The Toronto Tabla Ensemble World Music Organization (TTE) is a non-profit charitable organization founded by Artistic Director and tabla master, Ritesh Das. The TTE’s mission is to share the depth and excitement of Indian classical music, culture and history and make it accessible to all people.

When the Toronto Tabla Ensemble was founded in 1991, the tabla was rarely seen on the Canadian stage. Since then, Ritesh Das’ exciting and groundbreaking performances have brought tabla and his Ensemble to the mainstream public through numerous concert series at the Harbourfront Centre as well as collaborations with Japanese Taiko, Celtic music, Spanish Flamenco, rock and roll and more.

Since 1996 the TTE has produced three music videos and six albums, including the Juno-nominated Firedance. The Ensemble’s original music has been used in numerous films and commercials, and in 2003 the Ensemble was commissioned to create the current theme music for CBC Radio’s daily morning show, Metro Morning.

Canadian jazz music star and one of the country’s best-loved vocal coaches Micah Barnes has released his first single “THAT'S LIFE” and will be launching the full length “Vegas Breeze" album Spring of 2020.

Micah was recently featured in the new book, Bad Singer, as the vocal coach that made the author’s singing much, much better, and gave advice to the Toronto Star and BT in Vancouver on how to become a powerful singer – great advice for the older audience who just want to sing and the younger YouTube generation who are looking for success through social media.

Least favourite kinda fall is like this one. When the cold wind arrives before the colour and the old demons come too soon to torment. An entry point from Velvet Underground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ckXALWn1M

JUNO Award-winning songwriter Rose Cousins shares her version of Prince’s classic, “I Would Die 4 U”, recorded together with Bear’s Den and Christof van der Ven.Why you ask?

Canadian popsters Girl Pow-R are once again set to inspire the masses with another stirring and encouraging release, “This Is Us” — available now! 

Hot on the heels of this year’s early success “Never Let Go” — which debuted on the iTunes Canada Children’s chart at #2 (second only to cultural force “Baby Shark” but ahead of genre mainstays such as Sharon, Lois & Bram, The Wiggles, and Raffi), and #15 in the U.S. — “This Is Us” comes in the midst of back-to-back-(to-back!) Canadian and U.S. summer tour stops.

With lyrics like “passionate for some change,” “take our message, shout it out,” and “we won’t be pushed around, we are strong, we are proud,” the latest song from the all-girl supergroup continues to embody their core mission of banding together and uplifting their peers. 

Yes, we all do need to get paid for our work. The problem is when you expect that payment or must invest to get out something out of it later.

If you open a business, you must market it. We go back to my restaurant that I always talk about that I should open if I wasn't in the music industry. Of course, no one will know my restaurant if I just open it. I need to advertise. Part of that advertising is probably to invite some food critics to a free meal. Yes, I will lose on that. I won't get paid for these free meals. In the end, though I will get people to come in faster who are paying to eat at my restaurant through these reviews. I must make a choice here, start making money direct and take a long time before I have enough of a customer base to get the money out or a faster way to give something away for free to bring in the money. Both ways have their faults. Give away food and I might re coupe it but aren't sure. The long way it might take so much time that I never get any salary out of it.

Featuring esteemed poet, multimedia artist, and Somali refugee Ifrah Mansour, the gorgeous and heart-gripping track is part of a larger cross-collaboration release, Refuge. Set for Spring 2020, this their seventh and most historic album features talents that arrived in Canada and the U.S. as immigrants and refugees — many of whom are GRAMMY and JUNO Award winners.

“Each one of us in the world has a remarkable story to tell…” says Sultans of String co-founder, Chris McKhool (Jesse Cook, Pavlo). It’s his bold, fiery fiddle — melded seamlessly with founding guitarist Kevin Laliberté’s (Jesse Cook) rumba rhythm — that lead the group’s distinctly signature sound. 

Added to this rich foundation are bass master Drew Birston (Chantal Kreviazuk), guitar wizard Eddie Paton, and Cuban percussion master Rosendo Chendy Leon (Alex Cuba). Together, their musical synergy strikes inimitable, explaining their three JUNO Awards, and four Canadian Folk Music Awards, plus many more. 

“Anything this good cannot be close enough” Canadian pop songstress Mauve sings in her newest release, “Close”.

Same goes for volume: a track like this one can’t be played loud enough either.

“I compare the energy of love to a growing fire,” she says of the chill-bop pop track sprinkled with hints of tropical house and RnB. “The energy a person emits attracts you… Then it spreads like a wildfire…

“I imagine a scene of watching embers in a fire start to glow, and that’s like the magic that’s birthed through that special connection with someone. That’s why I said a feeling like that cannot feel close enough because you want it completely come over you.

