Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

To walk through the middle of Toronto's Kensington Market on a Saturday in the early ’80s was to enter what locals called the “wobble zone.” There on a stretch of Kensington Avenue, between St. Andrew and Baldwin, the booming bass sounds coming from two sets of opposing speakers could throw passersby a little off balance.The duelling sound systems, like something out of The Harder They Come, belonged to a pair of Jamaican expat musicians who ran competing reggae record shops, each facing the other. Stranger Cole came first, in 1978, launching his Roots Records store – the first Caribbean business in the Market – at 58 Kensington. Four years later, Rannie “Bop” Williams opened Record Corner a...

The world has become crowded with crooners and divas, all climbing over each other to cover compositions from the American songbook. It’s well traveled ground: the same handful of songs by Cole Porter, Harold Arlen and others has long been the staple of iconic singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. Yes, classic numbers like Porter’s “Night and Day” and Arlen’s “Stormy Weather” have stood the test of time and numerous interpretations. But where are the new songs for the current wave of jazz singers and pop vocalists? Nowhere to be found.With this collection, Murray McLauchlan has helped to fill that void. After an illustrious career as an award-winning folk and country artist, pop...

Toronto reggae-soul star Jay Douglas, originally from Montego Bay, got his start with the Cougars, playing at the West Indies Federation Club at Brunswick and College then at Club Jamaica on Yonge Street before crossing over to Le Coq D'Or. The Cougars can be heard on the great Jamaica to Toronto compilation from the Light in the Attic label. Here, Jay and his band return to Yonge and take over the Friar's Music Museum space for a half-hour concert and an animated history lesson of the Toronto music scene. Tip o' the hat to Mark Garner, Museum co-curator Jan Haust and the ever youthful legend Jay Douglas.Watch Jay at the Friar's Music Museum here