Willowdale Central has organized some excellent entertainment for the people of Willowdale and beyond. They are holding a concert series of the Blues every Thursday night starting at 7:30 at the Novotel located at 3 Park Home Ave.
To kick off this series is a Toronto favourite. If you know the blues scene you know the name Jay Bleus. If you don’t you should. This guy has his own unique style that lays you back and lets you drift away while he meanders his way through your head like a warm vacation.
He brought along three other very talented musicians to accomplish this vacation on a cold winter night. The band consisted of Ben Graffman on drums, who was the train that kept everybody on track. He knew exactly how to conduct himself to speed up and slow down to make this trip a pleasant experience.
On Bass there was, Kyle Colasanti. He was truly a compliment to Jay as they had a very fine balancing acts happening between them throughout the evening. At one point he was singing harmonies and when he opened his mouth this deep soothing sounds came out. It was astounding to listen to, because that sound doesn’t belong to such a young face.
The surprise of the evening was Alejandro Restrepo on Chromatic Harmonica. There were moments when he would do a solo and truly own the moment and the audience. You could feel the audience saying to themselves, how much it was worth coming out from the cold to hear this guy play. I have seen plenty of great harp players here in Toronto, and now I consider Alejandro amongst one of them. In the words of Jay, this guy can really blow a Mississippi Saxophone.
Then, of course we have Jay, the man himself. I have never seen him live before and I have heard good things about him. He started the evening with a bunch of light and fun songs like, “I got a Woman” by Ray Charles and BB King’s “Sweet little angel”.
Things began to change as he dove into a Bill Withers songs and extended this song nice and slowly. By the end of the song, you forgot it was Bill Withers, but it didn’t matter because you were on a mindful journey of blues delight.
Jay is a master of reinterpreting classic songs. He did a really laid-back version of “Magic Carpet Ride”. As I was travelling along with this song, it felt more like a funky magic low riding carpet. Now that’s how I like to travel.
During his second set he played two Jimi Hendrix tunes and two Buddy Guy tunes. All four songs were deep cuts that you rarely ever hear. As I am writing this, I am listening to a bootleg Buggy Guy and Junior Wells record. There is nothing like an artist that makes you go home and get nostalgic.
I asked Jay to add any events that he is having in the future to my Events calendar here on Blast Toronto. So please watch out for that. In the meantime, there are five more shows at the Novotel. This is your chance to grab some free tickets. Willowdale Central and I are teaming up to give you the February Blues experience. All you have to do is click on the tickets link and put in “Blast” in the promo code section and you can order up to 4 free tickets. Here is a list of who you can see for Free!
Jan30th – Groovy Turtles Band
Feb 6th– Fernanda Cuhna Quartet
Feb 13th– Shanty Sweet Quintet
Feb 20th– Jerome Tucker
Feb 27th– Blackburn Brothers
If you want more information of what is happening in Willowdale go to www.willowdalecentral.org
Here are photos of Jay Bleus and two people who grabbed free tickets to the show :
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