Earlier this month, Chris Birkett received MPP Chris Glover’s Community Recognition Award. Birkett is a multiple award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer who has worked with such A- list artists as Sinead O’Connor, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Talking Heads, Quincy Jones, and Steve Earle.

He was nominated in recognition of his song “Everyone Deserves a Home”, which shines a light on the growing homelessness crisis in Toronto.

Check out “Everyone Deserves a Home” on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCCgverqy-LH3Gu0rOQOG_zg

 “As someone who experienced homelessness in my youth,” says Mr. Birkett. “I believe that the millions of dollars certain billionaires spend on frivolities such as vacations in space could go a long way to supporting social programs that provide safe and secure housing. Giving a homeless person a place to live helps them to become an active, contributing member of society.”

Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/artist/13EQJBvl1NJaMrpjrQ9tHL

A Beautiful Darkness is a collaboration between 3x JUNO nominated, 4x CFMA winning Sultans of String and Marc Meriläinen, the creative force also known as Nadjiwan, who has been recognized in many corners, including Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, the Native American Music Awards, the Indigenous Music Awards, along with invitations to perform at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2015 Pan-Am Games in Toronto.

Watch A Beautiful Darkness - Sultans of String feat. Marc Meriläinen (Nadjiwan) on YouTube here:

It is the second single off the upcoming Sultans of String album entitled Walking Through the Fire (Sept 22, 2023 release), the most ambitious and important project of their career, a CD and concert of collaborations with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists across Turtle Island.

Lisa Hartt's new EP, "Arrival," is a deeply personal and heartfelt collection of songs that has been 40 years in the making. The second single, "Tell the Truth," is out now. Check it out on YouTube here:

 Lisa was born in Montreal but grew up in La Tuque and Dorval, Quebec. At the tender age of 10, she embarked on a long music career, taking her to many parts of the world, which included London and Cairo. During the 1960s and 1970s, Lisa toured extensively with various established musicians before returning to Canada, where she founded The Lisa Hartt Band. Throughout the 80s and 90s, Lisa explored multiple genres of music before eventually combining her vocal talents with world instruments and the ancient practice of reiki. As a result, she became a reiki master and developed her music into a holistic and transformative experience.

My latest achievement is I am on now on the cover of Cashbox Canada!

During my festival Future Echoes. I was awarded The Cashbox Canada Magazine Legacy Award. I have got prizes and accolades before, there has been gold, and platinum records, Grammy awards, and MTV awards, and that has been great, but this is personal. The others are awards chosen from a list of people. You are just a gear in the big machinery. You do not even get the award you just send up the artist and you hope that they will remember you while they send out thanks to dad and mom and the producer.

This prize is really special. This is for my achievements in the music industry. When I was told in advance of this award, I was questioning what I have done? Then we went through all the different projects that I have achieved over the years. Since we are going for AI right now, I asked Chat GPT who I really am. So, here is my career so far.

For the sixth year in a row, Beatcave will be hosting CAMP (Creatives Arranging Musical Projects), a two-day all-inclusive educational and creative songwriting camp. On March 4th and 5th, CAMP will include workshops, music creation, networking, and other opportunities for creatives to be wildly productive and have tons of fun.

Held inside Lynx Music in Toronto from 10am to 8pm each day, songwriters, artists, producers, engineers, instrumentalists, and other creatives are welcome to join this getaway in the middle of the city to jumpstart the creative process and foster collaboration with other creatives. It’s a multi-genre writing camp – previous tapes have included Hip Hop, R&B, Soul, Pop, Dancehall, and Reggae.

It’s going to be harder to be an artist. It will be easier to be an artist and be an artist as a hobby. We can just look at the journalist and photographers and you will see what will happen with the music industry.

Starting a newspaper today is extremely easy. Since we don’t really print any copies, to be honest, the only thing you need is a homepage and a URL. With that, you can start an online magazine and start writing about whatever you want. That is the easy part, the hard part is to gather readers. Since it’s so easy anyone can do it, well there will be a lot of people doing it, at least for a while. The reader will then have so many of these free publications that they will lose value. Same with photography. A good camera is kind of cheap and suddenly everyone is a “photographer”. On top of that now you can create pictures with AI so illustrations are not really needed.

