A Musical Tour of Toronto

If you've been missing live music, Jonny Dovercourt's latest work Any Night of the Week (Coach House Books) is the perfect antidote. In this fascinating history of live music in Toronto from the 60's to the 00's, Dovercourt dives into the stories of music venues, promoters, neighbourhoods and musicians themselves. For the Toronto International Festival of Authors, Dovercourt recorded an audio-tour of the music scene in Toronto; there are four podcast episodes currently available, separated by neighbourhood. Check them out here: https://festivalofauthors.ca/event/any-night-of-the-week-a-walking-history-of-toronto-music/ 

Woodstock '69 to '19: Celebrating Fifty Years with Michael Lang

The legend of Woodstock comes full circle! Curated by Michael Lang, one of the original co-founders and promoters for the immortal festival that took place from August 15-18 in 1969 (attended by nearly half a million people), Real Art Press's Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music is the quintessential guide for fans both young and old. Set to release just in time for the anniversary in July 2019, the book includes many never-before-seen photographs, artist setlists and correspondences, along with contracts and design plans for the event. From Hendrix to the Who, Santana to Jefferson Airplane, and Creedence Clearwater Revival to Janis Joplin, all performances live on, thanks to Michael Lang!

Want to explore some more titles by Real Art Press? Visit their website.

Also, check out a sweet promo vid that Real Art Press put together for the book!

Nobody Does it Better

The British singer, Adele, performs the theme song for the latest James Bond movie, which opened on Friday. Since the first Bond film hit theatres 50 years ago a lot of big stars have recorded songs for the movies – singers like Madonna, Tina Turner, Louis Armstrong, Gladys Knight, and Tom Jones. In the 1960s, songs like Goldfinger - sung by Shirley Bassey - battled it out with the Beatles for the spot at the top of the music charts. Big hits like Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney & Wings and Nobody Does it Better, by Carly Simon, took on lives of their own apart from the movies.

The Music of James Bond gives the back story on the songs from 22 different movies, offers interesting anecdotes from behind the scenes, and is a lot of fun to look at because it features over 100 b&w movie stills.

“Both casual fans and 007 aficionados will find this book to be enlightening, informative, and great fun to read” – Leonard Maltin

The Castrato and His Wife

This book tells the story of Giusto Tenducci, an Italian opera singer and castrato, who was wildly famous in the mid-1700s. He sang for Marie Antoinette and was friends with some of the leading composers of the time, including Bach and Mozart, who composed music specifically for Tenducci. He spent most of his adult life living and performing in England, but for a short time lived in Ireland.
In Ireland he was hired to tutor a very talented young woman, Dorothea Maunsell, who was from a rich and influential Protestant family. The two became very close and eventually eloped, causing a huge scandal. First of all, Tenducci was fifteen years older than Dorothea, he was a castrato, and he was also Catholic. Her family was outraged.
Dorothea’s father hired soldiers to chase the pair and Tenducci was thrown in prison twice, but eventually they made their way to England where they lived happily for five or six years. Then the spirited Dorothea eloped with another man.
The Castrato and His Wife is much more than a biography. It tells the story of a group of men, the castrati, who lived unusual lives at the edges of society. It’s also a fascinating look at the history of opera.

Piaf en Rose. . .

For all those Edith Piaf fans out there, Carolyn Burke's new biography, No Regrets has just been published. It's quite the life!  I'd also like to recommend Martha Wainwright's amazing collection of Piaf songs.  What I love about this CD is that Wainwright has stayed away from the big hits and chosen a lot of songs that normally don't get covered. And she can belt them out with all the emotional passion of Piaf herself - it's really a terrific album.

Send in Some Sondheim. . .

Stephen Sondheim has just turned 80! and the BBC Proms recently had a celebratory concert.  One of the performances was given by the fabulous Judi Dench singing "Send in the Clowns".  She gives such a moving and beautiful rendition, in character from the first note to the very end  - I'm sure you could have heard a pin drop in the theatre.  Treat yourself and watch it here.

And for Sondheim fans - this fall we'll be publishing a wonderful collection of Sondheim's lyrics accompanied by commentary from all phases of his career. The subtitle says it all:  Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes.

Some other Canadian Divas. . .

Love, love, love this CD that I just discovered. I'm a huge fan of cabaret and so I was delighted to come across this collection while browsing in a classical music store. It's called Carmen Unzipped performed by Toronto duo Jean Stilwell as mezzo soprano with Patti Loach accompanying her on the piano. I've listened to Stilwell many times on the morning show at Classical 96.3 FM and always thought she had a wonderful radio voice, so I was curious to hear her singing voice. And it's terrific - clear, powerful and able to beautifully articulate the lyrics. Cabaret is all about storytelling; it works wonderfully with just a singer and a piano riffing off of each other and the choice of songs is varied and fun with a mixture of old, romantic favourites along with selections from contemporary composers such as Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich. You will laugh out loud at Taylor the Latte Boy, about falling in love with a Starbucks barista. It includes these wonderful lines: "So many years my heart has waited. Who’d have thought that love could be so caffeinated?" And for anyone who has experienced the pangs of unrequited love, the song Apathetic Man is for you. Any decent cabaret album will feature a song by Kurt Weill (one of my favourite composers), and he's represented here by a rendition of I'm a Stranger Here Myself. Stilwell also includes the song Marlene Dietrich made famous - Falling In Love Again - and the CD ends with a powerful and touching rendition of Habanera from Carmen - the role she's most famous for.
The CD notes will explain the meaning behind all her tattoos. And after listening to it, I guarantee you will want to go out and buy a new red dress.