R 3G5

A limited number of tickets are available for purchase in person at the following ticket outlets:

Accents on Eglinton Bookstore | 1790 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto

A Different Booklist | 746 Bathurst St, Toronto

Knowledge Bookstore | 177 Queen St W, Brampton

T.O. Tix | Yonge & Dundas Square, Toronto

The Ngoni Showcased in Mali: Leni Stern's Sabani

2012-02-13T08:45:00.001-05:00

From a media release:

CD Release: leni stern's Sabani
Release February 14, 2012

Wildly creative guitarist meets musical soulmates and engaging new instruments in Mali—and records a stark yet warm dialogue as part of a close-knit, cross-cultural trio

In a warm Malian hotel room, the ngoni smiled.

A seemingly simple instrument with an evocative sound and deep past, it was both delighting and baffling the intrepid jazz and blues guitar maven from New York. Its tuning was open to interpretation, to the player’s feeling in the moment. The tonic sat square on the middle string, not at the bottom like most Western stringed instruments.

But as Leni Stern played this great-grandfather to the banjo, she knew she was in touch with something big. “I kept feeling I had the ultimate blues instrument in my hand,” Stern explains.

This ultimate blues buoys Sabani (Leni Stern Recordings; release: February 14, 2012), a beautifully stripped down collection of graceful and dynamic instrumental lines, thoughtful songs, and catchy dialogue across traditions. Inspired by easygoing jam sessions with two Malian musician friends and recorded at Salif Keita’s Mouffou Studios in Bamako, Sabani brings the sound of every string, every pulse of the calabash and bounce of the talking drum to vivid life, to honor the intense and intimate connection Stern has developed with West African music over the last half-decade.

Stern and a trio of African master musicians—Kofo (talking drum, vocals), Alioune Faye (percussion), and Mamadou Ba (bass)—will share this sound with audiences on the West Coast and Midwest as part of their Spring 2012 tour. Cities include Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Cleveland, Albuquerque, and Phoenix.

“I don’t know why I waited so long to record this way,” Stern reflects. Stern—whose life has taken her from Munich to New York, from the Peruvian rainforests to the music school in Benin she helped found—was a veteran of the American and European avant rock, jazz, and singer-songwriter circuit.

Brought by UNESCO to mentor studio engineers in Mali, Stern was hooked. She began performing at seminal venues like the Festival in the Desert, touring with musicians from Keita to Baaba Maal, and, perhaps most importantly, making close friends with her newfound teachers and companions. She spent nearly two years living, learning, and making music across Africa.

Bassekou Kouyate, masterful player of the ngoni, and other members of his highly respected family showed Stern the instrumental ropes. Ami Sacko, a popular Malian singer often compared to Tina Turner, taught Stern songs and vocal approaches, while her brother Buba also helped Stern work on her ngoni chops. Stern became a member of the family, earning a new name (Oumou) and sharing the many adventures and trials the musicians encountered as they played for presidents or ?ed collapsing festival stages.

It was playing alongside Kouyate at a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Malian independence, as one of 50 ngoni players honoring the occasion, that Stern was ?rst wowed by the deep and resonant ngoni ba, an encounter that sparked Stern’s first ngoni-powered, blues-rich song, “Still Bleeding.”

Yet the most powerful moment that became Sabani, the spare follow up to Stern’s more lavishly arranged Africa-inspired work, was the feeling Stern savored as she jammed with friends from Keita’s band, string whiz Haruna Samake and artful percussionist Mamadou “Prince” Kone, who brings some of Mali’s lesser-known rhythms to the album.

Hanging around bus stations and airports, waiting for Keita, or meeting up in the evenings, the three friends often drank sugar-laden tea and made music together, blending their instruments and voices simply and organically.

This vibe bursts through on tracks like “Sorcerer,” which pairs Stern’s sharp, gritty, often eerie guitar with Samake’s round and percussive string work, and Stern’s Ricky Lee Jones-esque vocals with a warm, serpentine chorus in bambara Instrumentals like “An Saba” and “The Cat Who Stole the Moon” show both the virtuosity of crack players and the close listening of good friends, as contrasting yet harmonious melodies and timbres dance in dynamic interplay.

As the project came together in the relaxed atmosphere of Mouffou’s riverside studio, Stern also invited Sacko to sing (the bittersweet “Papillon”), and learned a thing or two from veteran sokou (folk ?ddle) player and singer Zoumana Tareta. Tareta regaled the three friends with both wisdom earned from his life as a sought-after musician (by stars like Oumou Sangare, for example) and with the gripping vocal performance that graces “Djanfa.”

These experiences have transformed and deeply moved the seasoned Stern, filling her with a quiet, unexpected sense of coming home, a moody warmth that pervades Sabani.

“After all my time in Africa, all the musicians I’ve gotten to work with, I feel like a different guitarist, a different person, like I belong to the red earth and the warm winds and the people I love there,” Stern muses. ”I don’t think anyone can go and live there without changing profoundly. And we have a lot to learn from Africa.”

Live Dates:

• February 14, 2012 - Blue Whale, Los Angeles, CA

• February 15, 2012 - The Compound Grill, Phoenix, AZ

• February 16, 2012 - Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque, NM

• February 17, 2012 - Alvas Show Room, San Pedro, CA

• February 18, 2012 - Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL

Potted Potter at the Panasonic Toronto - Continues to March 25

2012-02-13T08:31:00.003-05:00

From a media release:

West End hit Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience – A Parody by Dan and Jeff makes North American premiere
Presented by Starvox Entertainment and Potted Productions
Continues to March 25, 2012 at the Panasonic Theatre

Toronto, ON – Starvox Entertainment and Potted Productions are proud to introduce Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience – A Parody by Dan and Jeff to Canadian audiences. This Monty Python-esque show sold out theatres across London, Edinburgh, Australia and New Zealand, and will now make its North American debut on February 14, 2012 at the Panasonic Theatre for a two-week run.

Written and performed by Olivier Award-nominated actors Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, the play takes on the ultimate challenge of condensing, or “potting”, all seven Harry Potter books into seventy madcap minutes. The two former Children’s BBC hosts are aided by multiple costume changes, brilliant songs, ridiculous props and a generous helping of Hogwarts magic. The show also invites audiences to engage with a real life game of Quidditch, but according to Clarkson and Turner’s unique set of rules.

“We can't wait to bring the show to Toronto, it'll be our first time performing in North America and we can't think of a better place than Canada to continue our tour,” said Clarkson and Turner.

“Inventive, daft fun for all the family that doesn’t feel the slightest bit cynical,” praised Lyn Gardner of The Guardian. “A winner in every way.”

Whether you camped outside a bookstore for three days awaiting the release of the Deathly Hallows or you don’t know the difference between a horcrux and a Hufflepuff, the comedy, magic and mayhem of Potted Potter makes for an entertaining and hilarious visit to the theatre. The fast-paced show, which has made audiences aged six to Dumbledore (who is very old indeed) roar with laughter all over the world, is suitable for the whole family, including grown-ups, Muggles and Squibs.

“We are delighted to introduce this brilliant, hilarious show to North American audiences,” said Corey Ross, president of Starvox Entertainment. “Potted Potter is a wonderfully entertaining time for both fans and neophytes of the Harry Potter phenomenon alike.”

With this production, Clarkson and Turner earned widespread acclaim and a fan base that crosses three generations. It played five sold-out Fringe seasons in Edinburgh, five sold-out London runs and extensive U.K. and international tours. This is the first time Potted Potter has been performed in North America. The show has received rave reviews from The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Express, Daily Mail, Evening Standard and the Financial Times, as well as being a Time Out Critic’s Choice in London in 2011.

Venue: Panasonic Theatre, 651 Yonge St., Toronto

Continues to March 25 , 2012

Tickets on sale at Mirvish.com and 1.800.461.3333.

World Premiere: Katori Hall's Hurt Village Feb 7 to March 8 in New York City

2012-02-08T16:41:00.000-05:00

From a release:

HURT VILLAGE
A World Premiere by KATORI HALL
Directed by PATRICIA MCGREGOR

Performance begin February 7, 2012; Opening Night is February 27, 2012
Inaugural production in the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the Company's new Home Signature Center

• All seats $25

NEW YORK CITY - Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is pleased to announce the world premiere production of Katori Hall’s HURT VILLAGE, directed by Patricia McGregor. HURT VILLAGE runs February 7 – March 18, 2012 with a February 27th opening night and is the inaugural production in the The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the Company’s new home Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th Avenues).

It’s the end of a long summer in Hurt Village, a housing project in Memphis, Tennessee. A government Hope Grant means relocation for many of the project’s residents, including Cookie, a thirteen year-old aspiring rapper, along with her mother Crank and great-grandmother Big Mama. As the family prepares to move, Cookie’s father Buggy unexpectedly returns from a tour of duty in Iraq. Ravaged by the war, Buggy struggles to find a position in his disintegrating community, along with a place in his daughter’s wounded heart. A bold, gritty and devastating work, HURT VILLAGE earned Katori Hall (pictured) the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, given annually to an outstanding female playwright. HURT VILLAGE has received a 2011 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award from TCG.

• Single tickets are now on sale for HURT VILLAGE at the Romulus LInney Courtyard Theatre.
• All regularly priced single tickets ($75) for the initial run of the show will be made available for $25 through The Signature Ticket Initiative: A Decade of Access.
• Tickets and season subscriptions can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-244-7529 or online at www.signaturetheatre.org.

The HURT VILLAGE cast will feature Marsha Stephanie Blake (The Merchant of Venice; Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Amari Cheatom (Zooman and the Sign), Nicholas Christopher (Rent, In the Heights), Corey Hawkins (Suicide, Incorporated), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean, The Bridge Project), Joaquina Kalukango (Godspell), Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; “All My Children”) and Saycon Sengbloh (Fela!, Hair).

The design team includes David Gallo (Set and Projection Design), Clint Ramos (Costume Design), Sarah Sidman (Lighting Design), Rob Kaplowitz (Sound Design), Cookie Jordan (Hair and Make-Up Design), Kate Wilson (Dialect Coach), Rick Sordelet (Fight Direction), and Luqman Brown (Additional Music). Casting is by Telsey + Company. The Production Stage Manager is Jane Pole and Assistant Stage Manager is Megan J. Alvord.

Signature Theatre recently announced its pledge to A Decade of Access, the next phase of the Signature Ticket Initiative, an unprecedented program which makes great theatre accessible to the broadest possible audience, which Signature initiated in 2005. For the next ten years, Signature is committed to making all regularly-priced subscription and single tickets ($75) during the initial announced run available for $25. Signature is committed to raising the $20 Million in funds needed for A Decade of Access and is pursuing lead sponsorship. Seed funding has been provided by Margot Adams, Time Warner Inc., the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the New York City Council. Signature is also pleased to welcome the Ford Foundation as a new supporter of the Signature Ticket Initiative.

