FESTIVAL BALLIN'

Work has taken me to a number of festivals this summer, and as I mix off the stage I can't help but soak it up like a sponge, whatever the fare. A couple weeks back, I caught Murray McLaughlin, a legend in his own right as far as Canuck folk goes, at Shelter Valley.

"In the eighties," he told us from a stage made out of a porch barn, "it didn't matter who you'd talk to. It could be a baggage handler at the Vancouver airport or a Bay Street lawyer. You'd mention Brian Mulroney, and they'd all say 'Mulroney, that son of a bitch!' And that was Canadian unity back then."



MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN - Farmer's Song
MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN - Honky Red

A week and a half later, at The Guelph Jazz Festival colloquim, I met Greg Tate of The Village Voice after he gave a talk entitled "The End of Black Music - Jazz in the Digital Age", which actually was more about hip-hop and the legacies of jazz rather than jazz itself. I'm all for it, especially since many (but not all) jazz peeps often forget that jazz isn't just Mingus and Armstrong and Jelly Roll anymore.

Also present at the colloquim were Bob Ostertag and Rene Hebert, who made music with video game controllers, accompanied by live video and totally on the fly animation. They call it "living cinema", and while it's political in it s nature, it's not necessarily "message art", as Ostertag put it during a discussion on the artist and soial responsibility.



Unfortunately I only spent two days there, and would have loved to have stayed for the likes of Black Ox Orkestar, Torngat, Bell Orchestre, The Hylozoists and Sao Paolo Underground. But alas, perhaps next year I'll spend a day there after the work is all done.

ESB PLAYLIST 9/12/06

NADIYA - Tous Ces Mots (Sebastien Remix)
SEBASTIAN - Ross Ross Ross
SEBASTIAN - Dolami
KID KOALA - Slew Test 2 / Mosquito vs. Water Buffalo / Slew Test 3A
MOSES MAYES - Rock It So Hard
MOSES MAYES ft. Phatt Al + N.I.Gel - Come Out to Play
BONDO DE ROLE - Melo Do Tobaco (Jokers of the Scene Remix)
DJ PHD - Stay Building
DJ PHD - Rockittrajectory
GLASS CANDY - Ripe Apples
THE RAPTURE - Callin Me
THE AVALANCHES - Run DNA
KLAXONS - Atlantis to Interzone (Crystal Castles Remix)
CANSEI DE SER SEXY - One Way or Another / Teenage Kicks