Jazz Festival Preview

Still recovering from the storm of shows, events, and all-night bar hopping that took place last week? Well if you’d rather put off the NXNE-hangover for a while than quit cold-turkey there’s another equally hectic festival starting this weekend to keep you going.

Showcasing some of the biggest names in Jazz music, most of whom are Canadian, The Toronto Jazz Festival kicks off tomorrow with multi-talented and effortlessly cool chanteuse Janelle Monáe shaking things up at Nathan Phillips Square. After some high-scale musical connections, which included working with Stevie Wonder, singing with fun. at the MTV Movie Awards, and performing for unlikely fan, Barack Obama, Monáe has been dreaming up a whole new experience for her live shows, and tonight’s performance will surely showcase a new breadth for this genre-hopper.

On Saturday, the greatly underrated but highly talented soul-singer Bettye LaVette will take the stage at Nathan Phillips Square to bring her “classic soul singing” to a new audience. 20+ piece orchestra, The Big Sound, will open for LaVette and perform throw-back hits from the Motown era – including The Jackson 5, The Supremes and Marvin Gaye – for all your nostalgic needs.

If you’re still able to squeeze in another show on Saturday night, Vancouver indie-rock group, Destroyer, will play the Opera House at 9pm. A quick east-bound trip down the Queen streetcar line will be very worth it for this band.

But if this weekend’s still a write-off, a slew of other great acts will be performing throughout the week, including last year’s “who-the-eff-is-that” Grammy winner, Esperanza Spalding, as well as highly accomplished and multi-talented Ziggy Marley. There’s also enough free shows to keep your pockets happy, and of course some events held at restaurants, to keep those stomachs happy. Because what better way is there to treat a concert-hangover than with more shows?

Visit http://torontojazz.com/ for more info.