Kaiso Street Collective, led by Jesse Ryan In the spirit of honouring calypso’s The Mighty Bomber, will debut new arrangements to celebrate the connections between jazz and Afro-Caribbean traditions on February 17 at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Tickets are available in advance here and also at the door.

The Collective’s line up for this concert will feature the rhythm-section of guitarist Andrew Marzotto, pianist Ewen Farncombe, vibraphonist Michael Davidson, Juno award-winning bassist Roberto Ochipinti and Cuban Canadian drummer Anthony Daniel. Fronting the ensemble is Cuban-Canadian trumpeter Alexander Brown, trombonist Kelsey Grant, tenor saxophonist Jeff La Rochelle. Jesse Ryan will function as music director and play alto & soprano saxophones.

We would love to do this, but we need to get paid. You bump into this all the time. It’s true, but as an artist, you have to think when you use this.

First, is your value really that much? Sure, you might draw 200 people in your hometown. And there is a value to that. People might buy tickets and they will buy alcohol from the bar. If you then seek out a gig in the next city just an hour away there is nothing that says anyone will show up. You might have no audience here. Sure 20 people from that 200 audiences will come over just because they like you. But the value of these 20 is not as high as the 200.

Suddenly the promoter has to go much more miles than the organizer in your hometown to reach people that might be interested in your music. This is a risk for the organizer, so they want a door deal for the show. Here you have two choices. First, don’t go outside your comfort zone and just play in your hometown until you get a hit and are safe to go to the next city. The problem with that is that your shows will be so many that the audience has seen you so many times that they stop going. The second choice is to take a risk and go for that door deal.

Marc Jordan, from whose pen emerged the classic global top-5 pop hit for Rod Stewart 1991’s “Rhythm of My Heart”, today announces his new solo album will be released worldwide on April 21, 2023. An advance single “Tell Me Where It Hurts” has just been released and is an example of the kind of romantic ballad Marc is renowned for writing.

Check it out on YouTube here:

Marc Jordan’s song craft is lauded by the likes of Diana Ross, Cher and Joe Cocker, all of whom have covered his songs, but Marc is an artist in his own right since his first album was released on Warner Records in 1978 generating the hit “Marina Del Rey.”

Marc’s new album Waiting for the Sun to Rise (Linus Entertainment) comes hot on the heels of the Juno-nominated Both Sides, and represents another deep dive into the jazz-tinged, wholly original soundscape Jordan revisits with each new release.

The all-star lineup, presented by TD, includes Renée Neufville of the iconic R&B Duo Zhané Ghana’s most nominated Afrobeats artist Kelvyn Boy and King Cruff, grandson of music legend Bob Marley

Hosted by singer, TV host, and actress Keshia Chanté and popular radio and TV personality MC Bondé

The Rose Brampton
February 23, 2023
6:00 PM – Mix & Mingle
8:00 PM - Showtime

Jones & Jones Productions, a full-service marketing, creative, and production company, with 30 years in the marketplace curating first-class Afro-Caribbean and multicultural experiences, is excited to partner with Performing Arts Brampton, one of Ontario’s premier divisions for showcasing artistic excellence, and lead sponsor TD to deliver an unrivaled musical event in honour of Black History Month.

Music has the power to bring people together. This is especially true during troubled times of unrest and uncertainty.

New Jersey-based vocalist, songwriter, and producer Laranah Phipps Ray aims to unite people through her Afro-Future jazz-infused funk band La Funkalicious and their new album Game Changer.

Produced by Kym Miller of the band "Instant Funk", "Game Changer" evokes the cosmic jazz flares of Sun Ra, the groovy riffs of Nile Rogers, and vocals reckoning singers of the golden soul-jazz era.

