Josh Grossman's blog

And suddenly, it's day 1 of the 2016 TD Toronto Jazz Festival!

It's already been a full week: the preview concert on Tuesday night at North York Central Library; the annual Rex Players Party on Wednesday night; and last night I was on the Roy Thomson Hall patio for a concert by the Lemon Bucket Orkestra (who also happen to be playing the festival). But today the activity really kicks into gear.

HEY DID YOU KNOW THE 30TH TD TORONTO JAZZ FESTIVAL STARTS TOMORROW?!

I'm yelling because, frankly, I'm excited. But before I launch into my annual "festival survival guide" post (which I will do tomorrow), I wanted to reflect on the unofficial first event of this year's festival. On Tuesday night (June 21), Chase Sanborn led a special preview concert at North York Central Library - and it was brilliant.

We're now only days away from the 30th anniversary edition of the TD Toronto Jazz Festival and, other than a frustrating sideshow or two, I'm raring to go. I'm not going to lie - these past six months have been challenging. Transition at one job, an incredibly hectic schedule at both jobs, extra-curricular activities - plus a recently-minted two-year-old and an about-to-be-minted five-year-old at home...I'm tired! But the adrenaline is starting to pump now.

Over two nights at The Rex Hotel, creativity will abound as some of the top musicians in the jazz and improvised music communities come together to perform selections from CDs which are already earning critical acclaim: Too Many Continents from the Nick Fraser Trio, and Starer from the Nick Fraser Quartet.

I feel I may have achieved peak stress as we seek to finalize the upcoming festival, so I'm looking forward to a musical oasis of sorts with this Sunday's presentation of David Occhipinti's Art Song Concert, the third in our series of Special Projects presentations.

This Sunday, April 10 at The Rex Hotel, we're proud to be a presenting partner of the third annual Israeli Jazz Showcase. It should be an outstanding night - emerging jazz harmonica player (harmonicist?) Roni Eytan joins us from Boston with his quartet, and one of the most exciting trumpeters in jazz, Avishai Cohen, brings his quartet.

Last night's show was the second of four Special Projects presentations, and what has stuck out for me about both (Amanda Tosoff's show was a few weeks back) is the quality of the original compositions featured in the shows.

Our second Special Projects presentation of 2016 is next Wednesday, March 30 at Lula Lounge - the CD release party for Petal, the debut album from Sundar Viswanathan's AVATAAR. Prepare for a musical journey!

Every once in a while, when standing in front of my big band, and especially after someone within the band has made some smart-alec remark, I'll ask the audience - "Anyone want to run a big band?" It's always in jest, of course...

A bit ironic, I suppose, that for my first post in many months, I’m going to talk about a project called Words since, you know, I haven’t written many here recently…