Hurt Village
by Katori Hall
directed by Patricia McGregor
originally produced at Signature Theatre Company, New York, NY.
February 7, 2012 through March 18, 2012

Alley Theatre Workshop Presents Eugene O'Neill's Hughie - Feb 8 to March 3 in Toronto

2012-02-08T16:31:00.001-05:00

From a media release:

The Alley Theatre Workshop presents Hughie
Starring Dora Award-nominee Michael Kash
Directed by Dora Award-winning David Ferry
February 8 to March 3, 2012 in Toronto

TORONTO, ON – The Alley Theatre Workshop (ATW) is proud to present Eugene O’Neill’s Hughie at The Theatre Centre in Toronto. The rarely performed 45 minute two-character, one-act play has been performed on Broadway and on internationally-renowned stages around the world. This will mark the first time Hughie has been performed as a single bill in Canada and will run from February 7 to March 3, 2012.

Hughie stars Dora-nominated actor and ATW Artistic Director, Michael Kash (Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead, Where's My Money), in the role of small-time hustler Erie Smith. L. Dean Ifill (Basil "Bronco" Davis on the original Degrassi High) will play Charlie Hughes, the hotel’s night clerk, who has recently replaced the titular Hughie. Dora Award-winning, David Ferry directs the play, which is set in the lobby of a seedy New York City hotel. Hughie details the interaction between Kash’s eccentric Smith and Collins’ Hughes, as Smith laments the death of Hughes’ predecessor.

“We are pleased to be bringing the production of Hughie to Toronto for the first time,” says Kash. “As part of our ongoing initiative to give back to the community, we will be donating a portion of the proceeds to Anaphylaxis Canada. We are looking forward to working with the organization as a partner in both awareness and the community.”

• ATW will also host a dedicated performance of Hughie on February 20 and donate a portion of ticket sale proceeds to support Anaphylaxis Canada.
• Tickets for this special performance range from $50 to $100, and will include an intimate reception with the cast and crew following the show.

Hughie
The Theatre Centre Toronto, 100-1087 Queen St. W.
Run: February 8 through March 3
Tuesday through Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m.
TICKETS: Adults $25; students and seniors $20. Available at 416.538.0988

About Hughie:
Hughie was written by Eugene O’Neill in 1942. It made its Broadway debut in 1964, earning a Tony Award nomination for Jason Robards in the role of Erie Smith. More recently, the production earned attention for the 1996 Broadway revival directed by and starring Al Pacino. The show revolves around Charlie Hughes, the hotel night clerk, and Erie Smith, an alcoholic gambler who has spent his last fifteen years at the hotel. Smith embarks on a bender, prompted by the death of Hughie, the previous clerk. Hughes listens to this study in fraudulent glibness which is touching, revealing and a telling measure of what is behind Smith’s delusions.

Jim Brochu Returns in Zero Hour - Feb 8 to March 11 in Toronto

2012-02-08T16:25:00.001-05:00

From a media release:

ZERO HOUR
Critics and Audiences Raved!
The Most Honoured Show of 2010
returns to Toronto for a RARE, Encore engagement, with its star Jim BrochuLimited Run - February 8-March 11 at the Bathurst St. Theatre

TORONTO, ON - The multi-award-winning hit show ZERO HOUR will be back in Toronto for a LIMITED RUN, producers Lia and Dana Matthow announced today. Written by and starring Jim Brochu, ZERO HOUR will run February 8 to March 11 at the Bathurst St. Theatre. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca or by calling 1-855-985-ARTS (2787).

Jim Brochu brings Zero Mostel back to extraordinary life in Zero Hour. He re-creates the definitive backstory to this amazing performer's appearances in such shows as Fiddler on the Roof, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Mel Brooks' The Producers (film) and many more. Brochu is both hilarious and poignant as he recounts Mostel's big life - as a Broadway legend, a larger than life personality and the target of Hollywood blacklisting.

Zero Hour was the most honoured show of 2010, winning the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, the Los Angeles Ovation for Best Play and the Washington, D.C. Helen Hayes Award for Best Actor.

Brochu has said, "Zero had a great influence on my life and I was fortunate to get to know him when I was first starting out. He considered himself primarily an artist who took acting jobs to support his painting. I can think of no other person in show business who had more obstacles to overcome than him. He grew up poor. He survived the blacklist. A bus accident almost took his leg off. But he fought and survived, and then went on to win three Tony Awards."

The multi-Oscar-nominated actress Piper Laurie directs Brochu. When it played off-Broadway and Los Angeles, Variety said Brochu evokes the kind of prickle on the back of the neck usually delivered by David Lynch movies;" the LA Times noted that "Brochu reintroduces us to the funny, fantastically contrary Mostel in all his biting intelligence and imperfection;" and The New Yorker raved, "It all flows and provides plenty of big laughs as well as hushed drama. After a while, you stop caring whether a particular line is Brochu's or Mostel's; all you know is that you've been privy to the work of a great comedian."

Acclaimed hit show ZERO HOUR Returns!
Written by and starring Jim Brochu, directed by Piper Laurie
Preview February 8, Opens February 9 with After-Show Champagne Reception,
Runs to March 11, 2012.
at the Bathurst St. Theatre, 736 Bathurst St. (south of Bloor St. W.)
Performance times: Wed at 7pm; Thurs and Fri at 8pm; Sat at 2pm and 8pm; Sun at 3pm.

Ticket prices (includes HST): Wed & Thurs - $59; Fri, Sat & Sun - $59 & $69.50.
(Discounts for seniors, equity & groups. Student Rush available one-hour prior to curtain.)
For tickets, call Ticketmaster.ca at 1-855-985-ARTS (2787) or purchase online at www.ZeroHourShow.com

Reggae Radio in Toronto - Thursdays on CHRY 105.5FM with Wizology

2012-02-08T12:09:00.000-05:00

From a release:

Reggae Radio in Toronto
Wizology on Thursdays

TORONTO - The Wizology show is now Thursdays 3-5pm on CHRY 105.5FM - Rogers channel 945 on your TV dial.

We will bring you the Relaxer mix--smoothed out reggae music from 80's to early 2000
We will bring you the Canadian connection mix-- Canadian artist interviews live and Canadian reggae music from across the country.
We will bring you World Premier Street Pawty mix ----- Jamaica and the world's hottest newest riddims artist interviews and songs
Hottest news from Jamaica, Canada and around the world
Soon t.b.a we will start with the Canadian Up North reggae music chart!

Wizology will bring you good music each and every week

Thank you to CHRY for the opportunity and thank you the people for inviting my voice into your homes/cars/workplace and ears!

For advertisement on the show contact Mellisa Beckford 416-736-5145

Artists and those who have business ventures contact me via email (wizology1@gmail.com) for possible interviews.

CD Review: Donné Roberts' Internation

2012-02-08T11:44:00.004-05:00

CD Review: Donné Roberts' Internation

Featuring:
Donné Roberts - guitar and vocals
David Woodhead - bass & backup vocal
Walter Maclean - drums & percussion
Maryem Tollar, Sonia Aimy & Jani Lauzon - vocals
Rich Howse aka I-Sax - Sax & flute
Drew Jurecka - violin

Musically and lyrically, you'll criss cross the globe and back again on Donné Roberts' latest CD, Internation - and you may not even know you've done it. His unique gift, along with nimble guitar chops, is an impeccable musical sense that somehow lets him draw on languages and musical traditions the world over in a way that's seamless, that explores commonalities and convergences and brings them together for a sound that's fresh... yet familiar. Donné himself has a background that defies easy categorization, having been born in Madagascar and then grown up in Russia. In fact, he was the first black VJ on MTV Russia.

Some of Toronto's finest musicians contribute to this unique effort - we'll call it World Fusion, or Global Fusion, or something like that if it needs a name. What's appealing is the way that each song takes all those diverse influences and uses them in an organic flow of music. There's no formula here, in other words. Ela Bé blends Madagasy polyrhythms and melodic guitarwork with Celtic fiddles and flutes and quavering Middle Eastern vocals from Maryem Tollar. She's a mesmerizing singer and contributes to a few of the 11 tracks, sharing those duties with vibrant Nigerian singer Sonia Aimy and noted First Nations singer Jani Lauzon.

The song Ariengue brings out an irresistible percussive rhythm and call and response chorus that could come from anywhere in south Africa. Sayonara beings with a Russian chorus and accordion, then breaks into a bright and sunny Madagasy guitar tune, later embellished with Sonia Aimy's vibrant vocals. You'll find 14 languages in all on the CD's tracks. Donné's guitar turns funky on Mama and jazzy in Madagaskar. His scintillating guitarwork is one of the common threads in all the songs, and they never stray too far from that swingy African groove. The songs never abandon melodic appeal to their experimentations, with a bouncy and danceable aural aesthetic.

To call it "unique" and "global fusion" seems far too bland a way to describe this very appealing and inventive CD. Donné performs a raw solo version of Ariengue here:

The Canadian Opera Company's Premieres Love From Afar Feb 2- 22

2012-02-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

From a media release:

All canadian cast in coc’s canadian premiere of SAARIAHO’S LOVE FROM AFAR, one of the 21st Century’s great operas
February 2 - 22, 2012 at the Four Seasons Centre, Toronto

Toronto – This February, the Canadian Opera Company presents the Canadian premiere of acclaimed Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Love from Afar (L’amour de loin), a haunting and vivid musical creation that has become one of the most performed and successful operas composed of this century. This new COC production is helmed by COC Music Director Johannes Debus and visionary director Daniele Finzi Pasca, and features an all-Canadian cast of voices both familiar and new to the COC stage: baritone Russell Braun, soprano Erin Wall and mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó. Sung in French with English SURTITLES™, Love from Afar runs for eight performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on Feb. 2, 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and 22, 2012.

Since the opera’s premiere in 2000 at the Salzburg Festival, Love from Afar has captivated audiences worldwide with performances at Théâtre du Châtelet, Sante Fe Opera, Stadttheater Bern, Finnish National Opera, the Bergen International Festival, English National Opera and Vlaamse Opera. Arguably the greatest opera of the 21st century, it has been praised as a “haunting and resonant work... transfixing and utterly distinguished” by the New York Times.

Love from Afar tells the story of a world-weary troubadour from France who carries on a long-distance love affair with a beautiful woman living in Tripoli. Although they never see or speak to each other, their feelings develop and grow through the efforts of an enigmatic Pilgrim, who carries messages of love and yearning between the two. Saariaho drew her inspiration for the work from the life and song texts of Jaufré Rudel, a French prince and troubadour of the 12th century, who often wrote of his obsessive love for an ideal, unattainable woman and whether such a love is best preserved from afar. The resulting work is a melding of medieval musings with the sounds of the modern age.

On the heels of his acclaimed performance in the COC’s Iphigenia in Tauris last fall, internationally renowned lyric baritone Russell Braun returns to the company as the troubadour Jaufré Rudel. Erin Wall, one of the most exciting young sopranos on the current operatic scene with recent engagements at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Bayerische Staatsoper, makes her COC debut as Jaufré’s faraway desire, Clémence. The mysterious Pilgrim is sung by mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó, who has captivated audiences across North America and Europe since graduating from the COC Ensemble Studio in 2001. She most recently appeared with the COC as Idamante in 2010’s Idomeneo.

