Melody Gardot completely captivated the audience Monday night with her one-and-a-half-hour set as part of the Jazz by the Lake series in the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival. Every now and then a performer comes along who has a quality that goes beyond their singing and playing ability to make an extraordinary stage presence. They say Judy Garland and Edith Piaf had that kind of quality, and Gardot has joined those ranks.

The 21st Annual Beaches International Jazz Festival held a press conference today to announce their line-up of events for July 17–26. The street festival and mainstage concerts in Kew Gardens are their usual robust selves with an eclectic roster of mostly local talent such as Rich Brown with his fusion group Rinse the Algorithm, blues belter Shakura S’aida, and the added international draw of Southern Rocker Jimmy Hall and Barbadian R&B singer Hal Linton.

t seemed as if todo o mundo was in Yorkville for the Brazilian Guitar Marathon this past Saturday. The Luminato Festival had set up a stage in the little park at Bellair and a couple of blocks of Cumberland Avenue were blocked off to cars, turning the area into a mini, urban Tanglewood-meets-Carnival-in-Rio. (Note to the Bloor-Yorkville BIA: let’s turn part of Yorkville into a pedestrian-only area every weekend in the summer.) The guitarists who had been brought in for the five-hour extravaganza are the cream of the nylon-string set in Brazil, and therefore the world. I’m not sure what it is about Brazilian musical culture that breeds such nimble-fingered musicians, but Antonio Carlos Jobim wasn’t kidding around when he said “Brazilians seem born with a guitar in their arms.”

The Sultans of String brought their “atomic world jazz flamenco” to the warm, intimate confines of Trinity St. Paul Centre Friday night and the audience couldn’t have been happier about it. The affection for this group was palpable as the band alternated between sincere tributes to whales, Sable Island horses and Mayan ruins, meditative rumba flamenco and smokin’ East Coast kitchen parties. Head Sultan Chris McKhool plays 6-string violin and is the main musical voice for the band. Other core players are Kevin Laliberté (who co-writes the songs with McKhool) and Eddie Paton on guitars, the two contrasting beautifully as Paton provided the fiery solos and Laliberté turned in precise and melodic phrases. Drew Birsten bowed, slapped and strummed his way through the bass parts. Master percussionist Chendy Leon sat amongst a small forest of drums and toys, but favoured the versatile cajon for most of the night alternating between hands, brushes and feet as the mood demanded.