Reading: Michael Ondaatje

Artist: Michael Ondaatje

Reading: excerpt from The Cat's Table

Recorded at The Great Hall ("Jason Collett's Basement Revue"), December 20, 2012.

Michael Ondaatje - Reading from The Cat's Table

Full review to follow. Bringing the revue out of the basement coziness of the Dakota Tavern and into the much larger confines of the Great Hall, Jason Collett still managed to convince the audience to act as if they were in a small, intimate space, keeping quiet to listen to poets and gentle songs. Scaling things up meant that this would be less of a night to shine a light on some emerging artists and more of an opportunity for old friends to get together.

Poets and authors are always an essential part of the Basement Revue experience, and this bigger show saw Collett upping the ante to bring out celebrated local author Michael Ondaatje. Ad hoc collaborations are also a highlight of these shows, so it was pretty cool to see him being accompanied by Leslie Feist's guitar, and the voices of Snowblink's Daniela Gesundheit and AroarA's Ariel Engle.