Josh Grossman's blog

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…

Is perhaps what you've been saying to yourself this past week, waiting impatiently for my final festival post. (Also possible: I'm giving the impact this blog has on your daily life far too much credit.) Well wait no longer - here it is!

And suddenly, it's kind of the last day of the festival. Most of our official programming wraps up today. We'll be celebrating our volunteers at a party tomorrow evening, we've got Jamie Culllum on Monday night, and there's still a plethora of music in the clubs, but for the hub of the festival (Nathan Phillips Square) today marks the end of activity. It's been an incredible week - excellent music, great turnout overall, and a lot of fun.