As part of our continuing search for excellent musical venues, Blast Toronto made it out to the Novotel located at 3 Park Home Dr to see the Blackburn Brothers.

New Venues in North York

As far as the Novotel is concerned, they have a classy restaurant called Trio. For the last few months, each Thursday night they have been hosting nights of Jazz and nights of Blues. On this particular night, they brought in the incredible R&B band The Blackburn Brothers.

The quality of acts this place has been hosting is what I would consider perfect date night. The atmosphere is classy, the room has amazing sound made for such acts and the food is fantastic. I am a fan of their desserts.

The Blackburn Brothers

The Blackburn Brother packed this room in quite nicely and with their high energy R&B the vibe was flowing very well all around the room. In fact, the room was feeling so hot the snow outside was melting.

They kept the crowd totally engaged, especially during their number, “Soul Brother”. They had the men singing proudly to the words, Soul Brother while the women were chanting Soul Sista and the room felt totally connected.

Most of their set was from their award-winning album, Soul Funk N Blues. If you search my back stories on this website, you can read my review of this album.  Blackburn Brothers- SoulFunkN’BLUES – Blast Toronto

The true heartfelt moment came when they got to the song, “Bobby’s Blues”, a song dedicated to their late great Father.

It was refreshing to see their record executive, Andrew Galloway in the audience supporting and enjoying them. He is the owner of Electro-Fi records and is a huge supporter of Blues Music. You can find his label and discover new Blues talent here. Electro-Fi Records

There was a moment in the show that truly struck me. Brooke Blackburn is writing a history piece about a man named Albert Jackson who was the first Black postman in Canada. It was quite a lengthy story about his journey up to Canada and who he became. I just realized that the Tragically Hip are not the only band that has great stories about Canada. In today’s unstable times, we need to learn more of these stories and truly embrace our Canadian pride. I think it is time to sit down with Brooke and let him tell some of these stories. Hopefully, there will be an interview soon.

Well, after that deep history lesson, it was back to business with heavy R&B music. As I looked around the room, I was delighted to see a bunch of white people free styling with their funky moves. The band finished of the evening with James Brown’s “Sex Machine”, so I got my butt on that dance floor and free styled it to finish off an evening of high energy class.

Here are a few photos of the evening:

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