Features

I didn’t want this to be the story, but it is the story. Jazz, segregation, the Musicians’ Union and why jazz and Black musicians at the Pilot (and other venues) is still a big deal.

To begin, let’s be joyful. From January 31 until the end of February, the Pilot Tavern will feature an event each Sunday, featuring Black musicians in Toronto. This series is the brain-child of Trevor Bazilio, long-time attendee at the venue, who queried the paucity of Black jazz musicians being featured. Four years ago he proposed a Black History Month (BHM) celebration that would feature Black band leaders and musicians during February, and was invited to book it. 

A step back 

The Pilot Pub was first opened in 1944 by the Klashoff brothers on Yonge Street. This was the era of wartime patriotism. The opera ‘Transit through Fire: An Odyssey of 1942’, would have been on the radio airwaves and Gilbert Watson’s orchestra would have played the dance pavilions. The name of the pub was a nod to the World War II military pilots.  At this time, women didn’t commonly frequent pubs, so we can only assume it was a drinking establishment for the men in downtown Toronto. And because it was 1944, we can assume that it did not include Black patrons in the largely segregated era in the city. 

This past summer, an early music band was asked for a promotional group photo and a name for a concert at Toronto Harbourfront’s Music Garden. They realized they had neither, so they searched for a Renaissance painting to capture their spirit. The image they chose, by a follower of imaginative painter Hieronymus Bosch, shows a group inside a giant egg gathered around a book of music, singing and playing – and so they dubbed themselves The Musicians of the Egg.

Afrokando, an ode to the Cuban big band, is a searing, scorching album with the deepest groove. With it, bandleader, composer, arranger and Cuban trumpet player Alexis Baro is continuing to build his discography, documenting and sharing important aspects of Afro-Cuban music. Baro travelled to Toronto from Cuba in 2001. The young player was quickly snapped up by Archie Alleyne and his group Kollage. Since then, Baro has written and recorded many of his own albums, all rooted in Afro-Cuban jazz.

The Coalition for Music Education in Canada has announced that Adrian Sutherland is the featured artist for this year’s “Ancestors Voices: Music and Learning for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” and that his all-Cree song Kiyash will be shared coast to coast to coast, inviting students to learn about truth, reconciliation, and the power of music as storytelling.

There’s an intersection in Prince George, British Columbia from which, no matter what direction you head, you will be on one of the roads the chamber opera, Missing, has travelled in its seven-year journey en route to Koerner Hall this coming July 24.