The COC production is presented by Daniele Finzi Pasca, best known for his work with Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo and the creation of the closing ceremonies of the XX Olympic Winter Games in Torino in 2006. In Love from Afar, Finzi Pasca also serves as lighting designer, working with set designer Jean Rabasse and costume designer Kevin Pollard. He brings his signature style to a visually arresting new production that uses innovative Cirque-like techniques to extend the range of effects possible on stage. Acrobats gliding through the air, backgrounds of silk and coloured lights, and costumes with seemingly endless silken extensions seductively weave this 12th-century love affair with the 21st century.

Johannes Debus leads the COC Orchestra and Chorus through Saariaho’s lushly orchestrated score. The composer has created a rich tapestry of sound using innovative combinations of traditional instrumental sections with electronics. Among the more unusual instruments used in Love from Afar’s orchestration are an o-daiko (a Japanese taiko drum), glass and shell chimes, and a synthesizer to trigger electronic soundscape effects.

This production of Love from Afar is a COC co-production with English National Opera, where it premiered in July 2009, and Vlaamse Opera, where it made its debut in September 2010.

TICKET INFORMATION
Single tickets for Love from Afar are $12 – $318 (includes applicable taxes). Tickets are available online at coc.ca, by calling 416-363-8231, or in person at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Box Office, located at 145 Queen St. W., Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Standing Room, Young People, Opera for a New Age, Student Group Rates & Rush Seat discounts available - information at the link

Off Broadway Deal: 20at20 Offers $20 Tix to 36 Shows

2012-02-01T21:23:00.001-05:00

From a release:

THE OFF BROADWAY ALLIANCE presents 20at20
Buy tix to 36 Off Broadway shows
20 minutes before curtain
for only $20 each

• Continues through February 6, 2012

NEW YORK CITY - The Off Broadway Alliance will again sponsor 20at20, the bi-annual celebration of Off Broadway. The popular promotion, which begins January 18th and continues through February 6th, makes $20 tickets for 36 Off Broadway plays and musicals available to theatre-goers twenty minutes prior to curtain. Now in its 6th year, 20at20 has become one of New York’s most eagerly-anticipated promotions for budget-conscious theatre-goers.

Peter Breger, Chairman of the non-profit Off Broadway Alliance said: “We are thrilled to once again offer $20 tickets to many of New York’s most popular Off Broadway shows, including two recent winners of the Off Broadway Alliance Awards - Freud’s Last Session which won as Best New Play and NEWSical which was named Best New Musical. Just show up twenty minutes before curtain to purchase available $20 tickets at the box office. Here’s your chance to catch up with shows you may have missed, get a sneak peek at the newest hits, or revisit a favorite show – all for only $20.” For a complete list of participating shows and venues see below or visit www.20at20.com.

This year, if you see seven Off Broadway shows during the OBA’s 20at20 promotion, you can enjoy a FREE DINNER on us! See any seven of the participating 20at20 shows between January 18th and February 6th and receive a voucher for a free dinner for two at an area restaurant. Just mail your original ticket stubs (no photocopies accepted) to: 20at20 Dinner Special, 250 West 49th Street, Suite 301, NY, NY 10019. All entries must be postmarked by February 7th to be valid. Please include your name, phone, email, and mailing address.

20at20 is presented by The Off Broadway Alliance (OBA), a non-profit corporation organized by theater professionals dedicated to supporting, promoting and encouraging the production of Off Broadway theater and to making live theater increasingly accessible to new and diverse audiences. The Alliance holds monthly meetings and membership is open to everyone in the Off-Broadway theater community. Among its initiatives, The Off Broadway Alliance sponsors a free Seminar Series focusing on the culture, business and history of Off Broadway featuring major players from the Off Broadway scene. In 2009, OBA released the first ever Off Broadway Economic Impact Report, which detailed Off Broadway's $461 million annual impact on the economy of the City of New York.

20at20 is presented with additional support from BestOfOffBroadway.com, BroadwaySpace.com, Playbill, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, TheMenEvent.com, DidHeLikeIt.com, 8Coupons.com, TheaterMania.com and TheProducersPerspective.com.

• Check out the full list of shows at the link

The Fine Print:
20at20 Terms and Conditions: All tickets subject to availability. Restrictions may apply. Offer valid only at the box office on the day of the performance twenty minutes prior to curtain. Offer may be revoked at any time. Not valid on prior sale. Cannot be combined with other offers. Valid January 18th, 2012 through and including February 6th, 2012 only. Cash only at some venues. Additional restrictions may apply. Free dinner offer valid while supplies last. A limited number of dinner vouchers are available. No substitutions will be given. You will not be able to choose your restaurant. Voucher is subject to restaurant's restrictions.

Royal Conservatory Concerts for February 2012

2012-02-01T20:59:00.003-05:00

From a media release:

FEBRUARY AT THE ROYAL CONSERVATORY
Les Violons du Roy with Bernard Labadie and Maurice Steger, and Eliot Fisk in their Koerner Hall Debuts
Music From Across the Middle East Series Continues with Yasmin Levy and Omar Faruk Tekbilek, and Malek Jandali
Black History Month Celebrated with Concerts by Ravi Coltrane and Sweet Honey In The Rock

TORONTO - The month of February kicks off at The Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall with a concert by the Ravi Coltrane Quartet and the Christine Jensen Quartet featuring Ingrid Jensen on February 4, as part of The Conservatory’s Year of Great Sax series. Coltrane, son of the legendary tenor saxophonist John Coltrane and jazz pianist Alice Coltrane, is one of the premier saxophonists of the post-bop era. In addition to his solo career, he is also a bandleader, composer, producer, and founder of the independent record company, RKM Music. The same night, Canadian saxophonist Christine Jensen is joined by her sister, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, and her Quartet for their Koerner Hall debut. Both Jensen sisters are Conservatory alumnae. Sweet Honey In The Rock, the Grammy Award-winning female a cappella ensemble, appears in Koerner Hall on February 10. Their repertoire is steeped in the sacred music of the Black church, the clarion calls of the civil rights movement, and songs of the struggle for justice everywhere, and the group sings unaccompanied, except for body and hand percussion instruments. Music From Across the Middle East concert series continues with Israeli Ladino singer Yasmin Levy and one of the world’s foremost exponents of Middle Eastern music, Turkish multi-instrumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek, on February 11.

Classical music concerts at Koerner Hall include Les Violons du Roy with “the world’s leading recorder virtuoso” (The Independent) Maurice Steger on February 5, all led by Bernard Labadie. The Juno Award-winning ensemble performs Baroque concertos by Georg Friedrich Händel (Concerto grosso in B-flat Major, Op. 6, No. 7, HWV 325 “Hornpipe”), Georg Philipp Telemann (Suite in A Minor for alto recorder, strings, and basso continuo, TWV 55: a2), Giuseppe Sammartini (Concerto in F Major for soprano recorder and strings), and Francesco Geminiani (Concerto grosso in D Minor “La follia” and Concerto per flauto No. 10 in F Major). Legendary pianist Leon Fleisher returns to The Conservatory on February 17 to both perform with and to lead the Royal Conservatory Orchestra. The program includes Maurice Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 4 for the Left Hand. Presented in association with the Toronto Guitar Society, “the king of the American classical guitar” (The New Yorker) Eliot Fisk appears on February 24. Fisk, who has transformed the repertoire of the classical guitar with his groundbreaking transcriptions, collaborations, and mesmerizing performances, plays Domenico Scarlatti’s Six Sonatas for guitar, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Ciaccona from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, Nicolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices arranged for guitar, and the Canadian premiere of Kurt Schwertsik’s Ein kleines Requiem, dedicated to Fisk. After the overwhelming success of Beethoven and Your Brain last season, neuroscientist and writer Dr. Daniel Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Music Director Edwin Outwater take the audience to the next level in their exploration of what happens to the brain when one hears Beethoven's music. In this interactive performance on February 25, the audience gets a chance to vote on how different pieces of Beethoven’s music, including Overture to Egmont, Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, and excerpts from Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, “Choral,” and Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, “Eroica,” make them feel. The Glenn Gould School Concerto Competition Finals take place on February 9 and gives the audience a chance to hear the talented solo performers of The School compete for the opportunity to perform a concerto with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra during the 2012-13 season. The competition event is free.

Mazzoleni Concert Hall, located in historic Ihnatowycz Hall, hosts one of the Music From Across the Middle East series concerts on February 12, with Syrian composer and pianist Malek Jandali. Inspired by the folk and ancient music of Syria, and incorporating both Arabic music and Western harmony in his compositions, Jandali performs a unique program, titled Echoes from Ugarit, based on the oldest music notation in the world, dating back to 3400 B.C., discovered in the ancient city of Ugarit, Syria. “Dazzling and magical performances of his piano compositions [are] delivered with precision and passion" (Forward Magazine). Mazzoleni Masters concert series continues with pianist David Louie, violinist Marie Bérard, and cellist Bryan Epperson on February 19, with a program of works by Johannes Brahms. The works include Op. 99 for Cello and Piano Sonata, Op. 100 for Violin and Piano Sonata, and the Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 101. Principal Bass of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and touring member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, Jeffrey Beecher will perform works by Bach, Bartók, and Nino Rota, with Joseph Johnson, Principal Cello of the TSO, pianist Vanessa Lee, and others, on February 26. The Discovery Series includes two concerts in February. On February 2, the “terrifically unified, versatile, idiomatic, and moving ensemble” (San Francisco Classical Voice) Afiara String Quartet is joined by guest violists Catherine Gray and Laurence Schaufele in a program of Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 74, No. 2, Jean Sibelius’s String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 56 “Voce intimae,” and Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 18; and recipients of The Glenn Gould School's new Fellowship Residency, pianist Hiroko Kudo and cellist Tobias Bäz, perform works by Brahms, Bohuslav Martinů, and the solo piano work Fantasia Baetica by Manuel de Falla, on February 9.

Presented in partnership with the Songwriters Association of Canada, Bluebird North: Where Songwriters Sing and Tell returns to the Conservatory Theatre on February 18. Hosted by Blair Packham, Rob Szabo (Toronto-based singer, producer, and songwriter) and Rik Emmett (vocalist, guitarist, and founding member of the Canadian rock band Triumph) perform their music and tell the audience about the inspiration, the song writing process, and even stories about the music business behind the songs. One more artist for the concert is to be confirmed soon.

Postlude Concerts and Prelude Recitals
Four of the Koerner Hall mainstage performances are followed by Postlude Concerts in the Leslie and Anna Dan Galleria, Lower Level: Alex Fournier Trio follows Ravi Coltrane on February 4, Lemon Buckets Orkestra follows Yasmin Levy and Omar Faruk Tekbilek on February 11, the Toronto Guitar Society follows Eliot Fisk on February 24, and the postlude artist after Sweet Honey In The Rock on February 10 is yet to be confirmed. New this season, the Royal Conservatory Orchestra concerts are now preceded by Prelude Recitals starting at 6:45pm and featuring the talented young students of The Glenn Gould School in chamber music settings.

