Herbie Hancock

‘All women suffer from injustice’: Mali singer Oumou Sangaré on why she’s still speaking out for women in Africa and beyond

Sangaré, who has been opposing arranged marriages, polygamy, sexual subservience and genital mutilation for more than three decades, makes a rare Toronto appearance on April 20.by Nick Krewen Special to the Star She’s known worldwide as “the Songbird of Wassoulou.” But over the past three decades, Malian singer-songwriter Oumou Sangaré, who makes a rare Toronto appearance on Saturday, has meant so much more, especially to the women of Africa. Since…

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The steel pan is more than a vacation sound to Joy Lapps — it’s about the joy of self-expression

Lapps is one of the few women to specialize in steel pan or steel drum. She will share her passion with the Toronto Jazz Festival. By Nick Krewen Special to the Star Quiz time: what sunny-sounding percussive instrument that invokes the sound of the Caribbean is forged from a 55-gallon industrial drum? The answer: the chromatically pitched steel pan, which is front and centre of Joy Lapps‘ first full-length album of…


Christian McBride and Joe Sealy double bill mixes Black history with the music.

McBride’s The Movement Revisited and Sealy’s Africville Stories about destroyed Black Canadian community will be part of Meridian Hall double bill. By Nick Krewen  Special to the Star Four powerfully influential U.S. figures and one Canadian tragedy. That’s what’s in store for appreciators of Black History Month when a potent jazz double bill of Christian McBride and Joe Sealy takes to the Meridian Hall Stage on February 17.  For the…


Before she went to New York and became famous, Joni Mitchell played the Half Beat in Yorkville

     Nick Krewen Special to the Star John McHugh remembers the time he accidentally became Joni Mitchell’s matchmaker. McHugh, who owned the Yorkville-era clubs The Penny Farthing and The Half Beat back in the ‘60s, recalls meeting “Joanna Anderson” when she came around to one of his venues around 1963-64. “It was at the Penny Farthing that (singer) Cathy Young brought this young lady in with her,” McHugh recalled recently…


Herbie Hancock gives it all a try

Herbie Hancock gives it all a try | Toronto Star Longtime Gershwin fan’s Massey Hall show just latest outlet for broad-minded creator.   Herbie Hancock at home with keyboards both acoustic and electronic … thanks to Miles Davis. Nick Krewen Special to the Star Published on Thu Oct 20 2011 Legendary jazz innovator Herbie Hancock might be considered something of a prodigy, but that doesn’t mean he’s taking his upcoming…