Pete Gray's Weblog » jazz

A “Classic Rock” song that really snuck up on me

Pete — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:39:53 +0000

Mostly, I listen to a jazz radio station. From time to time, particularily in the car, I listen to Q107, my favourite “Classic Rock” station, by a long way. All the other classic rock stations are all caught up on wierd stuff like Foreigner, Journey, Boston, Toto, Styx, all this stuff I never really listened to. Q107 tends to play more Zeppelin and Sabbath, but also more CanCon like Trooper, April Wine, Streetheart, Prism, Loverboy, and I like the cheesy stuff too. Not part of the LA corporate playlist, I guess.

Anyway, I heard this song on there the other day, and it got stuck in my head something fierce. I mean, really bad. It gave me all these flashbacks to camping with my parents when I was wee, shag carpets, globe cedars, yup, it really really took me back. And this video is a hoot – Kinda livish, and man, I have not seen a mullet nearly so wonderous as the one on that keyboardist for quite some time…

You may notice I didn’t mention the name of the song. I figger there’s a good chance you wouldn’t even try. But you should. It’s very short, and even more enchanting…

Casey and his guitar

Pete — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:34:18 +0000

Casey has this really nice Rickenbacker guitar.

A Cool Approach to Jazz in the Park

Pete — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:00:49 +0000

Jazz in the Park is a neat little series of concerts they have at Coxwell and Danforth in Toronto, every Wednesday during the summer. I’ve gone up with the girls a couple of times. Now, this ain’t the best type of outdoor jazz for wee ones with high energy levels. The park is fairly full of mature people in folding chairs, and there is no space for the wee ones to dance and jump and sqeal and giggle without disurbing the jazz-rapture of nearby attendees. We much prefer the Woodbine Park portion of the Beaches Jazz Festival, due to the endless amounts of space around the venues for wee hyper ones to be wee and hyper.

Even so, one trivial aspect of Jazz in the Park was so charming, so surreal, so groovy, so urban, and so atmospheric, that I thought I’d mention it here in my new blog. Here’s a map, that shows what I’m going to talk about:

Map showing Laneway to Jazz in the Park

That “S” in the yellow dot shows where the stage is. Take the laneway up from Hanson Street – the laneway runs halfway between Coxwell and Rhodes – the laneway that ends right at the stage. You can see the tent, and sorta hear the music waaaay down at the south end – and by the time you get there, you burst out from behind that ugly block of a building you see there and are right on the fringe of a big, sunny, outdoor, sophisticate, upscale, snotty, funky cool jazz concert.

Violet, Ruby and the Ladybug

Pete — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:43:28 +0000

This is a picture of Ruby showing Violet a Ladybug one fine afternoon down at the Beaches Jazz Festival, Woodbine Park Festival division.

Ruby Shows Violet a Juicy Ladybug

I wonder if I can click on the image to see the larger original?