Mavis Staples & James Hunter- 21 March 09

Keith again: our second show of the weekend was Mavis Staples at Massey Hall, with James Hunter and his band as the opening act.

James Hunter has been performing a series of gigs around the periphery of the city in smaller venues and, based on this set I think he would play better in this setting. He has an engaging personality and a tight group, with his saxophonists as the stand-outs. Everybody looked like they might play for pints in an east-end London pub, but were clearly very professional musicians. Imagine what the Commitments would have looked and sounded like if they stayed together for another ten years. Actually, Hunter could have used the girl singers from the Commitments to add a little edge to the vocals. His singing is not that strong and, with one exception, the tunes had a sameness to them that made the set seem longer than its 45 minute runtime. The exception was Don't Do It, apparently a hit by a group called the Five Royals in the middle of the last century. It had more bite and was the standout.

After a long intermission to rest the stage, Mavis Staples came on with three back-up singers, including one of her sisters, and a two guitar and drums group. Mavis' voice ain't what it used to be, but she can still really put over a song and knows how to work both it and the audience. She seemed tired, and perhaps not well (although better than her sister who looked drugged or really sick) and took a long time-out while the guitarists took over. Wow, let's talk about the guitarists! But first - the sound was great. James Hunter and his group had had a rather flat sound but the set up for Mavis Staples was superb. Mind you, the hall didn't hurt. Mavis didn't bother with the microphone from time to time and, although her voice has lost some power, she was still clearly audible. Now, back tot he instrumentalist. All three were excellent but the stand-out was the leader, Rick Holstrom. Now, for the three of you who bought any of his albums before they became unavailable, he, or at least his sound, is much better live. The sound from his guitar was astounding whether he was trading phrases with Mavis or on his extended solos. Wow! (I bought he one album of his still available and it is quite pleasant, but nothing to lead you to expect how good he was at Massey.)

Another great show - makes you realize why live music is worthwhile.

PS: The show we missed was Quartetto Gelato - another group who have a whole other dimension when performing live versus their (still excellent) CDs.

Silk Road Ensemble -20 March 09

This is an unusual first posting from Keith, rather than commenting on Cathy's primary post.

Cathy has decided not to post on musical performances, except "Musicals", and we do not se many of them. We do not go to many straight musical acts either - its just easier to listen to recorded music and sometimes the "live" performance adds little - e.g. Tallis Scholars, most orchestral performances.

However, this weekend there were three shows we (or at least I) wanted to see. Two of them clashed but Cathy agreed to come with me to the two we could get to.

On Friday night we saw the second of two shows by the Silk Road Ensemble at Roy Thomson Hall. (The first show was on Thursday night and had different pieces and performers.) This was a great show and a show worth seeing because the instruments were so alien to us in many cases and the performers interacted visually, as well as aurally, with improvisation between scored pieces.

The first half consisted of Silk Road Suite and Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain. Silk Road Suite has five "movements" - really separate pieces demonstrating the wide range of music along the Silk Road route. All quite fascinating, with the percussion especially interesting, and amazing in its variety, particularly in Saidi Swing. The last movement was Arabian Waltz - a rousing jazzy number we have on their recording with the Chicago Symphony. Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain was a smaller scale more personal and "angular" modern piece which I enjoyed less, although I thought it okay - but Cathy seemed to like.

The second half started with Paths of Parables based on five Sufi tales. Kojiro Umezaki acted as narrator and has a great voice (Cathy: now you know what I want for my birthday - his voice); however the parables are rather trite and I found it like reading a book in slow motion, with musical accompaniment. Not my favorite. Ascending Bird, a Persian piece finished the regular show in a much more satisfactory manner for me - again with a fascinating variety of percussion. It is amazing the number of ways people have found to produce sound by banging on things.

Then, came the encores, when everyone was on stage and the players really loosened up - it was the last night of the this three-week tour. Most spectacular was a "duel" between the tabla player Sandeep Das, playing something which looked like a wooden box with holes, and Wu Tong on Sheng. The Sheng is an amazing instrument, at least in Wo Tong's hands. It is a sort of Chinese harmonica - but that doesn't do justice to the range of music he got out of the thing - you kept looking for the rest of the orchestra - and the two of them really rocked! It would have been fascinating to be able to sit around and watch this group of superb musicians improvise around one another for a few hours. Oh well, still a great show.

The Patient Hour

The audience is the patient. Visitors are the son, daughter, nurse and fellow patient. EAch is gradually revealed; no one, including the patient is what they first seem to be.
Excellent cast (In toronto, this is largely a redundant statement, there are so many great actors working here.)
We had never seen Todd Thomson before, but will definitely watch for him. Patricia Fagan is very other worldly, while Liisa Repo-Martell and Waneta Storms are both very earthy, very present.
I liked this play and will look for an opportunity to see I Claudia, by the same playwrite.

Travesties

Normally, I like Tom Stoppard's plays, but the phrase intellectual conceit kept running through my head during the first act, and was so annoying, I could not stay for the second.

Soulpepper had assembled an excellent cast, the set was good, the pace seemed good, but somehow "intellectual conceit" was all I got out of it.

Thank God Keith had the same reaction so we could go home.

Miss Julie

Another subtitled play - this one is "Freedom Summer" to refer to the change of the setting from Sweden to Mississippi in 1968 at the height of the Civil Rights movement.
Caroline Cave is excellent as Miss Julie, but Miss Julie is another drunken southern woman, dealing with her own repression by taking advantage of the black chaufffeur. She wants freedom and so does he. Neither can get it from the other.
Having not seen the original, it is hard to assess how the new version stacks up. Was class as shocking as race? and could this version have been done in 1968? It is not very shocking in 2009 Toronto, but would it have been?
Without the shock value, it is almost just another southern gothic.

Ubuntu

Subtitled The Capetown Project: a young man's search for his father and his identity. Ubuntu means "I am becuase you are".
Interesting story, good cast. Some amusing Canadian jokes - every time they step outside it snowed, represented by waving fingers. and as they moved through the crowd in the airport, everyone said excuse me.
Good cast and good performances.