Recording: New Chance

Artist: New Chance

Songs: Twice Bitten + Something Human

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), June 14, 2025.

New Chance - Twice Bitten

New Chance - Something Human

A classic sort of album-release celebration, Vic Cheong launched the fab new A Rock Unsteady by bigging everything up — dramatic stage lighting and magnificent shoulder pads included — as well as bringing along many of the friends who helped make the album. Cheong's skills as a vocal arranger were in evidence (as heard on the first selection here) with astounding interweavings coming from Isla Craig, Robin Dann, and Felicity Williams, and there was room as well for some guest performances from saxophonist Brodie West as well as Jennifer Castle, who hung out in the shadows at the edge of the stage to embellish "Something Human".

Recording: The Ryan Driver Sextet

Artist: The Ryan Driver Sextet + friends

Songs: Stardust (feat. John Southworth) [composer: Hoagy Carmichael] / So it Goes (feat. Robin Dann) / It's Tulip Season (feat. Felicity Williams) / My Man (feat. Jennifer Castle) [composers: Maurice Yvain/Channing Pollock]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Ryan Driver’s Big 5-0), March 30, 2024.

The Ryan Driver Sextet feat. John Southworth - Stardust

The Ryan Driver Sextet feat. Robin Dann - So it Goes

The Ryan Driver Sextet feat. Felicity Williams - It's Tulip Season

The Ryan Driver Sextet feat. Jennifer Castle - My Man

This wonderful evening was intriguing on several levels, besides being a warm gathering of many familiar faces to celebrate a landmark birthday for Ryan Driver (as well as the 25th anniversary of the Sextet/Quintet/Quartet). It was also a somewhat-rare opportunity to hear the sextet outside their regular surroundings in the Southern Cross, and performing in the bigger room, with the band spread out and a bit more attention paid to micing and amplification gave some new shadings to the group's sound.

It also expanded the palette by bringing up a parade of guest vocalists for most of the songs — with the singers above being joined by Alex Samaras, Doug Tielli, Alex Lukashevsky, and Sandro Perri. Comcomitant with that, the repertoire expanded somewhat beyond the group's usual standards, brushing up against pop, as well as bringing in a couple of Driver's own tunes (including one originally written for The Titillators). For a group that can be astonishing in its regular way on any given month, it was a treat to see this special occasion widescreen version.

[The Ryan Driver Sextet will be back in the Southern Cross on their regular last-Friday-of-the-month timeslot on April 26th.]

Recording: Bernice

Artist: Bernice

Songs: Underneath My Toe + Big Mato

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (TONE Festival), June 26, 2022.

Bernice - Underneath My Toe

Bernice - Big Mato

A full house came out for this TONE Fest show that saw a smartly-combined lineup of two groups approaching the intersection of pop forms and sonic questing from different directions. This local institution, playing thwir first full-on quintet gig since The Beforetimes, centres the "pop song" but engages in a lot of play in doing so. The stretch/squish of Time and Events means that there's a whole album of tunes that haven't been engaged with on stage so much by band or audience, and those songs are already being gently nudged aside by the next batch (including the first selection here).

Recording: Heather Saumer + Co.

Artist: Heather Saumer feat. Felicity Williams/Alex Samaras/Thom Gill/Robin Dann

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (Women From Space Festival – Night 4), March 8, 2020.

Heather Saumer feat. Felicity Williams/Alex Samaras/Thom Gill/Robin Dann - unknown

After spending three nights at the cozier Burdock, Women From Space wrapped up its second festival on International Women's Day, moving to the more expansive surroundings at 918 Bathurst — and it packed the place out for a triumphant conclusion. In retrospect, this was for many of us "the last big night out", the last night when hugs and handshakes were exchanged without reserve. The words "social distancing" had been uttered, but they were still an abstraction, compared to say, sharing a piece of cake or lingering with a group of friends. It is possible that these things might be thinkable again when International Women's Day rolls around again next year — one can only hope that Kayla Milmine and Bea Labikova get a chance to build upon the success of this year's festival.

