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2009 Brenda Carol Renaissance Jazz Fair

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This event, Brenda Carol Renaissance Jazz Fair, seems to be taking the neighbourhood by storm! Believe it or not, my neighbour told me! Once again I found out about this near by extravaganza by leafing through my bi-weekly newspaper called the Mirror! The only thing was I found it this Sunday, about 2 weeks after it was delivered! In the words of my good friend Charlie Brown, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

This event, the 3rd annual no less, sounded like it blew the lid off the joint. The event was held every night from Friday Jan. 30th through to Sunday Feb. 01. The joint in question is our local Renaissance Cafe at 1938 Danforth Ave. in Toronto. This place is about half the distance from our home, as compared to the Broadview Espresso Cafe, so I can even ride my bike there.

Checking out some of the acts that were held at this year’s event, it looks like Brenda chose a nice collection of jazz bands. I love the fact that they had a one much younger player in this year’s line up. That musician is Sam Dickinson on guitar, at the tender age of 17! Wow, there was even a guy playing there from my home town of Brantford named Kyle McGregor! He played both guitar and piano on Sunday.

Jazz music is a positive and creative genre played from the heart for the sheer love of the art.
This jazz fair is intended to showcase performers giving them the opportunity to perform in front of
peers, a respectful audience and to enjoy this exceptional opportunity. This Jazz Fair is not an open
stage show. All performers are selected and allotted performance time.

This time, I have given myself a reminder of the show next year and God willing, I will be able to give you a REAL critique of the event!

Keep on Jammin’




Frampton Comes Alive II

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Well if you haven’t heard of Frampton Comes Alive and you were born anytime before 1969 or so, then you must have been living in another dimension. It remains the second best selling live album in the U.S. behind Garth Brooks’ Double Live. Garth Brooks, who the hell is he?!

Anyways, while relaxing in the Hotel Hospital, my great wife brought me her nice wide screen laptop for me to watch some movies on it when I was boring. She brought some great music DVD’s but, the best one was Frampton Comes Alive II. We bought it ages ago and I never really watched it and I certainly had the time to view then!

Peter played some fabulous tunes on this one but, unfortunately he did not cover the whole original set that was from the first one. There was also only one original band member from Frampton comes alive one that performed on the new one. He was the late great Bob Mayo. Man did that guy have talent!

If anyone has this DVD in their collection, you might just want to look at all of Peter’s amplifiers on this one. Look closely at this moving object that is to the right of his 2nd Marshall amp. You’ll see these 2 horn like things spinning at different speeds from time to time. If you were wondering what they are, they are his Leslie amplifier.

So if yo see this gem of a DVD while your shopping pick it up and you can’t go wrong!

Keep on Jammin’
Bob Mayo, RIP

What to do when your bored in your hospital room

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While in my hospital room, being bored out of my head, I was desperately trying to find ways to keep myself amused, this was long after my wife and family had left for home.

The first thing I did kind of got me into some minor trouble with the staff, and rightfully so!

Considering that I work there and know practically everyone in the place, a fair amount of staff dropped in from time to time just to see how I was doing. Later on some of the R.T.’s (Resuscitation Team) visited me in my room, which was around 12:00 (00:00). They were just doing their rounds so when they were about to leave and with nothing else better to do, I just followed them.

I was attached to heart monitor that allows patients to roam free throughout the hospital, so I took advantage of it. Besides, if anything were to happen to me, these ladies would be the ones to be with!

We went around here and there chatting away, visiting other floors and talking to other staff on the night shift. This diversion allowed me to change my focus on other things like, what I was in there for.  This REALLY HELPED A LOT and I thank them for it! After 45 minutes we went back to my ward. Upon arriving the nurses there just had this look on their faces. Kinda pissed but, they knew it was me and only gave it to me with one barrel, if you know what I mean.

Now it was around 01:30 and I was back in my little room. My mind was racing, scanning the room desperately looking for anything interesting to get into. I soon found a newspaper called 24 hours right beside my bed and started leafing through it. Since there was nothing really interesting going on musically in the Arts and Entertainment section, I eventually directed my attention to this one installment called Almost Toronto, a 5 part series. It was the Monday Feb. 2nd 2009 edition on page 3.

The article caught my interest because it was all about what Toronto would have looked like if the city had chosen other projects to help define it’s distinct architectural footprint. In this piece, it talked about a book that was called Toronto Pending. The author talked about some of Toronto’s Mega Projects, neat original renderings of these projects as well as public spaces that never made it past the city council.Now this is something that I wanted to learn more about.

So I then slide out to the nurse’s desk, took over a computer and started searching for this book. After locating the book’s site, I started investigating the whole site, leaving no link unclicked! To be honest with ya, it was very simple in it’s layout with fabulous pic’s and incite full facts. Just glaring at some of these revolutionary ideas for the future of our city, I feel that it would have made it an even more exciting place to live!

So that is what I did to keep my sanity during my first night there … not very exciting was it!