February Performances at The Royal Conservatory
Afiara String Quartet (Discovery): Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 7:30pm (MCH); $14.50
Ravi Coltrane Quartet & Christine Jensen Quartet (A Year of Great Sax): Sat., Feb. 4, 2012 at 8pm (KH); starting at $39
Les Violons du Roy with Maurice Steger, recorder (Early Music): Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 3pm (KH); starting at $39
The Glenn Gould School Concerto Competition Finals (Discovery): Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 2pm (KH) *
Hiroko Kudo, piano, and Tobias Bäz, cello (Discovery): Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 7:30pm (MCH); $14.50
Sweet Honey In The Rock (Soul/R&B): Friday, February 10, 2012 at 8pm (KH); starting at $33.50
Yasmin Levy and Omar Faruk Tekbilek (Middle Eastern Music): Sat., February 11, 2012 at 8pm (KH); starting at $33.50
Malek Jandali (Middle Eastern Music): Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 3pm (MCH); starting at $37
Royal Conservatory Orchestra with Leon Fleisher (Orchestra): Friday, February 17, 2012 at 8pm (KH); starting at $22
Bluebird North: Where Songwriters Sing and Tell (Pop): Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 8pm (CT); $26
David Louie, Marie Bérard, and Bryan Epperson (Mazzoleni Masters): Sun., February 19, 2012 at 2pm (MCH); $31.50
Eliot Fisk, guitar (Strings): Friday, February 24, 2012 at 8pm (KH); starting at $33.50
Beethoven and Your Brain Part II: Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 8pm (KH); starting at $45
Jeffrey Beecher and Friends (Mazzoleni Masters): Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 2pm (MCH); $31.50

(KH) – Koerner Hall; (MCH) – Mazzoleni Concert Hall; * Free admission
• Tickets are available online at www.rcmusic.ca, by calling 416.408.0208, or in person at the Weston Family Box Office
Create your own package: select any 4-6 concerts and save 10%; select any 7+ concerts and save 15%
A limited number of $10 rush tickets are available starting 90 minutes before all performances presented by The Royal Conservatory

Now Available on DVD in the USA: Abdoulaye Dao's Comedy An Uncommon Woman

2012-02-01T10:40:00.004-05:00

From a release:

AN UNCOMMON WOMAN
Official selection, African Diaspora Film Festival 2010
Now available on DVD

NEW YORK CITY - An Uncommon Woman by Burkinabe filmmaker Abdoulaye Dao is now available on DVD in the USA.

Mina is tired of her husband's infidelity and decides to take a drastic decision: She takes a second husband.

Based on his conversations with women involved in polygamist relationships, he illustrates - to very funny effects - the daily life of two persons - in this case two men - who share a spouse. On a comedic tone, Abdoulaye Dao tells us a story of jealousy, infidelity, romance and revenge.

An Uncommon Woman-Une Femme Pas Comme Les Autres- was a success in its native Burkina Faso and is cast with some the best actors of Burkinabe cinema.

Abdoulaye Dao was born in Burkina Faso. He studied at the Institut african d'éducation cinématographique in Ouagadougou and then at INA-Institut National Audivisuel - in France. He is the director of the series Quand les elephants se battent that received the Grand Prix for a Best TV Series in FESPACO 2007.

AN UNCOMMON WOMAN
Burkina Faso, 2009, 101 minutes, comedy, French with English subtitles, Abdoulaye Dao, dir.

Black History Month: Kick It Off at Kuumba Feb 3-5 at Harbourfront Toronto

2012-02-01T10:29:00.002-05:00

From a media release:

Harbourfront Centre celebrates Black History Month
Kuumba presented by TD – Feb. 3-5, 2012

TORONTO, ON (February 2012) – In celebration of Black History Month, Harbourfront Centre proudly presents the 16th edition of Kuumba, a weekend-long festival (Feb. 3-5, 2012) that invites members of the public to explore and celebrate the heritage, traditions and culture of African-Canadians.

This year’s festival features a rare live appearance by legendary reggae music producer, Clive Chin. VP Records/17 North Parade Celebrates 50 years of Jamaican Music is a once-in-a-lifetime music event that commemorates Jamaica’s Anniversary of Independence with an exclusive DJ workshop on the history of Jamaican music led by Clive Chin. He is best-known for establishing dub as a standalone musical form and for producing hits for some of the greatest reggae musicians including The Wailers, Dennis Brown, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Augustus Pablo, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs and Black Uhuru. Chin is a musical pioneer, producing the Java Java Dub album in 1973, arguably the first-ever dub album and will be signing copies of the album following the event.

Known (Un)Known, hosted by former MTV personality Tika Simone, is one of Toronto’s most buzz-worthy, all-ages, independent-artist events to showcase urban music stars of tomorrow, today. The inaugural Known (Un)Known session features local artists on the cusp of superstardom including R&B songstress Rochelle Jordan (who Vibe Magazine has dubbed the “female version of Drake”); 2011 Stylus Award-winner Shi Wisdom; 88 Days of Fortune, a Toronto-based urban music and multi-media collective featuring hip hop artist and recording/mixing engineer KJ, MC Spek Won and Abstract Random, a young Toronto-based group featuring Jamilah Malika, LoverSun and Ayo Leilani.

Other musical highlights include the Honey Jam Then & Now ($10) special Black History Month reunion concert and photo exhibit showcasing iconic images from the past 16 years of Honey Jam, the longest-running talent showcase in Canada. Hosted by Michie Mee, this event features Honey Jam alumni performing original songs including Jemeni, Belinda Brady, Kellylee Evans, Kim Davis, Eternia, Natasha Waterman, Saidah Baba Talibah and more!

Kuumba goes high-fashion at Fashion Blackout—a multi-faceted event that shines a spotlight on black and diverse designers, models and influencers in the fashion industry. The event kicks off with a screening of The Colour of Beauty, a shocking documentary that examines racism in the fashion industry, followed by a Walk This Way fashion workshop with Canadian model Stacey McKenzie and panel discussions with fashion designers and influencers including top fashion blogger Miss SLY (Noëlly Sam), leading agent Norwayne Anderson (NAM) and fashion journalist Sarah Nicole Prickett.

This winter, Harbourfront Centre presents programming that questions the BIG iDEA of “Perspective.” Join us Feb. 3-5, 2012 to gain perspective on black history and to celebrate the vitality of Toronto's African and Caribbean communities, by showcasing works by innovative Canadian and international artists. Most events are FREE and take place at Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West, Toronto). For more information and to purchase tickets call 416-973-4000 or visit harbourfrontcentre.com.

Kuumba event listings:

MUSIC
Honey Jam – Then and Now (Hosted by Michie Mee, with DJ Mel Boogie)
* Ticketed event $10
Friday, Feb. 3, 7-10 p.m. (Brigantine Room)
For the past 16 years, Honey Jam has been Canada’s premiere all-female talent showcase featuring a wide variety of local DJ’s and artists representing hip hop, jazz, gospel, reggae, blues, r&b, dance and spoken word. This celebration features performances by Kellylee Evans, Eternia, Jemeni, Kim Davis, Belinda Brady, True, Saidah Baba Talibah, Motion, Natasha Waterman and more!

VP Records/17 North Parade celebrate 50 years of Jamaican Music with Clive Chin
Saturday, Feb. 4, 8-10- p.m. (Lakeside Terrace)
To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Jamaica’s Independence, reggae music legend Clive Chin presents an exclusive DJ workshop on the history of Jamaican music. Chin is a Chinese-Jamaican record producer whose credits include recordings by Dennis Brown, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Augustus Pablo, Peter Tosh, Jackie Mittoo, The Wailers and Black Uhuru, among many others. Chin was a musical pioneer, producing the Java Java Dub album in 1973, arguably the first-ever dub album. Chin will be signing copies of the album following the event. Hosted by CBC personality Garvia Bailey.

The Known, (Un)Known
Saturday, Feb. 4, 9:30 p.m.-12 a.m. (Brigantine Room)
Hosted by Tika Simone (MTV’s The Hills Aftershow), The Known, (Un)Known
is an all-ages independent artist event that showcases Toronto’s urban music stars of tomorrow, today. This session features Rochelle Jordan (pictured below), Shi Wisdom and 88 Days of Fortune’s KJ, Spek Won, abstract Random and more.

Youth Workshop and Hip-Hop Performance by P.E.A.C.E
Sunday, Feb. 5, 4-6 p.m. (Lakeside Terrace)
People Everywhere Actually Co-existing Equally (P.E.A.C.E.), is a mission to bring awareness to the power of action in our communities. Identifying with hip hop culture, Jamaican heritage and African roots, this workshop uses musical inspiration and sound therapy to generate positive energy and share ideas.

T&T 50th Anniversary of Independence Celebration with Pan Fantasy
Sunday, Feb. 5, 3:30-5 p.m. (Brigantine Room)
Celebrate Trinidad and Tobago’s 50th Anniversary of Independence at this musical extravaganza produced by the award-winning Pan Fantasy Steelband. The celebration kicks off with a medley of classic calypso songs that spans generations, to contemporary numbers featuring a special homage to legendary calypsonian Mighty Sparrow.

DANCE
Lua Shayenne: Afro-roots dance workshop and performance
Sunday, Feb. 5, 3 p.m. (Lakeside Terrace)
Lua Shayenne presents traditional African and Afro-contemporary dance works that draw on the aesthetics and values of African culture to challenge stereotypes.

FILM
Celebrating the Cinematography of Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago:
Joebell and America, directed by Asha Lovelace (Jamaica)
Friday, Feb. 3, 6:30 p.m. (Studio Theatre)
Based on the true story by Earl Lovelace, Joebell and America tells the story of Joebell, a gambler who concocts a risky plan to escape to the promise and fantasy of America. Prepared to leave everything behind, including his newly-found romance with the village beauty, Joebell sets out for his final destination. The film received the Best International Narrative Feature Award at the Women’s International Film Festival.

Celebrating Black Canadian Filmmakers:
Devotion, directed by Dawn Wilkinson (Canada)
Friday, Feb. 3, 9:30 p.m. (Studio Theatre)
Alice, a bi-racial 11-year-old girl, has recently lost her mother in a car accident caused by her father’s drunk driving. As father and daughter begin a new life, Alice is haunted by nightmares and memories of her mother’s death and the new woman in her father’s life. Winner of the Best Feature Award at the San Francisco Urban Kidz Film Festival, the Star! Audience Choice Award at the ReelWorld Film Festival and the 1st Annual Tony Stoltz Completion Fund Award.

