Monday Roundup #207

Community notes:

• The call is out for next round of Tranzac residencies for April through September. Hit the link and get yourself a stretch of dates in Toronto's best music room!

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Concert announcements:

Peripheral Vision (Lina Allemano Four) 2025-01-07 (Tuesday) [FB event]

Audiopollination (feat. Rabia Agha/Yoshi Maclear Wall/ Meryem Alaoui / Mike Smith/Em Wright / Matthew Endahl/Matt Collins / Mickle32/Elizabeth Lima) / Array Space 2025-01-10 (Friday). $10 (cash or card), livestream available. [FB event]

Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!

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Shows this week:

Tranzac New Year's Eve (feat. Joseph Shabason & The Welcome To Hell Tentet / Sandro Perri & Friends / Jane Inc) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-12-31 (Tuesday). $30 Adv. / $32 door. [FB event]

Tania Gill Quartet [Tania Gill/Lina Allemano/Rob Clutton/Nico Dann] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-01-03 (Friday – early). $pwyc. [FB event]

Diane Roblin's Life Force [Diane Roblin/George Koller/John Johnson/Kevin Turcotte/Colleen Allen/Tim Shia] / The Pilot 2025-01-04 (Saturday – 2:00 p.m.). $15. [FB event]

Josh Cole 4tet+ string(s) [Lina Allemano/John Oswald/Nick Storring/Blake Howard/Josh Cole] / Sellers and Newell 2025-01-04 (Saturday). $25. [FB event]

Adjacent Spheres (feat. Michael Davidson/Emily Steinwall/Germaine Liu/Aidan McConnell/Blake Howard) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-01-05 (Sunday)

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It happened this week...

• ...on December 30, 2018 at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge).

The Titillators - If I Were a Bell

• ...on January 4, 2019 at The Gladstone Hotel's Ballroom (Long Winter, Vol. 7.3)

Katie Sketch - unknown

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Recording: The Titillators

Artist: The Titillators

Songs: Pennies From Heaven [composer: Arthur Johnston] + If I Were a Bell [composer: Frank Loesser]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), December 30, 2018.

The Titillators - Pennies From Heaven

The Titillators - If I Were a Bell

This holiday special from Ryan Driver's Titillators saw special guest Alex Samaras sitting in for Thom Gill as designated whistler — a task he pulled off with aplomb, buoyed by regulars Tania Gill (keyb) and percussionists Germaine Liu and D. Alex Meeks. It was to no-one's surprise that even in an all-whistling ensemble that the irrepressible Samaras could not be stopped from belting out a verse — especially when there were tunes from Guys and Dolls on offer!

Recording: The Titillators

Artist: The Titillators

Songs: Jitterbug Waltz [composer: Fats Waller] + Pithecanthropus Erectus [composer: Charles Mingus]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Music Hosted by Karen Ng), November 20, 2018.

The Titillators - Jitterbug Waltz

The Titillators - Pithecanthropus Erectus

The historic fourth performance of Ryan Driver's "radical new assemblage of Toronto's hottest jazz curiosities" celebrated the release of the ensemble's first cassette. Their un-standard approach to standards includes street-sweeper bristle bass, strange synths, stranger synths and a picnic blanket of miscellaneous percussive elements. Take away a song's centre and what's left? And what happens when you decentre that? And then what happens when you add warbling whistles? A suggestive peek at what's going on here was provided by the first original work that Driver has provided to the band's book: "It's Not About The Music".

Recording: The Titillators

Artist: The Titillators

Songs: Prelude to a Kiss [composer: Duke Ellington] + Cotton Tail [composer: Duke Ellington] + Midnight Sun [composers: Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), July 22, 2018.

The Titillators - Prelude to a Kiss

The Titillators - Cotton Tail

The Titillators - Midnight Sun

A historic occasion on the debut of this new combo convened by Ryan Driver, here on street sweeper bristle bass and flanked by Tania Gill (synth), Thom Gill (synth, whistling). The ensemble was completed by Germaine Liu and Phil Melanson, who were seated at a blanket full of miscellaneous percussive items (including happy apple, toy piano, wood block, bowl of water, metal bowls, rattles, miso soup, trowels, chopsticks and so forth), making it look like they were on an especially whimsical picnic. (D. Alex Meeks sat in for the second set, adding even more small taps and crunches.)

This was a sure antidote for anyone feeling like they arrived too late for first-hand witnessing of classic Rat-Drifting-style high-concept oddness, with the sound here being a sort of fractured take on novelty jazz, or a really "out" Spike Jones cover band. (In any case, the repertoire surveyed at this show included plenty Ellington and other standards.) If that sounds too high concept, just imagine these tunes serving as background fodder for the sort of Muppet Show sketch that would end with Crazy Happy pressing his plunger and blowing up the whole thing. That said, as off-kilter as the whole thing is, this is delicate and lovely music (that isn't superbly captured by my recordings) so you shouldn't miss an opportunity to get titillated.

[The Titillators' historic third performance is happening tonight (September 15th) at The Tranzac.]