Trumpeter Heather Saumer has been sharing her voice for awhile now, though often hewing more in a folk vein. This set saw her pivoting towards pop — albeit an airy, abstracted form of pop, which made her choice of collaborators (serving in and around the orbit of Bernice, "Toronto's ever-evolving backing band") entirely fitting.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: The Holy Oak Family Singers

Artist: The Holy Oak Family Singers

Songs: That's What Makes You Strong [Jesse Winchester cover; Thom Gill vox] + Dear Darling [Mary Margaret O'Hara cover; Ivy Mairi vox] + I Don't Know [Kate and Anna McGarrigle cover; Alex Samaras vox] + Thirty [The Weather Station cover; Thom Gill vox] + Runs in the Family [The Roches cover; Robin Dann, Felicity Williams, Alex Samaras vox]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), February 20, 2020.

The Holy Oak Family Singers - That's What Makes You Strong

The Holy Oak Family Singers - Dear Darling

The Holy Oak Family Singers - I Don't Know

The Holy Oak Family Singers - Thirty

The Holy Oak Family Singers - Runs in the Family

A really wonderful night, once more bringing together this loose aggregation of immensely-talented musicians that once congregated at the much-missed Holy Oak. The special occasion this time was a milestone birthday for Luke Kuplowsky, who got to pick the setlist, populating it with some of his mournful/joyful favourites. As always, the crew ranged through the songbooks of the artists they'd paid tribute to in the past (Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Arthur Russell in addition to the ones posted above) and a few special one-offs, like the especially-relevant Weather Station tune. And as always, there were a series of friends rotating in and out of the backing band and vocalists' chairs. Truly a really special time, and worth remembering these days as to why we used to gather together (and hope to someday again).

Recording: Felicity Williams and Friends

Artist: Felicity Williams and Friends

Songs: Birds and Beasts [words by Al Purdy] + Arabesque

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Music Hosted by Karen Ng), November 19, 2019.

Felicity Williams and Friends - Birds and Beasts

Felicity Williams and Friends - Arabesque

A wonderful and too-rare opportunity to hear local treasure Felicity Williams — a champion support player with her vocal prowess — leading an ensemble. Joined by frequent harmonizer Robin Dann on vocals, they were backed by Bernice compadre Dan Fortin on double bass plus Daniel Pencer on sax and Yunjin Claire Lee on synth. Moving from abstract sound sculptures, choir pieces and formal compositions (Messiaen's "O Sacrum Convivium" was tackled), there were also a couple dips into Williams' Al Purdy songs and a couple new pieces. One of those glowing moments where the spirit of The Holy Oak felt alive and well.

Recording: Quintet

Artist: Quintet

Songs: [first set excerpt] + [second set excerpt, in two parts]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), May 15, 2019.

Quintet minus one - [first set excerpt]

Quintet - [second set excerpt, part 1]

Quintet - [second set excerpt, part 2]

On the one hand, this band assembled for Allison Cameron's Tranzac timeslot had a fairly generic name (at least for now... it may have been decided to call the group "Maybe Robin Will") but it was exceptional enough justify it. The group actually started out as a "quintet minus one" for the first set, with Cameron joined by Mark Zurawinski, Chris Willes and Felicity Williams. Behind some buzzing and crackling, they provided some improvised thrift-store hymns and the sound of janky cables. But everything fell right into focus with the addition of Robin Dann for the second set, pamphlet of found-sound lyrics in hand, pushing things into funhouse-mirror pop with gentle vocal hocketing and synthesized background foley.

Recording: The Mike Smith Company

Artist: The Mike Smith Company

Song: This Widowed Hoard

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (All-Set! Editions Double Release Celebration), April 27, 2019.

The Mike Smith Company - This Widowed Hoard

This dual release celebration ran with the double-up concept, putting both bands on stage simultaneously, each taking a couple songs at a time before flipping things over. Mike Smith (on synth and backing vox) was celebrating the long-gestating Songs of The Mike Smith Company alongside Robin Dann (vox), Rebecca Hennessy (trumpet) and Jonathan Adjemian (synth). Popsongs with prog ruffles and little sonic complications throughout, the tunes addressed a number of contemporary problems, from data forms with forced false settings to concerns about "what happens to your record collection when you die", as heard on this number.

