Thursday, April 19, 2007

Abstract Index Playlist - April 11/07

No playlist this week. The show consisted of interviews on top of CDs on continuous play. The music of William Parker/Hamid Drake, Keith Hudson, the Colombia collection on soundway, the new comp of sounds from Bermuda from the Numero Group set the pace for your generous pledging!

The news this week was yet another successful pledge drive - thank you! The interviews spotlighted a diverse cast of musicians from around the city, with the focus on community radio and how it helps their respective endeavours. I tried to steer the conversations to common themes among people who had never met. For instance, I asked both Christian Saldivia from Son Ache and A Man Called Warwick to talk about their different approaches to Latin music and the possibilities and pitfalls of combining these fan bases. The commonalities seem strong when you think about it: Son Ache is dedicated to hardcore, back-in-the-day son with a touch of jazz, toughened up for a contemporary dancefloor. AMCW's Turning Point highlights tropical rhythms from back in the day, often with jazzy influences, recontextualized for a contemporary dancefloor. Yet these two veteran Toronto musicians had never met, and it's likely that they have two entirely separate audiences despite their similarities - a gig in the making? It's always tough to pull off the band + DJ vibe at one event, the flow can be choppy. But surely there is room for cross-promotion.

The same questions were posed to Rob Piilonen of the AIMToronto. Asked about the links between Toronto and Canada's jazz industry and the improvising musicians in toronto, Piilonen was quick to draw a distinction between two streams that are often lumped together. In fact, he maintained that many of the improvisers in the city want nothing to do with Jazz FM and don't come from a jazz background whatsoever. Nevertheless, the trained instrumentalists who are improvisers have more opportunities for gigs - I could see ace flautist Piilonen being Toronto's Dave Valentin over some Latin band, and in the past I've expressed the desire to see jazz musicians get a chance to get as free as they wanna within an AIMT event.

Finally, superheavyREGGAE's (and likeminded Thymeless mainstays DJ Chocolate, Patrick Roots and Zion Gate) genius is in uniting uptown and downtown scenes with their contemporary but classic sound modern roots plus soundsystem freestyling which has something for every flavour of reggae fan. That resonates with me, because the way I play reggae is to mix it up stylistically as much as possible, from Euro-dub to Studio One, which inevitably generates the most calls from listeners. And the listeners did indeed call on this night - thanks once again for your continued support!

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