Volume 27 Issue 3 - December 2021 / January 2022

experience.
The second evening of the series on December 15 is a concert
featuring performances by Skin Tone and Stephanie Castonguay with
a focus on hacking and the use of found technology. Castonguay’s
inspiration for her sonic experiments is DIY culture, taking barely
audible machines and turning them into playful instruments that
reveal the resonances and random sounds hidden within their structures.
She will be performing with her self-built light-scanner instruments
that use modified scanner heads as audiovisual devices to
translate objects built from various materials into sound and moving
images. Skin Tone is the solo performance project of James Goddard
who has been an innovative leader in Montreal’s independent music
scene, creating hubs for DIY music and presenting livestreamed
concerts. In his Music Gallery performance he will bring his skills on
voice, saxophone, mbira and electronics to create new worlds from
sonic distortion.
Night three, on December 16, will be a feast of experimental
performances by Sa.resi, Deidre, and Vixu who will delve into the
worlds of noise, improvisation and different textures of sound. Prior
to the concert there will be an opportunity to hear the performers
speak about their work within the context of present-day experimental
music and their visions for future developments. On the final
night of the series, on December 17, in a co-presentation with PIX
FILM Collective, Castonguay will speak about the design of her lightscanner
instruments and the more recent work she has created with
this custom-made instrument.
Music for change, indeed.
Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electrovocal
sound artist. sounddreaming@gmail.com.
January 23 | 2022 | 2:30pm
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
VANESSA
By Samuel Barber
Narmina Afandiyeva
Music Director
Robert Cooper
Chorus Director
Featuring artists:
Simona Genga
Lauren Margison
Scott Rumble
TICKETS
ON SALE
NOW!
www.stlc.com
416-366-7723
1-800-708-6754
MAINLY CLUBS, MOSTLY JAZZ
What a difference
a year makes!
COLIN STORY
Just 8760 little hours ago, in December of last year, most of us
were hunkering down, keeping safe, and preparing for a very
different winter than we’d enjoyed in years past. Visits home
were cancelled; stockings were half-heartedly stuffed; home-office
chairs swivelled disconsolately from Zoom meetings to Zoom cocktail
hours. This year, however, things are looking just a little bit brighter:
vaccination rates are up, case rates are down, and – though the threat
of the pandemic looms, ever present on the periphery – it is looking as
though we may indeed have a more conventional (and decidedly more
sociable) holiday season.
As of December 16, we will officially be at the five-month mark
of music being back in Toronto and environs in the kinds of venues
I usually cover in this column. For some audience members, this
has meant five months of being back in venues, watching musicians
return to the stage after a lengthy intermission, and witnessing
restaurants, bars and concert halls sort through the thorny logistics
of making COVID-safe adjustments, training new staff and, often,
enacting new payment policies to ensure a more equitable and fair
disbursement of funds to musicians. For other audience members,
the return to live music has been slower, whether because of worries
related to COVID transmission, a change in lifestyle, or – as has
happened for so many people – a move, enabled by a shift to remote
work, from a dense urban area to somewhere with more affordable
housing options and more accessible outdoor spaces.
Whatever the case may be, there are quite a few exciting shows
happening in December. If holiday shows are your thing, there
are a number of options, including the Kensington Holiday Bash
(December 10, Grossman’s Tavern), A Charlie Brown Christmas and
Castro’s Christmas Party (both December 12, Castro’s Lounge), Tom
Nagy’s Christmas Experience (December 17, The Jazz Room), and the
Jason White Christmas Special (December 18, also at The Jazz Room).
A shout-out for The Emmet Ray
For great non-holiday-themed shows in a venue that still evokes the
warmth, community and good cheer of the season, I have one specific
suggestion: The Emmet Ray. Since its opening in late 2009, The Emmet
Ray has occupied a unique position in Toronto’s club scene. Unlike
venues such as The Rex and Jazz Bistro, The Emmet Ray’s identity has
as much to do with its bar program as it does live music. The bar is
perhaps best known for its extensive international whiskey options,
though it also features a selection of Trappist beer, offerings from
local breweries, wine and cocktails. Divided into two spaces, the bar
makes no demands of its patrons. In the front room, customers can
relax, enjoy their drinks and carry on a conversation in a setting that
borrows as much from an English village pub as it does from its more
typical College Street counterparts. In the back room, table-lined walls
lead to the stage space, complete with ceiling-mounted speakers, Wild
Turkey-sponsored backdrop, and, of late, plexiglass panels, to ensure
some particulate separation between performers and audience.
Like every other music venue in Toronto, The Emmet Ray has
had its share of difficulties over the past year and a half. During the
height of the pandemic, owner/operator Andrew Kaiser and team
quickly pivoted, converting the bar to a bottle shop/grocery store,
doing livestreamed shows, and creating courier-friendly kitchen
items for home delivery. As live shows returned in July 2021, the bar
22 | December 2021 thewholenote.com