Recording: magiceyeimage

Artist: magiceyeimage

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Emmet Ray, May 21, 2018.

magiceyeimage - [excerpt]

magiceyeimage and friends - [excerpt]

Well, it had been no slight amount of time since I had last seen this trio in action, back before percussionist Phil Melanson was such a fixture in these parts. Shifting his base of action to T.O. has made this unit (alongside Gabriel Drolet on double bass and Simon Labbé on guit) less active, so it was a real treat to lean back and soak up their slow momentum. Close in spirit to locals Aurochs (and further afield, The Necks), there's a joy here of exploring gestures and slowly-transforming textures more than any sort of melodic structures. As the evening glow from the skylight began to fade, everything seemed in place in the dusky gloom — as if the musicians were feeling their way through unseen terrain, never too forcefully loud as the roar of trucks and other streetsounds occasionally overwhelmed their sounds.

After a break, the trio were joined for a second set by a couchful of singers. (If my notes are correct, they were: Alex Samaras, Frederique Roy, Felicity Williams, Robin Dann and Eugénie Jobin Tremblay.) With occasional Victoria Day fireworks snapping in the background, this felt like a long-weekend cottage-y soundscape, like you could open your eyes and catch the last glimmers of the sunset over the lake.

Recording: TRYAL

Artist: TRYAL

Song: Companion

Recorded at the Jam Factory, April 15, 2018.

TRYAL - Companion

Continuing to hone the sophisticated, layered pop found on the project's album, from the opening strains of "He Needs Me" (from the Popeye soundtrack), there was whimsy and meta-commentary layered into vocalist Alex Samaras' lamentations. The band this time included Johnny Spence (keyb), Josh Cole (bass), Christine Bougie (guitar) and Phil Melanson (percussion/electronics) and the crew was now incorporating the background vocals of Robin Dann and Felicity Williams and turning over the setlist with some brand-new tracks.

[TRYAL will be part of TONE's Saturday night show (June 9th at Burdock) alongside Jessica Moss and the recently-reactivated Manticore.]

Recording: Marker Starling

Artist: Marker Starling - I'll Be Around

Songs: I'll Be Around [The Spinners cover] + Shadows and Counterparts

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), January 13, 2018.

Marker Starling - I'll Be Around

Marker Starling - Shadows and Counterparts

Chris Cummings' artistic ascendance continues with the release of his new Anchors & Ampersands album. Like its predecessor, a lot of the achievement here is in the selection of materials and the arrangements, but whereas I'm Willing fits into the classic "covers album" mould, its new companion is something more akin to a self-reappraisal, with several reduxed versions of older songs, now presented in all their widescreen glory with lusher arrangements and more confident vocals.

As in the past, Cummings returned to The Tranzac's Main Hall to use the floor to accommodate an extra-large ensemble — there were no fewer than sixteen musicians throughout the night (if I was able to keep track correctly!) with up to fourteen of them on stage at once. That meant augmenting the core unit (of Jay Anderson, Matt McLaren and Andrew Scott) with lush backing vocals (from Robin Dann, Ben Gunning and Alex Samaras, as well as special guests Ryan Driver and album producer Zack G) and a horn section (Jay Hay, Jeremy Strachan, Lina Allemano). And then to complete the spectacle, the members of opening band Bunny joined in for the set's last songs. All told, a worthy celebration of one of the city's best songwriters — and now with his back pages thoroughly re-examined, it's exciting to anticipate what's going to come next.

Recording: Monsters Inc.

Artist: Monsters Inc.

Songs: Where Are You, Mike? + You're Making Him Lose His Focus

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall, November 12, 2017.

Monsters Inc. - Where Are You, Mike?

Monsters Inc. - You're Making Him Lose His Focus

This experimental outing from Bernice's Robin Dann and Philippe Melanson saw the stage floor littered with percussive implements and a keyboard, before which the pair sat to sing — with complete deadpan seriousness — some extracts from the screenplay of the film from which they took their name. The appropriation of some found texts as lyrics cast my mind back to one of the first times I saw this pair dabbling in experimental zones outside of what they do in the band. Framing this as "experimental" might mean some might take it as being clinical or approached by the musicians as a semantic exercise, but these two approached this, like all their music, with a guileless joy, as if their internal antennas were simply pulling songs from everywhere in the atmosphere.