Celebrating the Cinematography of Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago:
Saturday, Feb. 4, 1:30 p.m. (Studio Theatre)
A series of short films celebrating the richness of Jamaican and Trinidadian cinema.
• Caribbean Skin, African Identity, directed by Mandisa Patin (Trinidad & Tobago)
Caribbean Skin is a documentary that examines the concept of African identity as it has evolved over generations in Trinidad & Tobago. In it, the director explores her own identity using the Emancipation Day parade and its rituals as a starting point for her journey. Interviews with African-Caribbean scholars define and explain some of the complexities of race in this society.
• Directions, directed by Renee Pollonais (Trinidad & Tobago)
No one gives directions like a Trinidadian. In this short dramatization of that endearing and frustrating phenomenon, a number of persons are asked to give directions to a well-known Port of Spain landmark, with hilarious results. Directions received the People’s Choice Award at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival.
• Entry Denied, directed by Christopher Browne (Jamaica)
Entry Denied follows the story of a young Jamaican footballer from the ghetto of Kingston who is refused a visa to take up a scholarship at a university in the US. Dramatic events and coincidences conspire to take the story to an alternate conclusion.
• Now Jimmy!, directed by Mary Wells (Jamaica)
Now Jimmy! is a short documentary that explores land rights issues. The film follows a riveting and unusual story about the title character, a squatter who has built a home out of salvaged materials on prime Jamaican real estate. The film received the Outstanding Documentary from the Caribbean Award by the Sheryl Lee Ralph Jamerican Film & Music Festival, screened at TIFF and was chosen by UNESCO to be a part of an international selection of films from around the world for the new Radio-Television Afghanistan.

Celebrating Black Filmmakers:
Lying Lips, directed by Oscar Micheaux in partnership with COMMFFEST
Saturday, Feb. 4, 5 p.m. (Studio Theatre)
Lying Lips is a 1939 drama starring Edna Mae Harris and Robert Earl Jones (the father of James Earl Jones) that follows a nightclub singer who refuses to "date" customers, so she's framed for the murder of her aunt, convicted of the killing and sent to prison. However, her friend, who is a police detective, doesn't believe she did it and sets out to prove her innocence.

Celebrating Black Canadian Filmmakers:
Finder of Lost Children, directed by Ricardo Scipio (Trinidad & Tobago)
Saturday, Feb. 4, 7:30 p.m. (Studio Theatre)
Finder of Lost Children is the story of two half-sisters that meet for the first time after the funeral of the father neither one of them knew. These reluctant siblings make a road trip to deal with their father’s meager possessions and discover the existence of several other lost brothers and sisters who are unaware of their father’s passing. The film was screened at the Hollywood Black Film Festival and at CaribbeanTales Film Festival.

COMEDY
CANADA Vs. USA Comedy Clash
Saturday, Feb. 4, 7-9 p.m. (Brigantine Room)
Team USA (Sheldon Johnson and Zack Johnson) challenge Team Canada (Jay Martin and Trixx) to a side-splitting duel of jokes and more jokes. The event sees the best comics from each country squaring off in a serious game of humour.

FASHION
Fashion Blackout
Saturday, Feb. 4, 2-4 p.m. (Brigantine Room)
Fashion Blackout is a multi-faceted event that shines a spotlight on black and diverse designers, models and influencers in the fashion industry. Join us for the screening of The Colour of Beauty, a shocking short documentary that examines racism in the fashion industry; a Walk This Way fashion workshop with Canadian model Stacey McKenzie and panel discussions with fashion designers and influencers such as Montreal’s Miss Sly (Noëlly Sam), leading model agent Norwayne Anderson (NAM) and journalist Sarah Nicole Prickett. Hosted by CBC personality Anne-Marie Mediwake.

PANEL DISCUSSION
Identify and Address: A Panel Discussion about Black Women and Leadership with The Congress of Black Women
Sunday, Feb. 5, 3-5 p.m. (Studio Theatre)
Identify and Address is a panel discussion created in partnership with The Congress of Black Women of Canada. A group of selected panelists will discuss and answer questions from the audience about issues black women face.

FAMILY ACTIVITIES

A Celebration of Afro-diasporic Tradition through Storytelling with Itah Sadu and Guests
Saturday, Feb. 4 and Sunday, Feb. 5, 2-3 p.m. (Miss Lou’s Room)
Author and storyteller Itah Sadu shares the rich oral traditions of the Caribbean, Africa and North America with tales that celebrate African roots.

OWARE: African Board Gaming
Saturday, Feb. 4 and Sunday, Feb. 5, 3-6 p.m. (Miss Lou’s Room)
Learn to play or watch the hugely popular traditional African board game Oware with MACPRI Oware Canada. Oware is the oldest ancient Egyptian board game still widely played in the world today.

Rhythms of Guinea: Drumming Workshop with Alpha Rhythm Roots
Sunday, Feb. 5, 1-3 p.m. (Lakeside Terrace)
Participants can learn basic drumming techniques with Alpha Rhythm Roots and discover the music, dance, traditions and culture of Guinea, Africa.

DJ SKATE NIGHT
Soca on Ice featuring Dr. Jay de Soca Prince
Saturday, Feb. 4, 8-11 p.m. (The Natrel® Rink)
DJ Skate Night explores hot Caribbean rhythms at the second soca party on ice as Dr. Jay de Soca Prince heats things up with spicy soca and calypso tunes.

MARKET PLACE
Village Market
Friday, Feb. 3, 6-11 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 4, 1-11 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 5, 1-6 p.m. (Marilyn Brewer Community Space)
Harbourfront Centre’s Village Market features exotic, sustainable and eco-friendly products of excellent quality and unquestionable authenticity.

CD Release: TriBeCaStan's New Deli Breaks the Time/Space Continuum in New Deli (Feb 7)

2012-02-01T09:48:00.005-05:00

From a media release:

New Release from Little Known Government of TriBeCaStan:
Capital New Deli Found to Have Irregular Time-Space Continuum
EverGreene Music - February 7, 2012

TriBeCaStan: News Alert. This morning Aljazzeera reported that the questionable nation of TriBeCaStan (www.tribecastan.tv) has made scientific breakthroughs in time travel. The unrecognized republic of nomads has broken the code of the time/space continuum. And by broken we mean: it no longer works. Applying sonic techniques once only known to a small group of punk rock shamans, the nation's most prestigious scientific entity, the TriBeCaStani FolkLorkEstra, uses sound alone to simultaneously place listeners in eras separated by decades and terrains separated by oceans. The breakthrough is outlined in an auditory compendium titled New Deli (distributed by the state-run EverGreene Music, set for release February 7, 2012), a recording that allows the world to experience a type of soulful networking more insidious than Facebook's privacy policies.

To fully grasp TriBeCaStan's methodology, one must note the movements of the commonwealth's Minister of Foreign Expatriation Jeff Greene and Archduke of the Forward Guard John Kruth.

Kruth--the sonic engineer and composer of the melodic formulas concocted for New Deli--carried out extensive research with auditory specialists among Bosnian Gypsies, Indians, and Moroccans, while Greene conducted top secret junkets to Western China, Cuba, and Uzbekistan collecting artifacts key to the timbral sound bending necessary to achieve dimensional shifts. Research by the two culminated in their participation in the 2011 International Jews Harp Congress (sic) in the diamond and permafrost capital of Russia, Yakutsk. The Congress broke the record for most jews harps played at once, while the TriBeCaStan delegates broke wind on the stage of the Yakutsk Opera House, with their jews harps.

The plot thickens when one realizes that it is the double-spy tendency of these two former rebels which led to the new discovery. After the revolution, Parliament decided that rather than changing governments every few years, they would do so intentionally every few weeks, creating more instability than even a coup could handle. Thus all government leaders are forced to spend three weeks out of every six weeks in New York City's subways, bars, and, most importantly and considered most sacred, spice-filled delis. One mythical deli in particular inspired the re-naming of the nation's capital to New Deli.

A revolving door of temporarily expatriated patriots led to the swelling ranks of the Folklorkestra. “Everywhere I go, the musicians I meet want to hear and play American music, particularly, blues and country," says Kruth as he smokes dates and eats tobacco. "Musicians all over the world listened to Curtis Mayfield and the Temptations. But for the last decade or two the shoe has been on the other foot. We’ve not only been inspired by world-class global musicians like Bachir Attar of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Carnatic mandolin master U. Rajesh, and the Austrian hurdy-gurdy virtuoso Mathias Loibner, we invited them to play as guests on New Deli.”

"As we say in TriBeCaStan," adds Greene, "'If your toes all face one way, you will walk crooked.' This means we must be in solidarity with all of the world to find the right direction. If you dig around in the '60s and '70s in music from India, Thailand and Ethiopia you hear how the musicians borrowed from and reworked American music. We’re just doing the same thing, but in reverse."

With the addition of baritone saxophonist Claire Daly, a former James Brown and Taj Mahal side woman and a fave of both the Downbeat poll and former President Clinton, along with John Turner's versatile ska trumpet tossed into the mix, the band digs deep into an eclectic '60’s bag covering Ornette Coleman, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Don Cherry. Kirk is the subject of Kruth’s first biography, Bright Moments, and composer of the funky “Freaks for the Festival,” which TriBeCaStan recorded live at Bill Laswell’s studio with Kirk alumni Steve Turre blowing a massive trombone solo.

New Deli's cover art was created by comrade Cal Schenkel, Frank Zappa's resident album cover artist known for a collage and outsider style consistent with the TriBeCaStani culture.

Image credits:
• Doron Gild
• Paul Hoelen & Mandarine Montgomery

TheatreRUN Toronto Presents Dostoevsky's The Double on Stage Feb 2-19

2012-02-01T09:28:00.004-05:00

From a media release:

TheatreRUN presents the world premiere of
The Double
An original adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic comic-neurotic-thriller
Two actors and one musician with a double bass collide in a schizophrenic feast of site and sound
February 2- 19, 2012 at Factory Theatre Toronto

Toronto - TheatreRUN, the Dora Award-winning company best known for co-creating the critically acclaimed smash hit Spent, presents the world premiere of The Double, a multi-disciplinary adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella of the same name. Conceived, created and performed by Artistic Director Adam Paolozza (who also directs) and Arif Mirabdolbaghi, bass-player and lyricist of the award-winning Canadian Metal band Protest The Hero, The Double combines physical theatre, mime and music for a jazzy exploration of alienation and paranoia. A dark comedic satire about our deepest fears of losing our identity, The Double previews February 2, opens February 3 and runs to February 19 at Factory Studio Theatre.

Dostoevsky's brilliant prose, mixed with a quirky original adaptation featuring live music, provides a hilarious (and painfully accurate) cautionary tale about one man's desperate attempts to fit in with a grotesque society and his gradual descent into madness when this fails.

The Double speaks to our own fragile hold on reality in a time when our identity is as fluid as our facebook and twitter profiles allow. Mr. Golyadkin (whose name literally means "poor-fellow"), a St Petersburg government clerk, is a man persecuted by his own personal neuroses. His worst fears are soon realized when another, more devious Mr Golyadkin, appears on the scene spinning his life out of control. This other Mr. Golyadkin is so alike in every way to our hero Mr. Golyadkin, such a perfect physical likeness, that you might even say he was his...Double!

First developed as part of Theatre Passe Muraille's BUZZ Festival where it was a smash hit, The Double mixes elements of vaudeville and a jazzy double bass in a comedic molotov cocktail filled with laughter and paranoia. Audiences will laugh...and then cringe!

Paolozza's TheatreRUN is co-creator (with Why Not Theatre and Theatre Smith Gilmour) of the internationally acclaimed hit show Spent, nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and winning for Outstanding Performance in a Featured Role (to both Paolozza and Ravi Jain). Spent played two nearly sold-out runs at Factory Theatre before playing a sold-out run at the Young Centre and a 4-week sold out run at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. Spent plays a limited run in New York City in the spring.

