Josh Grossman's blog

It's taken me a few weeks, but I wanted to finally share with you a bit about my trip to New York at the beginning of January. I was there, as I am almost annually, to meet with agents and check out Winter Jazzfest. And, as is often the case, I came back to Toronto with my head spinning, wanting to book everything I saw and slightly envious of so many New York things. (The subway system really is great. Except the L line. I came to dislike the L line.)

Well, 2017, you're not wasting any time, are you?

After a whirl-wind Toronto-Winnipeg-Toronto-New York trip, it's already time to launch in to the first TD Discovery Series Special Project presentation, this Sunday, January 15 at Lula Lounge. And I think this one show will feature more musicians than the rest of the Special Projects shows combined.

Happy new year!

After a couple of weeks filled with friends, family and celebrations of various flavours, I'm ready to go on 2017 - refreshed, if not well-rested. I hope you had a great holiday season - between Christmas, Hanukkah, my birthday and travels to Winnipeg, my time off felt especially satisfying this year.

You know when you say "okay next week I'll start writing regular blog posts" and then suddenly it's two months later? Yeah well...

September and October have been absolutely jam packed. Happily, it's been busy for lots of what I feel are the right reasons, but it's meant having to carefully prioritize my daily to do list, and writing here has unfortunately fallen behind. And so, for your reading pleasure (?), here's a summary of what's kept me busy over these past several weeks.

Back in January - January 4, to be exact - I got an email completely out of the blue inviting me to be on the jury of the 2016 International Zbigniew Seifert Jazz Violin Competition in Poland. All expenses paid. The work would involve listening to and scoring competition submissions, then attending three days of concerts and, ultimately, helping to choose the 1st (10,000 Euro), 2nd (5,000 Euro) and 3rd (2,000 Euro) prize winners.

Um...yes?

My wife said to me this morning, "Looks like you've got more white hair." I looked in the mirror. She's kinda right. But if less sleep than usual and my #jazzfestdiet contributed to my new hair colour, I think it was worth it - these past ten days have been spectacular.

I'm sitting this morning in my home office, drinking a home made americano, looking at an empty schedule (for the next few hours, anyway). It's nice. But it's hard not to feel a bit sad.

And so here we are, on the last day of official programming at the 30th anniversary TD Toronto Jazz Festival. I've had a fantastic week, and look forward to wrapping things up today with some excellent music and one more late night jam...

I'm a bit late in writing the post today - I got to enjoy a visit from my family this morning (see the picture above). So it's just about 3 pm and I'm sitting at The Rex about the enjoy David Gilmore and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, much needed Americano at hand...

Okay so it might be a bit hard to type today - I'm having trouble keeping still with the Lula All Stars in full swing (er...salsa) on stage for our Lunchtime Concert Series.

I'm not a fan of unnecessary capitalization, but I believe Day 5 was what we call a Good Day - despite a someone harried beginning. Despite my best efforts, I managed do set my alarm incorrectly so woke up 15 minutes later than I had hoped. It was only 15 minutes, but with a TV interview scheduled for just after noon, I didn't have any time to waste. Nor did I have time for a coffee. But I found a way, somehow, to persevere.