Ontario
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Artist Spotlight: Les Petites Nouveax
Les Petits Nouveaux is a jazz ensemble who’s music is inspired by the legendary guitarist, Django Reinhardt. While many artists have taken to interpreting the classics of this genre known as Jazz Manouche, Les Petits Nouveaux’s goal is to incorporate modern influences and to bring a fresh sound to a genre that is often approached with traditionalism. Les Petits Nouveaux’s humble beginnings can be traced to the halls of Humber College, where many students discovering their love of Django Reinhardt formed an ensemble to perform his music. Many years have since past, and the spirit of the ensemble now lives on beyond the confines of the institution. Now Les Petits…
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The Conductor – You’re Invited!
Sponsored Post: MK2 Mile End is excited to invite the Secret Frequency community to an exclusive, advance screening of THE CONDUCTOR on March 19th at 7:00 at Cineplex Yonge and Eglinton.
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Workshop: What Bookers Want – Band Promo 101 ONLINE
BAND PROMO 101 – A workshop to help you stop pissing off bookers and promoters and get more gigs. Sunday, April 4, 12:30pm – 4:30pm Sadleir House Lecture Hall, 751 George Street North
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Artist Spotlight: MONOWHALES
Fueled by a passionate desire to create a sound as unapologetic and powerful as the personalities within the band, MONOWHALES have taken the experiences gained fighting their way up the ranks of Toronto’s music scene and barrelled headlong into the creation of their new EP Control Freak. Exploding onto the scene with a DIY ethos and an unforgettable live show, MONOWHALES first made waves with their breakout single Home in August 2016. The band would go on to share stages with Dear Rouge, K.Flay, Matt and Kim, Coleman Hell, and many more. The band’s new EP Control Freak, released in June 2018, was produced by AL-P (MSTRKRFT, Death From Above…
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Artist Spotlight: Laila Biali
Multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist Laila Biali has toured with Chris Botti, Paula Cole, Suzanne Vega and Sting. She has headlined festivals and venues spanning five continents including Carnegie Hall. Her accolades include a 2019 JUNO Award for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year”, “SOCAN Composer of the Year” and “Keyboardist of the Year” at Canada’s National Jazz Awards, a JUNO nomination for her studio recording Tracing Light, and a spot on DownBeat Magazine’s “Best Albums of the Year” list for her follow-up Live in Concert. In 2015, Laila released her first album of entirely original music, House of Many Rooms – an indie-pop project featuring a star-studded lineup…
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Music City – A strategy
The points I’ve included below – headlined ‘A Strategy for Music Peterborough‘ – was created with my hometown in mind, but swap out a few names and organizations and this would be useful in any city to frame the way you approach different sectors with a view to creating a cohesive push to highlight music (or, I think, almost any local art or cultural highlight) and create a Music City mentality. I’ve made a few edits from the original document to make explicit the sort of things that I take as a given, but which aren’t obvious to everyone (like gender parity, inclusion of racialized people, good working conditions, etc.). A…
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Artist Spotlight: Ozere
For the duration of my life, guitars have driven almost all of the music around me. Whether they be sensitive strummers or wailing rock gods, they’ve been sort-of inescapable. And as I’ve moved through different jobs as a music booker, I’ve found my ears got kind-of worn-out on the guitar; even great players rarely catch my interest. It often feels like the possibilities of the guitar have been explored, past the comfort of familiarity and straight on to dull repetition, especially in the Folk community. ((Sorry, dudes, it’s just… y’know. I still love a lot of guitar-playing acts; it just rarely gets me all excited to hear a new guitar-based…
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Folk Music Ontario Conference
The Folk Music Ontario Conference ((Formerly the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals!)) is an annual event that draws just under a thousand artists, presenters, and other music industry people to hang out together, jamming, learning, and talking music for four days every October. It’s always a highlight of the year, a chance for bookers, promoters, writers, and DJs to hear some of the best emerging touring acts in one place over one weekend in one hotel. This year, the conference takes place in Mississauga, Ontario. Secret Frequency founder and writer Candace Shaw will be in all of her usual haunts at the conference – wherever there’s good music or good…
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Ideas: A small-town musical roadshow
Ideas is a series talking about the communities, people, and ideas surrounding the music and culture industries. I love Ontario’s small towns; I grew up in one, a tiny village called Keene that, even today, is home to only about 500 people. I’ve got no illusions about small-town life – it can be stifling and tortuous, especially for a young woman with unusual tastes who doesn’t fit in. But there’s lots to be said for their sometimes-fading charms; heritage downtowns, odd little shops, idiosyncratic bits of architecture. They’re monuments to a time when our country was more sparsely populated but prosperous, when travel was slower, and when even a small…
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Artist Spotlight: Raging Asian Women
This weekend I headed down to Yonge-Dundas Square to catch a little of the Small World Music Festival. They had a terrific lineup, and one of my favourite live acts was playing – Raging Asian Women. Taiko drumming is a traditional Japanese form of performance where musicality and showmanship are both important, and RAW have it down. The first time I saw them was years ago, at a conference, and I’d had no idea what to expect. I’d seen and loved Taiko performances before, but nothing prepared me for the power of RAW. By the end of their performance, I had tears streaming down my face – not from sadness, but…