Recording: The Mike Smith Company

Artist: The Mike Smith Company

Song: Terms Of Venery

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 5), February 26, 2017.

The Mike Smith Company - Terms Of Venery

After a couple special events, this set saw the Mike Smith Co. back in its "working" alignment, mostly playing skewed pop material that's newer than the stuff on last year's Famous Wildlife Movies and with plenty elaborately-layered vocals over the band's precision noodling.

Recording: The Mike Smith Company

Artist: The Mike Smith Company

Songs: Bird's Lament + All Is Loneliness [composer: Moondog; arranged by Mike Smith]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Moondog 100), December 3, 2016.

The Mike Smith Company - Bird's Lament

The Mike Smith Company - All Is Loneliness

Celebrating what would have been the one-hundredth birthday of Louis T. Hardin, the blind street performer better known as Moondog, this event invited two groups to reflect and refract his unique compositional sensibility. No mere busker, "The Viking of 6th Avenue" crossed paths with many of New York's musical legends, including Leonard Bernstein and Charlie Parker — and his friendship with Philip Glass and Steve Reich (plus his love of musical canons — "rounds" to row-your-boaters like me) cemented his status as a forerunner to minimalism. Mike Smith's arrangements, however, ensured the snaketime rhythms weren't treated with too much fustiness by imbuing them with some grooves — "All Is Loneliness" features a bouncy bassline (and some fine basso vox from Jonathan Adjemian) while "Bird's Lament" has the same sort of synth wiggles that pop up frequently in Smith's own compositions. In fact, the set included a trio of new Moondog-inspired works that will hopefully make their way back in other musical settings.

Recording: The Mike Smith Company

Artist: The Mike Smith Company

Song: Forced False Setting^*

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall (The Music Gallery's Departures Series), June 28, 2016.

The Mike Smith Company - Forced False Setting

This group name has hitherto represented more of a concept than a "band", so it was perhaps no surprise to see a rather different cast of supporting musicians bringing some of Mike Smith's recent material to life. Recent co-transcombobulator Jonathan Adjemian was joined here by Bernice's Robin Dann as well as Mike Posen on violin. More pop that previous (in a bubblegum-prog sort of way), the band was bravely achieving some manner of fusion of Henry Cow and Young Marble Giants. After a couple new tunes (including this opening burst of false falsetti with backing vox from Posen and Mike Smith himself) there were some new group arrangements of the Transcombobulation material as well as the poppification of the previously-essayed "Dark Sequin".

^* Thanks to Mike for passing along the title to this one.

Recording: GREX

Artist: GREX with Martha Farquhar-McDonnell + friends

Songs: Johnny's Gone to Hilo [traditional] + Holy Manna [composer: William Moore]

Recorded at Church of St. Andrew by-the-lake, June 5, 2016.

GREX with Martha Farquhar-McDonnell - Johnny's Gone to Hilo

GREX and friends - Holy Manna

Martha Farquhar-McDonnell's My Singing Bird has been issued by High Park Records, a new endeavour from Alex Samaras to spotlight recordings of unaccompanied vocal music. So on celebrating the album's release in the same Island church where it was recorded it was no surprise to see Samaras opening things up with his vocal ensemble GREX.

Performing as a trio, Samaras, Ghislain Aucoin and Ryan Brouwer tackled a couple church-appropriate numbers (including the glorious "Kviria") but the set was also structured to include not only Martha Farquhar-McDonnell (as heard on the sea-shanty "Johnny's Gone to Hilo", recorded by The McGarrigles as well as many others) but also her mother and sister and frequent singing partners Isla Craig and Robin Dann on an old shape-note number. Beautiful stuff and a totally joyful set.

Recording: Ben Gunning

Artist: Ben Gunning

Song: Destructive

Recorded at Smiling Buddha (Silent Shout Festival – Night 1), December 4, 2014.