TheatreRUN has been recognized as part of the next generation of exciting and physically innovative theatre creators whose original, highly physical, imagistic work has been produced in French and English - in Canada, Scotland, France, USA, China and India. As noted above, it co-created the award-winning Spent for which Paolozza won a Dora Mavor Moore Award.

Arif Mirabdolbaghi is an exciting up-and-coming Canadian music star with the progressive-rock outfit Protest The Hero, whose accolades include a #1 album, Juno nomination, certified Canadian gold DVD, several CMW awards and extensive touring all across North America, Europe and Asia.

Joining Paolozza and Mirabdolbaghi on stage in The Double is co-creator Viktor Lukawski who, like Paolozza, is a graduate of École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France. While abroad, he performed and developed new works in France, the UK and Poland, and became a member of the English theatre company Wet Picnic.

TheatreRun presents the world premiere of The Double
an original adaptation featuring live music of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella of the same name
by TheatreRUN Artistic Director Adam Paolozza and musician Arif Miradolbaghi
Co-created and performed by Adam Paolozza, Arif Miradolbaghi and Viktor Lukawaski

Preview February 2, Opens February 3 and runs to February 19, 2012
at Factory Studio Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street
Performances: Thursday-Saturday at 8pm; Sunday matinee at 2pm
Preview Pay-What-You-Can; Tues $20; Wed-Thurs $25;
Fri & Sat $28 (Discounts available for students, seniors, groups, equity)
Tickets: Factory Theatre box office at 416-504-9971 OR online at factorytheatre.ca

Oka! Soundtrack Release February 1 2012

2012-01-31T09:46:00.002-05:00

From a media release:

Oka! soundtrack (Oka Productions - release: February 1, 2012)
Channeling the Waterdrum: Chris Berry and the Bayaka Pygmies’ Close Collaboration Resonates on the Oka! Soundtrack

African music master meets intensely creative, egalitarian hunter-gatherers to create gorgeously recorded, deeply complex score for feature film.

Beats fly from drums made of the living roots of towering trees, or from the surface of flowing water. Songs, born of highly complex structures, spring from multi-part improvisation. Rhythmic cycles extend to lengths that baffle outsiders’ ears. Music both expresses and creates the moment, with spontaneous compositions leaping out in joy, or contemplative flute melodies drifting through the late night village to encourage dreams and peace.

This is the music of the Bayaka (Pymgies) and the Oka! Soundtrack (Oka Productions; release: February 1, 2012). Directed by Lavinia Currier (Passion in the Desert) and starring Kris Marshall (Love, Actually), the film tells the story of ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno, a leading expert on Bayaka music who ignored a life-threatening disease to live for three decades among these forest hunter-gatherers and record their music. Filmed and recorded on location in the remote tropical forests of the Central African Republic, Oka!’s story, the film, and the soundtrack were intimately shaped by Bayaka artists.

Going far beyond previous recorded encounters with this unique music, musician and engineer Chris Berry used multitracking techniques generally left in the studio and brought them to the Bayaka’s home turf. He worked with the community to write songs and to harness the sonic qualities of everything from earth bows to midnight flutes, from resonant roots to cupped palms on water. The result is a crisp, lush perspective that captures the full glory of the Bayaka egalitarian spirit and endless musical creativity.

“You just can’t frame it like Western music,” Berry explains. “It’s very complex, and make no mistake: Bayaka musicians know exactly what they are doing. And the most ingenious thing about it is that while they stick to this order, everyone is free. They express that moment and get at the power and beauty of where you are, right there.”

In just such a moment, Essandje, a highly respected woman in the community, leaped into overdubs. At first, the Bayaka singers weren’t quite sure why they had to follow Berry’s suggestion, put on headphones, and sing over their previously recorded tracks in the thatched shelter Berry used as his base.

But Essandje got it (Her nimble, rich voice rings out on “Mua” and “Wild Yam”). And within days, so did everyone else, with her guidance. “When Essandje broke the barrier, that’s when the magic started happening,” Berry recalls with a smile. “After a few days, the women came to me and said, ‘We want to write songs, and we want do to it with you.’”

“The women are the stars of Bayaka music, “Berry says, “When the women start to sing, the men shut up.” Many Bayaka songs come to them in dreams. Etoo (“Yetoo’s Dream”) asked Chris to record the songs she had dreamed in the forest. “‘One day,’ she said, ‘I dreamed a song. When I woke up singing it, my husband was singing the same song,’” Oka! director Lavinia Currier recalls.

Berry’s recording rig was designed to make breaking barriers easy. He had honed it as part of a collaborative effort with globally minded composer Paul Winter, who had invited Berry to join in on a project chronicling the music found along birds’ migration routes. Berry, an American-born multi-instrumentalist who spent more than a decade in Zimbabwe studying the mbira (thumb piano), had recorded thousands of hours of African music, multitracking in the field instead of simply hanging a mic or two over musicians or grabbing a few catchy samples.

Bayaka sounds presented a particularly fascinating challenge: “A lot of the other African music I recorded had lots of rules and stable, regulated roles for the musicians and parts,” Berry explains. “But with the Bayaka, everyone gets to improvise if they stay within certain loose parameters. The music reflects their society, because no one is leader and no one is follower. They all play together, with four or more intermingling songlines. It’s like trying to record Mingus, Coltrane, Miles, and Dizzy, all soloing at the same time, yet all playing together perfectly” on tracks like the bawdy, intricate “Bottlefunk Girls.”

This complexity and freedom first gripped Sarno as he headed into the forest, and astounded Berry as he worked and played music with the Bayaka. Compositions feature rhythmic cycles that feel extremely long by Western standards: “We have a 12-bar blues,” Berry notes. “Just imagine a 54-bar blues, or a 67-bar blues, and you’re getting close to the Bayaka.”

Music is a constant activity, but not really a subject of intellectual discussion for the Bayaka. For the Bayaka, a person’s personality is expressed in song and dance. Berry had to spend time with them, dancing and singing (two concepts expressed by a single word, “eboka ” in Bayaka language), improvising and listening. In addition to striking songs, he heard an elder playing flute as he strolled past sleepers late at night (“Mboyo Flute”) and the subtle resonance of the earth bow (“Molimo”). “The earth bow may be the oldest instrument on earth,” explains film director Currier, who like Berry, worked intensively with the Bayaka musicians. “A length of twine is stretched from a bent sapling and anchored in the ground where there is a hollow resonance, then plucked like a double bass.”

Jubilant Bayakas returning from trading at a nearby village played the tree drum, a living forest trees whose roots boom below ground (“Tree Drum and Gano”). “The Gano is a storytelling song, related to the Bantu “Griot” tradition, and, distantly, to American blues,” Currier notes. “Many Gano songs tell of the Bayaka’s ancestors, when people were related to and spoke to the animals, to chimpanzees and gorillas.”

As he worked closely with the Bayaka, Berry was allowed to record a purely female activity, waterdrumming, when Bayaka women cup their palms to create bubbles of air that can be tuned and played with a marimba-like resonance (“Waterdrum”). The women performers, who usually make this music while bathing, agreed to dive in clothed while Berry risked several mics to capture the full, splashing effect.

Yet Berry also wanted to pass along more than just the sounds of his newfound collaborators; he wanted listeners and film viewers to get closer to the visceral experience of being there with musicmaking Bayaka. Berry thoughtfully added bass lines, percussion, and additional frequencies so that the recording would transmit the full feel of the performances, from the rumble of roots to the quiet bounce of the earth bow. He also knew he was creating sound to go with the film’s narrative of intense emotional journey and cross-cultural encounter.

“Making a soundtrack with musicians like the Bayaka is a translation process. If you don’t translate it, many listeners won’t get it. Yet most projects get over-translated,” Berry muses. “It’s easy to misunderstand music that’s so complex, that comes from a very different kind of community from our own. I hope this scoring approach becomes more of a trend when we’re dealing with other cultures; there’s a lot of mutual learning and growth to be had if we let others speak. If we let their voices come through.”

Indie Film Review: Moon Point Opens in Toronto Feb 2-9

2012-01-29T21:35:00.001-05:00

Update February 6 - Moonpoint Held Over!

(Toronto – February 6, 2012) Who says Canadians don’t like indie films?

INDIECAN’s first release, Moon Point, directed by Sean Cisterna, opened this past weekend at AMC Y&D, to cheering fans, who helped make it one of the top 6 highest grossing films, out of 19, at the popular theatre venue. All to say, that Moon Point has now been brought back for a second week (to February 16).

“I’ve been saying all along that Canadian indie films matter,” says jubilant INDIECAN distributor Avi Federgreen, “ and in reality its been proven that Canadian films matter by the response to Moon Point this past weekend.”
Review: MOON POINT
directed by Sean Cisterna
starring: Nick McKinlay (Darryl), Paula Brancati (Kristin), Kyle Mac (Femur), Kristen Gutoskie (Sarah Cherry), Special Cameo Appearance by Christian Potenza

Opens One Week Run In Toronto
Beginning February 3, 2012
AMC Yonge + Dundas - 10 Dundas St. E.

Q & A with filmmakers and cast
following evening screenings on Feb 3rd + Feb 4th

One Night Special Screening
February 2, 2012 - 7:00PM
The Royal - 608 College St.
Q+A with filmmakers and cast

Post Screening Party - 9:30PM
a number of bands from the film performing live
Revival - 783 College St.

I'm most often suspicious of films or books that are billed as 'quirky' - too often taken as a synonym for forced and superficial cool than any real sense of the whimsical, but Moon Point is an engaging film that actually lives up to its PR. It follows Darryl and friends in a kind of oddball road movie - slash - romcon - slash - coming of age story.

Femur is Darryl's wheelchair bound, engineering genius friend. He's devised a souped-up electric wheelchair just as Darryl comes to him with his plan to travel to Moon Point, a nearby town where Sarah Cherry, a hometown girl made good - and Darryl's grade school crush - is shooting a vampirish movie. Since neither has a driver's license, the wheelchair and its attached cart become their ticket to ride. Shortly after they set out down a gravel country road, they hook up with Kristin, a young lady on the run from her boyfriend and her past.

The premise is on the absurd side, and the opening scenes a bit clunky as they establish Darryl as the family's underachieving loser, stuck in his mother's house without gainful employment - or prospects - at 23, but big on philosophy, politics and other rationalizations. But just when you think the movie will sink into predictable mediocrity, it rises above it with a real and genuine sense of the unusual peopled with a host of eccentric characters (like Art Hindle in a banana suit) and unexpected moments like the creepy guy who stops to pick up Kristin roadside, "Can I see your feet?" he asks.

Flashbacks take us back to Darryl and Sarah Cherry as adorable preteen moppets, he earnest and in love, she as a precociously worldly child actress. There are funny scenes and the emotional points ring true too. In the present of the story, the three road warriors bond as they face a series of surreal adventures, but then break apart again just when I was expecting a Hollywood finish. The film's not afraid to show Darryl's flaws and weasely side while still making him sympathetic. It's sentimental without being syrupy or using unrealistic film clichés to save the day. I liked its understated charm and yes, it's quirkiness.