Keep on Jammin’

First day home from the Hospital

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Sorry for not being overly active on this blog for the past while but, I’ve been feeling a bit sluggish!
While at work I was having some small cardiac episodes and had to be checked in for some work ups. I did not what to be admitted in, who really does, but I had to.

I was taking a patient back from our recovery room and then I felt some minor chest pains, feeling disoriented and sweaty. The nurses in the Day Surgery area went nutz when they saw me this way and threw me on a chair, did vitals and ran me off to the ER. They probably did this because I had one of these before and it was almost deadly.

I’m ok now but, I am still feeling a bit off. I hope you understand this and your looking forward to better posts in the future!

Keep on Jammin’

Need a cheap banjo player

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Now this banjo player is the perfect fit for any band looking for that certain something or for a band that is crying out for more stage presence in their group. If your interested in getting a hold of him, please e-mail me. ONLY SERIOUS inquires will be replied back to!

bandjoplayinganyone.jpg

I wonder if this is Bubbles father?

Keep on Jammin’


Another hidden Toronto musical venue

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The Queen Elizabeth Theatre, on the grounds of Toronto’s C.N.E., is the most recent musical venue that is underused and just screaming to be found! In a large urban city with 2.5 music lovers, there are not a lot of medium sized halls to attract the middle of the road type of band. So this beauty from the past is just desperately trying to re-invent herself to us!

I tend to be a lover of architecture and it’s history. When ever I run across a real gem of an older building, I often wonder what it looked like in it’s glory years and what important historical events played out in it. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic, drawn into it’s orbit and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (QET) is no exception! Just check out the QET History Photo Gallery’s History Gallery slide show section of the above link to see what I am referring to!

While as a young guitar player from the country, going to the CNE when I could, I marveled at buildings and the performers that played there! I recall going there with my brother many times to see bands in either the Music Building/Carlsburg Pavilion (which originally was the Provincial Government Building in1926) or the unforgettable CNE Grandstand/stadium to experience the giants of rock and roll of the time period. Yet, we always passed the QET without taking notice of her, too bad.

So has anyone here ever been inside the QET or seen a show there? I would love to know what you thought of it and what the sound was like. I hope you took a few pic’s to share with us!

Keep on Jammin’

Canada’s second national anthem

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There was a song, not so long ago, that was considered Canada’s unofficial national anthem. Today sadly though, it has now been almost erased from memory. The song was called The Maple Leaf forever!

But who was behind this great forgotten anthem, where did he make it, what was the history behind the song and most important to me, where did he live?

This is a story of how I just happened to bump into the tree that dropped one of it’s leafs on this man’s shoulder, which in turn, helped him pen the song The Maple Leaf Forever!

When I was young, I recall hearing this song that was often hummed at my grandparents house. I can’t remember much of what it was all about, but I do have fond memories of it. Ones that made me feel comfortable, relaxed and that gave me a sense of being at home.

Later on in life, I heard this song being played in an instrumental version mostly on history/documentary shows. It was even played at a Toronto Maple Leafs game in the glorious Maple Leaf Gardens! If memory serves me correctly, there were no words that ever accompanied it.

Then a couple of years ago while going to a local gardening shop with my wife in the Greenwood and Queen St. E. part of town, we found no street parking nearby our local gardening center, damn! So I had to look for a place to park on one of the side streets. When I finally found a spot, I got out and across the street there was a small house, with people walking in and out of this tiny, but quaint little it home. After closer inspection, I noticed a City Historical Plaque out in front of it, attached to this majestic Maple Leaf tree on front lawn. Upon going over to see it, I thought to myself, hey why not, let’s check it out!

The Plaque that was on the Tree

Alexander Muir
1830 -1906
Principal of nearby Leslieville Public School who was inspired to write Canada’s national song “The Maple Leaf Forever” by the falling leaves of this sturdy maple tree.
Erected by
The Orange Lodge of British America

So now I found myself inside doing a small tour of this home and reading some of the literature that was there. It basically was about Alexander Muir and this song called The Maple Lead Forever.

At first I didn’t connect this song that was playing through a small stereo in the parlor, with the memory of that song that I had listened to as a kid. It all of a sudden hit me that, this was the home, that had THE TREE that dropped one of it’s leafs, onto the man, who had created Canada’s unofficial second national Anthem called The Maple Leaf Forever, huh! Imagine that, someone else who lived in my neighbourhood that was part of Canadian Musical History! The eastern part of the city of Toronto, especially East York, really ROCKS!

After realizing that I had left my wife at the garden store now for quite some time now, I quickly picked up as many brochures as I could and off I went.

Keep on Jammin’ in the east End!

Ever hear of Roxy Music

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This is one of the best of the British Progressive Rock band that brings back the best from my memories of the 1980’s music scene.

The band had everything going for it. Great vocals, musicians and most importantly the music itself!

When ever I hear any of their fantastic compositions, I love all the memorable moments that I associate with them!

I never had the honour of playing this style of music with my old band Pylis but if I could turn back the hands of time, Same Old Song would be the one I would have played with them. This is the best in my mind. Which one is yours.

Keep on Jammin’

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