Ben Gunning - Destructive

Although they'd stepped away from presenting live music, Silent Shout returned for a two-night celebration to mark their fifth anniversary. Taking over the Smiling Buddha for two nights gave the site's designer Roxanne Ignatius a chance to re-imagine the space, with a deconstructed disco ball twirling above clouds and webby fabric tendrils. Plus, downstairs there was a gallery of her consistently-excellent show posters, going right back to the series' beginning when it had to spell out its mandate of "EVIL DISCO / GLOOMY ELECTRO / DEATHLY SYNTHPOP". And though there was a retrospective element to the whole affair, the music was decisively forward-looking, including a couple bands making their debuts.

It was quite pleasing to see Ben Gunning's new Massive Love album being championed by Silent Shout. Though it undoubtedly includes some bum-wiggling grooves, its yacht rock sound arguably owes more to Steely Dan than The Knife. The recorded versions of the songs do indeed have some slick electronic undertones, though live that's subsumed somewhat into the smooth sounds of Gunning's all-star backing band, which includes DIANA's Kieran Adams (drums) and Joseph Shabason (sax) plus Bram Gielen (bass), Thom Gill (synth) and Michael Davidson (vibes) plus Robin Dann and Alanna Stuart (backing vox). Playing after a lot of the crowd split following the headlining set, there was room on the dancefloor for those who stuck behind to see this rather astonishing band in action.

Recording: The Thing Is + GREX

Artist: The Thing Is + GREX (feat. Jane Bunnett)

Song: Borders of One^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery, March 14, 2015.

The Thing Is + GREX - Borders of One

As the artist designation above implies, this performance was a collaborative affair, put together to present Tova Kardonne's "Lanka Suite", a set of compositions reflecting on her outsider's observations of a trip to Sri Lanka. The music has evolved for a while now (a streamlined version was workshopped a year ago), but this full-on presentation united two of Kardonne's projects, including The Thing is, her the large-format jazz ensemble as well as Alex Samaras' avant-vocal group GREX. The night also included some atmospheric, abstract visuals from Nilan Perera that evoked a sense of travel and elsewhereness. The net effect was to create a form of musical tourism that isn't reliant on mere appropriation — a reflection of Kardonne's experiences without a usurpation of Sri Lankan tropes.

^* Thanks to Ali for passing along the title to this one.

Recording: Bernice

Artist: Bernice

Song: Talking About Her

Recorded at Holy Oak Café, January 8, 2015.

Bernice - Talking About Her

This low-key gig at Holy Oak saw Bernice play with a slightly jury-rigged lineup. Vocalist Felicity Williams was out of town and Josh Cole was sitting in on bass, but there was still a lot of magic in the air with another chance to hear some of Robin Dann's fab new songs. There were also a couple curveballs in the setlist, including this tune which doesn't get played as much — as well as a brief appearance by Tin, the band's alter-ego that plays ten-second-long improvised songs based on shouted genre/topic suggestions.

[Several members of the Bernice universe will be part of next week's Felicity Williams-curated Emergents II at the Music Gallery (Friday, January 30th), which will include a Robin Dann/Claire Harvie vocal set as well a new trio from bassist Dan Fortin.]

Recording: Planet Beach

Artist: Planet Beach

Songs: [two improvised sections]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Tiki Room), December 15, 2014.

Planet Beach - [third part]

Planet Beach - [fifth part]

An intimate last-minute show in the rumpled den that is the Tranzac's Tiki Room, this set saw Bernice's Philippe Melanson (percussion) and Robin Dann (vox) playing alongside Montréal friends Mike Bjella (sax) and Gabriel Drolet (double bass). The sense of hearing the ghosts of songs was enhanced by the fact that occasional disembodied voices would carry over from the open mic in the next room, embroidering the group's sonic rustles. Largely improvised, Dann was more of an equal instrument here than a lead voice, singing phrases from found tracts and pamphlets. The outcome was quiet and restful, as relaxing as a trip to the spa.

[Expect some more sonic abstractions when Robin Dann is joined by Claire Harvie and Phil Melanson as part of the Felicity Williams-curated upcoming Emergents showcase at the Music Gallery on Friday, January 30th.]