Sean Cisterna's feature is written by Robert Lazar, produced by Cisterna and Christian Potenza, and executive produced by Avi Federgreen. The film also includes an assortment of popular Canadian actors in cameo roles, such as Art Hindle, Jayne Eastwood, Linda Kash, Laurie Elliott, Jessica Holmes and James Hartnett, just to name a few.

Moon Point played the festival circuit with great success, showing at the Anchorage International Film Festival, at Cinefest in Sudbury, Edmonton International Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, and the Film North Festival, where Moon Point won the People's Choice Award.

Moon Point is the first film to be distributed by INDIECAN ENTERTAINMENT, a new distribution company introduced in November by veteran film producer Avi Federgreen.

International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference Jan 26-29 in Toronto

2012-01-25T11:30:00.001-05:00

From a media release:

dance Immersion brings top dance talent from
around the world to Toronto for the
International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference & Festival
Connecting our Diasporas through Dance

• The conference at a glance

TORONTO, January, 2012 - dance Immersion brings top dancers and dance companies of the African diaspora from around the world to Toronto in four dance showcases running as part of the prestigious 24th Annual International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) Conference & Festival in Toronto, January 26 - 29, 2012.

The IABD Conference & Festival has become the convergence of ideas and interaction for the dance community, with a focus on those who serve the black diaspora and features over 30 dance companies and artists from countries such as Australia, Canada, Cuba, Germany, Ghana, Jamaica, UK and USA, among others. Included are special guest dance instructors Sean Cheesman of So You Think You Can Dance (Canada & USA) and Garth Fagan, choreographer of The Lion King.

This four-day event brings people from around the world together around issues that are relevant to dance within the global dance ecology. The IABD Conference & Festival provides opportunities for audiences and participants to network and share in an international arena with dance professionals through dance classes, panel discussions and auditions for international companies.

At the heart of the conference and festival are four Showcase Presentations that take place at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Exhibition Place featuring artists and companies ranging from renowned to up-and-coming:

- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (New York City), a company that has performed for an estimated 23 million people in 48 states and 71 countries on six continents, as well as millions more through television broadcasts, and, in 2008, was designated a "vital American cultural ambassador to the world" by U.S. Congress.
- Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble (Denver, Colorado), an international, cross-cultural dance arts and educational institution rooted in African American traditions that has toured around the world, and provides training and education aspiring dancers as well as outreach to at-risk youth.
- Dallas Black Dance Theatre (Dallas, Texas), a diverse, multiethnic troupe of dancers and the oldest continuously operating dance company in Dallas. The company has performed modern, jazz, ethnic and spiritual works for 2.5 million arts patrons and 1.5 million children worldwide.
- Lula Washington Dance Theatre (Los Angeles), a world-class contemporary dance company that travels worldwide with contemporary modern dance works that reflect African American history and culture, with many of its dancers coming from Lula Washington's own inner city dance studio.
- Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco) (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) a celebrated company with a legacy of breaking barriers and building bridges across cultural divides, while consistently putting on electrifying performances with superbly trained dancers.
- Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata (Montreal), an enterprise of contemporary artistic expression that explores and develops the aesthetic of African dance as it relates to music, poetry and related art forms.
- Ballet Creole (Toronto), a company of dancers and drummers active in the Canadian dance scene since 1990, fusing traditional and contemporary Caribbean and African dance to create, preserve and present dance works that testify to the rich heritage of those cultures.
- Nafro Dance Productions (Winnipeg), Winnipeg's only African contemporary dance company, which has been performing exciting and thought-provoking pieces across Canada since 2002.
- National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC), founded in 1962 at the time of Jamaica's independence. The company blends traditional Caribbean dance drama and ritual with contemporary modern dance and ballet, examining social issues, religious themes and folklore as well as abstract dance.
- Salia ni Seydou (France/Burkina Faso) was founded in1994 and has won several prizes in festivals and competitions such as the Concours de Danse Contemporaine Africaine d'Afrique en Créations (AFAA) (1994), and the Choreographic Encounters of Africa and Indian Ocean (1998).

International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference & Festival
Connecting our Diasporas through Dance
Thursday, January 26 - Sunday, January 29, 2012
Showcase Presentations: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 190 Princes' Boulevard, Exhibition Place
Showcase Presentation tickets: $50 ($35 Student/Senior/CADA/IABD)
Call Arts Box Office 416-504-7529 or visit danceimmersion.ca

CD Release: Wassoulou Foli Feat. Virtuoso Drummer Taga Sidibe Feb 1 2012

2012-01-25T11:21:00.000-05:00

From a media release:

CD Release: Masterful Drumming & ‘Funkified’ Beats Reach Rapturous Heights
Wassoulou Foli, Wassoulou Drumming At Its Best
Set to release February 1, 2012

Los Angeles, CA - Independent record label Kanaga System Krush (K.S.K.) releases Wassoulou Foli with drumming virtuoso Amadou ‘Taga’ Sidibe and friends featuring ‘Tu’ Sinayoko.

Hot on the heels of grassroots label K.S.K.’s last release Dambe Foli this past Fall, they follow-up with another powerful album Wassoulou Foli. Featured, Sogonikun Djembe traditional Wassoulou music at its best, boasting of the talent emanating from this musically rich region.

Drumming aficionado's will certainly find a wealth of listening pleasure in this album’s percussive mastery yet the epic level of musicality and pairing together with ‘Tu’ Sinayoko’s divine vocals makes it a must-have for music lovers the world over. The beats and verses sung, beckons to lovers of Jazz, The Blues, Funk and Hip Hop offering them an authentic audio journey back to the birthplace of these genres. Label founder Aja Salvatore acclaims “it is an album of soulful singing and drumming from one of my favorite musical regions in Mali. One can hear a lot of "funk" in these beats.”

Wassoulou, has produced some of Mali’s most acclaimed masters the likes of internationally renown vocalists Oumou Sangaré, Sali Sidibe and Nahawa Doumbia. This album is no exception; it is a clear reminder that this region remains a musical hotbed producing this next generation. Home to Master Sogonikou Djembe Fola , Amadou ‘Taga’ Sidibe who masterfully plays the Sogonikun Djembe with hands so nimble. His lightening fast attack on this smaller djembe, cousin to the Manding Djembe showcases a répertoire replete in authentic, traditional Wassoulou rhythms from Sogonikun to Didadi. Abdoul Doumbia, Master Djembe Fola and former Professor of African Studies at Brown University found this album so compelling he enthusiastically says "K.S.K. should record five albums of Taga. He is a master of the highest level of Wassoulou music."

Taga is a renown figure throughout Mali drawing crowds into the thousands. He is both a revered hunter and musician versed in Sogonikun. A kind of music typically performed during ceremonies meant to uplift and beat back negativity. He is often called on to hype up audiences and entertain the occasional bush spirit he says. Listeners around the globe now get the chance to take in this soulful experience. This his first headlining album, showcases his superlative skills with complex drum solos roaring between verse and chorus. Oz Fritz, a Sound Engineer and collaborator with Bill Laswell, Herbie Hancock, Bob Marley and many others calls “Taga a master, and Tu’s voice angelic.” He hails “This is an amazing album!”

Taga represents one of the last bastions of traditional djembe drumming played in contrast to the all too common ballet style. Staid and true, his répertoire has been passed down through an ancient lineage. Learning at the hands of Mansa Bagayoko, Taga was hand picked to rigorously study drumming and continue an authentic tradition so integrated into daily life. Whatever challenges one might face, music remains a source of wisdom and healing for the soul. Salvatore echoes music’s role in Mali and beyond he explains, “music is not separate from life, it is intertwined to deal and cope with daily living.”

Joining Taga with lead vocals is the novice and up-and-coming songstress ‘Tu’ Sinayoko. She sets her sights to be the next ‘Songbird of Wassoulou’ with her passionate vocals so emotive and uplifting. Her voice remains in perfect key, as she magically weaves through verse upon verse. On chorus is vocals by Sita Diarra with Shaka Diallo accompanying on the Djembe and Lansine Sidibe on the Konkoni. Last but not least on the Bari Dun Dun and Konkoni is Taga’s lifelong musical companion, Yakoub Sidibe. The incredible interplay between Taga and Yakoub has been honed since childhood when they first began playing together more than thirty years ago on the Kamalen N’Goni. The keenest of ears can sometimes hear up to forty variations of a single rhythm.

This charged album is infused with the potency of the drum that takes listeners on a journey of encouragement, well wishes and offers words of wisdom. Along with the enormous musicianship that any a serious percussion enthusiast and student of drumming could appreciate, it showcases music’s profound ability to transcend culture and language as could not be more evident. Tu’s vocals affective and seer-like as she sings that we all need hope in life, one can not help but feel the heart stir.

In addition to Wassoulou Foli, Taga and Tu join other renown Malian musicians to be featured in "Music in Mali: Life is Hard, Music is Good" a feature-length documentary on musicians and musical traditions from West Africa also produced by K.S.K. and due out Summer 2012.

About Kanaga System Krush
Kanaga System Krush (K.S.K.) is an independent record label, operating on a fair-trade principle, focused on the preservation and promotion of traditional music from West Africa. By bringing this music to the world market, K.S.K. is opening new channels to an old tradition, as well as providing direct support to the carriers of this ancient knowledge. K.S.K. and acclaimed producer/engineer Oz Fritz have produced and released nearly a dozen albums over the last five years, most notably Lobi Traore’s career-topping electric live set Bwati Kono.

Dance On Camera Film Festival 2012: January 27-31 in New York City

2012-01-25T11:14:00.003-05:00

From a media release:

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association announce the 40th edition of
DANCE ON CAMERA
January 27-31, 2012
New York City - Various Venues

• List of films
• Event Schedule

Opening Night World Premiere of JOFFREY: MAVERICKS OF AMERICAN DANCE will also mark the first collaboration between DFA and Emerging Pictures

New York City – The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association are pleased to announce the lineup for the 40th edition of Dance on Camera. The dynamic series will take place from January 27-31 and dance lovers will discover an array of stimulating films, many of them premieres, and diverse disciplines ranging from classical to street – from the refinement of ballet coaching to the intense individuality of club dancing. The fourteen programs in the series include focuses on peerless international artists such as Natalia Makarova and Robert Wilson, historic dance presenters and companies such as Jacob’s Pillow, the Joffrey Ballet, and Pilobolus, innovative choreographer Wayne McGregor, and the inspired director Clara van Gool.

“Film is the natural bridge among all the arts, and there is perhaps no greater aesthetic affinity than that which exists between the cinema and dance, two mediums based on motion,” says Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Program Director Richard Pena, “Dance on Camera has become a vital part of our annual offerings, as each year it presents both cutting edge works alongside milestones of the dance/film genre.”

The opening night celebration will launch with the World Premiere of JOFFREY: MAVERICKS OF AMERICAN DANCE and include attendance by the filmmaker, Bob Hercules, and many cast members. The film, and Q&A, will have a simultaneous premiere for dance enthusiasts in participating theaters across the country and marks the launch of the film’s release by Hybrid Cinema, who is also responsible for spearheading the partnership between DFA and Emerging Pictures for this event. This collaboration also marks the first time that a film has simulcast its world premiere out of a major festival. Audiences across the country will also be able to participate in the Q&A through a live Twitter feed.