One standout track from the album is "Stand Together." Written by Laranah, the song features a stunning horn intro arranged by Arnetta Johnson, Funkalicious bass licks by Tom Littwin, and Laranah’s silky vocals which lead into the song's call to action.

"If we stand together
We'll all be so much better
Stand together
We can build a better world"

"Stand Together" is described as a "rhythmic, melodic, and inter-dimensional anthem." Interdimensional is a worthy descriptor of this song's out-of-this-world sound that exemplifies La Funkalicious' AfroFuture Jazz-Funk. Check it out on YouTube here:

I’m always told I have a very large network in the global music industry. I guess I have, and it’s no coincidence. I have invested to get that network. I never really told this story before, but I guess I need to explain what happened since so many just think it happens by chance.

For nearly a quarter century, The Maple Blues Band has been the cornerstone of the Toronto Blues Society’s annual Maple Blues Awards (MBA), honoring the creme de la creme in Canadian blues music. With its upcoming full-length record, “Hey Nola,” the Maple Blues Band will step into the spotlight, showcasing the lively instrumental compositions the all-star ensemble has created over the course of its decades together, out January 23 from Cordova Bay Records. 

Listen to “Hey Nola” on YouTube here:

Crossing gender boundaries while singing Pakistani songs of Muslim heritage which are typically performed by men, Shumaila Hemani’s debut album, Mannat (a prayer, a wish), is an awakening about climate emergency and the need for action. “It’s an appeal to the world to come together to support 33 million climate refugees as a result of heavy flooding in Pakistan that drowned a third of the country in August 2022,” she says. 

Based on Sufi poetry from South Asia and sound recordings of heavy rainfall, floods, and other environmental sounds recorded in Pakistan, “Mannat is an immersive experience of deep listening to soundscapes of climate change, the havoc it is bringing on cultures and tradition, and prayers rooted in Hindustani art music and singing from the Sufi shrines of Pakistan,” she says.

It features, “Perils of Heavy Rainfall,” an acousmatic composition which won the Second Prize, Listening During COVID contest (2020) and was recently published in the Goose, the Journal of Environment, Arts, Culture in Canada. Watch and listen on YouTube here:

AI is already being used in music production in various ways, such as for composing, arranging, and mixing music. However, it is unlikely that AI will completely take over the music production process. While AI can assist in certain tasks and make the process more efficient, human creativity and emotion are still essential in music production. Additionally, AI is not yet advanced enough to completely replace the creative input of human musicians and producers. It is more likely that AI will be used as a tool to assist and augment the work of human musicians and producers rather than replace them.

The problem might be that anyone can be an artist. Especially if the quality of songs might not have to be of that quality. But what is better quality. It is a matter of personal opinion whether music was better before. Some people may prefer the music of a certain era or genre, while others may prefer different types of music. Additionally, music is constantly evolving and changing, so what is considered "good" music can also change over time.

Music in Motion provides music industry participants across Canada–including performers, recording studios, talent agents, record labels, music publishers and others–access to a diverse array of resources and opportunities to help their musical aspirations take flight.

Our music services directory provides the resources you need to move forward on your musical journey, boosting your profile while helping you form those all-important music industry connections.

Our mission is to lift those who create music–from aspiring novices to accomplished musicians–providing an opportunity for them to build their dream in this vast music community. 

Music in Motion Canada will give you exposure and access to a diverse range of resources you can use to propel your artistic endeavors in whatever direction you desire.

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Photo Credits: Chad Cornies

Back from the brink Brock Pytel delivers his new single coupled with his video clip Anemic Heart. Facing his own mortality after near fatal health issues in 2020 that he overcame during this worldwide crisis. Like many of us faced with this dilemma that are creative in this business we venture to take a deeper spiritual look at our work that we share with our fans after such a trauma. Understanding that the truth matters in any relationship personal or whatever is essential to ascension and the candid vocal delivery on this song is reminiscent of a higher being or artist in the likes of a Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits a la Adult Alternative Pop which is not perfect but pure, compassionate and elevated on a level of humanity and acceptance that love is not a given.