Highlights of this year’s DANCE ON CAMERA include FREE “Meet the Artists” forums, which will bring audiences and dance fans up close and personal with established and emerging directors and choreographers. A series of shorts will also screen free for the public and an exhibit of bold photos and posters by Herbert Migdoll, painter and official photographer for the Joffrey Ballet, will be displayed for the entire month of January, at the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery at Walter Reade Theater.

“This year’s festival coincides with anniversaries for the Joffrey Ballet, Pilobolus, Jacob’s Pillow, and Eye on Dance. We are thrilled that this festival is proving to be a valuable means of bringing together emerging, as well as established artists to celebrate the multiple ways dance film can inspire artists as well as audiences,” says Deirdre Towers, Festival Curator for Dance Films Association.

“While Dance on Camera Festival does not adhere to a particular aesthetic, we try to reach far and wide to find films that connect dance and camera in ways that will surprise and inspire viewers to deepen their interest in both mediums,” says Joanna Ney, co-curator of the festival. “This year’s selection offers a diversity of subject, style and genre aimed at the traditionalist as well as the iconoclast.”

Dance on Camera, the world’s longest-running and most celebrated event dedicated to the growth and development of dance on film as an art form, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. DFA’s Festival is made possible with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Consulate General of Spain, Cultural Department of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Japan Society, and DFA members.

**Tickets are on sale at the Walter Reade Theater’s box office and online at FilmLinc.com. Discounts on tickets are available for students, seniors, Film Society and Dance Film Association members. Everyone can enjoy special package discounts. For more information visit FilmLinc.com. Public Screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater (located at 165 West 65th Street) and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (located at 144 West 65th Street). The photo exhibit is at The Freida and Roy Furman Gallery (located at 165 West 65th Street).**

CD Release: Putomayo's Brazilian Beat January 31

2012-01-25T11:07:00.001-05:00

From a media release:

Putumayo Goes Indie:
Brazilian Beat Uncovers the Roots-Powered Edge of the Worldwide Brazilian Music Scene
"Brazilian Beat" drops January 31

Glittering break beats are at home with bouncing berimbaus while rolling Afro-Brazilian rhythms, retro samba soul and velvety bossa nova vocals mesh and groove organically. This is the unstoppable Brazilian Beat (Putumayo).

Selected from tens of thousands of songs collected by the pioneering label created to introduce new global music to broad audiences, Brazilian Beat chronicles the vibrant indie scene in Brazil and around the world. Musicians are taking samba, bossa nova, and MPB (Brazilian popular music) and deftly incorporating electronica, soul, funk, and just about every other music imaginable.

• The release will be available in-stores at Whole Foods, 10,000 villages, and Barnes and Noble.
• It will be available digitally on Bandcamp.
• Stream all tracks here

<p>&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://putumayo.bandcamp.com/album/brazilian-beat"&amp;amp;gt;Brazilian Beat by Putumayo World Music&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</p>

Sultry or upbeat, the tracks on this compilation of hip, rootsy artists aim to raise listeners’ moods and introduce even die-hard fans to a new crop of Brazilian music innovators. Featured alongside unsung icons such as samba soul master Marcos Valle (pictured below) are rising new stars like Tita Lima, daughter of the bassist from psychedelic hipster darlings Os Mutantes.

Brazilian music has bubbled into an indie scene-to-beat-all-indie scenes in underground clubs and on small labels from São Paulo to Rome. “You can go to Italy and find a hot bossa nova scene, and they have their own sound,” like Roman bossa band BungaLove’s “Minha Loucura,” explains Jacob Edgar, longtime head of A&R for Putumayo and passionate follower of the Brazilian music scene. “These retro sounds end up back in Brazil and shake things up.”

A diverse array of young musicians, such as Fino Colectivo, draw on Jorge Ben’s lush ’70s samba-soul sound—and transform it. It’s a realm of discovery, even for ardent followers of global music. “One of the exciting things we at Putumayo do is introduce artists to people who don’t know them,” says Dan Storper, head of Putumayo and avid musical traveler and collector. “It has to be upbeat and melodic, and it has to move us.”

“We’re probably the most voracious music listeners on the planet,” Edgar exclaims, “and we have an elaborate process of cataloguing the tens of thousands of tracks we hear. As we’re listening and traveling, we just keep hearing great music that seems to work together.”

This exhaustive, music-driven approach uncovered artists such as Michigan-born, Brazilian singer-songwriter Mônica da Silva or the Brazilian child-star turned pop diva Bruna Caram (pictured above), whose carefree vocals dance over cool horns and sparkling keys on “Feriando Pessoul.” It unearthed the wonderfully gritty sounds of a long-unreleased super group session led by New York-based Brazilian saxophonist Leo Gandelman (Brazilian Groove Band’s “Bananiera”) and highlighted the earthy pleasures of Rio-based Rogê’s clavinet-flecked samba (“A Nega e O Malandra”).

“You can really hear the intersection between past and present in the music of Brazilian artists,” Storper reflects. “We didn’t make an effort to seek it out; this is what musicians are doing. They respect their traditional music but are adding new flavors with real passion.”

**Brazilian Beat is available at selected music, book, gift, and specialty stores around the world, and for digital download on www.putumayo.com, iTunes, Amazon and selected online stores. World Music; release: January 31, 2012**

CD Release: Chilean Rapper Ana Tijoux's La Bala (Nacional Records)

2012-01-25T10:59:00.000-05:00

From a media release:

CD Release: Ana Tijoux's La Bala
From Nacional Records
Out January 24, 2012

I wanted share with you the new album from Latin America’s premier female rapper Ana Tijoux, released Jan 24th exclusively on iTunes

• The lead single “Shock” is now available for free download in the US + Mexico as the iTunes “Single of the Week”.

La Bala is Ana Tijoux’s highly anticipated follow-up to her 2010 GRAMMY nominated breakthrough debut 1977, which you may have heard Ana Tijoux’s “1977” recently on the hit TV show Breaking Bad, or seen her as the featured guest on NPR’s influential “Tiny Desk Concert” series.
Tijoux made her U.S. debut performing at SXSW in 2010 and has since toured the U.S. and Europe, with stops at New York’s Central Park Summerstage, San Francisco’s Outside Lands and Chicago’s Lollapalooza, plus a very special live performance during GRAMMY weekend with The Roots as her backing band.

Shock, the first single, is a call to arms that grows in intensity with the gradual but sure build of a Bolero. Her politically charged message - in support of the Chilean young people fighting for the right to a free and universal education, relies on the eloquence of her words and her earnest delivery rather than on any "shock" value of its own. Its thoughtful and melodic.

Short Film: The Man That Got Away Premieres at the Berlin Film Fest 2012

2012-01-25T10:40:00.004-05:00

This comes from my friend/multi-talented choir meister & musician Bryce Kulak's newsletter:

The Man That Got Away
Premieres at the Berlin Film Festival 2012

From Bryce Kulak

I have some exciting news to share with you!

A World Premiere in Germany: "The Man That Got Away" at the Berlin International Film Festival

In spring of 2009 I began collaborating on a movie-musical short film with Trevor Anderson, director and producer at Dirt City Films. (Click to read more about the film!) We wrapped up production in fall of 2011. I composed music for six new songs, and also wound up starring in the film as Trevor's great uncle Jimmy.

The soundtrack was recorded at Doug Organ's Edmontone Studio, and we shot entirely on location in a spiral parking garage in downtown Edmonton. Now, after a lot of hard work and much anticipation, we are gearing up for our big trip to Berlin for the film's world premiere at the 62nd Berlinale film fest! It's the only Canadian short accepted into the festival. Needless to say, I'm super excited to watch the film on the big screen with a live audience. There will be several opportunities to catch the film during the festival, and we've also been invited to a special screening and artists' talk at the Canadian Embassy. It's exciting!

Of course, Berlin isn't the only place you can catch a screening of "The Man That Got Away." There will be a private screening, for crew and supporters, in Edmonton on February 25th. To receive an invite, donate to our CD soundtrack fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo. There are various rewards available for each donation level (including copies of my album "Tin Can Telephone"), so check out the perks!

A Fundraising Event
Because the budget for the film is gone, I'm paying my own way to be at the premiere in Germany. To that end, I'm playing a fundraising show at Le Balluchon Raymond (click for details!) in Toronto, on Thursday January 26th, doors at 7:30pm, show at 8pm. Tickets are $20 at the door (fundraiser!); come, and I'll sing for you. You'll even get to hear a sneak preview of the soundtrack!

THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY movie trailer from Trevor Anderson on Vimeo.

The Met Opera's The Enchanted Island - In Person or Live In HD January 21

2012-01-19T20:57:00.001-05:00

From a media release:

The Sixth Season of The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD
Continues at Select Cineplex Entertainment Theatres with

The World Premiere of
THE ENCHANTED ISLAND
Saturday, January 21 - 12:55 p.m. EST

Broadcast live via satellite, in high-definition and 5.1 digital surround sound

Starring Penticton, British Columbia native
LAYLA CLAIRE as Helena
and Toronto native ELLIOT MADORE as Lysander

THE MET: LIVE IN HD
THE ENCHANTED ISLAND
Running time: Approx. 3 hrs 30 min, including one intermission
Host: Deborah Voig

• To purchase advance tickets, see the complete Met: Live in HD schedule and the list of the more than 100 participating theatres, please visit www.cineplex.com/events.

• If you happen to be in New York City, you can buy tickets for performances January 21, 25, 28 & 30, 2012

The Enchanted Island is a world premiere opera that combines great music of the Baroque era with an all-new, English-language story. The score combines selections from more than 30 operas, cantatas, and oratorios by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and other masters of the Baroque period. The story, by the English theater artist Jeremy Sams, combines two of Shakespeare's best-known plays in a lighthearted "mash-up."

The four young lovers from A Midsummer Night's Dream find themselves shipwrecked on Prospero's island from The Tempest, leading to a tortuous web of comic and dramatic romantic entanglements. The extraordinary cast includes Joyce DiDonato as the sorceress Sycorax; David Daniels as her nemesis, Prospero; Danielle de Niese as the air spirit Ariel; Luca Pisaroni as the monstrous but soft-hearted Caliban; Lisette Oropesa as Prospero's daughter Miranda; Anthony Roth Costanzo as the noble Ferdinand; Layla Claire, Elizabeth DeShong, Paul Appleby, and Elliot Madore as the Midsummer lovers; and, in a star cameo, Plácido Domingo as Neptune, god of the seas. William Christie, an early music specialist of worldwide acclaim, conducts-in his first Live in HD appearance. The visually spectacular production is by Phelim McDermott (Satyagraha). Deborah Voigt hosts the transmission.

PRESS QUOTES:

"Irresistibly entertaining...a light-hearted romp with enough fizz to send a dozen champagne corks popping." - Associated Press

"A terrific cast...a brilliant production team...fanciful, clever, and touching." - The New York Times