“My inspiration for this song began when I put together a tropical drum beat on my Cubase software program,” she recalls, painting a bigger picture on how “Close” came to be. “Justin Timberlake was in Toronto for a concert and I guess my mindset was in the romantic, hip hop mood he’s known for.

“I wanted to create a beat that was subtle but still had a lot of intensity charged into it — like that fire building up.”

Yes, the secret to success is to understand that it works like any other financial market! No, don’t buy the repeated phrase that we all work in the music industry because we love music. We are in here for the money like any other artists. And that is nothing wrong with that since we all need a salary to make our daily living. But that we work just because we love music well then, we could just have it as an extraordinary hobby.

So, for all you that just want to play for fun at the local bar or at your parent’s party. I’m not writing about that. That is cool that you are doing it. My text here is aimed at the ones that want to make it more than a hobby. They want a career.  And here it works like any other financial markets. I don't get how people think that someone would put in thousands of dollars in a project that clearly only will generate 100 dollars.

Co-written with Grammy winning Producer Chin Injeti (Eminem),  "Better" expresses the sweetness and loveliness of how one person can make you feel better, even with the smallest gesture.

Soul resides just beneath the exterior. Upon meeting Katherine Penfold, you might initially notice the prominent tattoos along her shoulder and arms before the conversation veers to her lifelong affinity for motorcycles, skateboarding, or woodworking. Listening to her music elicits a different impression altogether as a sultry, smooth, and sweet delivery belies the rustic badassery she exudes with ease. This gorgeous contrast illuminates the artist’s 2019 full-length debut, Sweetest Thing [Justin Time, Nettwerk].

“Sweetest Thing is a juxtaposition,” she affirms. “I have lots of tattoos and like motorcycles, but all of my music is about love and joy. When you see those extremes side-by-side, it really hones in on how I feel about myself and who I am. I had a cool and quirky upbringing that didn’t really fall into pigeonholes. Everything comes down to heart and soul for me, especially music.”

In One Dimensional Man, Herbert Marcuse argues that capitalism, modern technology, historical materialism and entertainment culture, represent new forms of social control. Published in 1964, it’s still scary timely after all these years. This jaunty and mordant XTC number has resonance here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiIlcew-GVM

It's been a year since the pride of picturesque Antigonish (I’m told) The Trews, released their critically acclaimed and JUNO nominated album Civilinaires. They’re celebrating with a special treat, brand new slick and catchy single, "Touch". Listen/ watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOtF9h8aDqY

Chaotic and catchy by deliberately delightful design, Canadian psychedelic art-pop /experimental rock vanguard Glutenhead has released his debut full-length LP, Glugen Frau — available now!

The album — and its premiere single “how it feels” — pull the curtain back on Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Benjamin Shapiro, and his distinctly multi-layered sonic style.

“The music is mostly aimed at representing the impressionistic and surreal quality of dreams and memories,” Shapiro shares. “I was studying neuroscience when I learned just how fluidly our brains construct our reality. The brain’s weakness and strength is the inability to discern what is real. There is a top-down influence on our perception, our minds simultaneously making connections between bits of information and building what we perceive.

Psych-country.

That’s it, that’s the pitch when it comes to Canada’s indie alt. outfit TETRIX and their new single, “Every House Has A Light On" — available now.

After 16 albums for the Calgary-based duo, Connor Gottfried and Neil Pockett have managed to further experiment with experimental, delivering a fresh, original sound that fuses the essence of old-time country with modern psychedelic music.

“Think ‘Hank Williams on acid’ or ‘melted accordion Kraftwerk,’” Gottfried details of their release by the same name, Every House Has A Light On. “For this album, we wanted to connect vintage country chord progressions and accordion with analog drum machines and avant-garde editing.

“Each song was recorded as an extended 20 to 30-minute improv session which was then chopped and edited using Ableton Live into the final arrangement heard on the album.”

Chilly in body and soul today. Good day for this classic from Pentangle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RhGhbGOuS0

Once upon that time when the Eighties rolled over into the Nineties, the Riot Grrlllz thing was having its moment, young women with plenty to say and an in yer face way of going about it were grabbing guitars on the way to the barricades and kicking out tunes about it.  None rocked harder or were more articulate than Catherine Simpson; whether fronting Dez Monaz or Cat Fury, dominating Lee’s Palace or The Rondun, Simpson looked bound for higher ground but eventually ended up in her ancestral Ireland, got married and mutated into a garage rocking rockabilly loving radio DJing leader of Cat Fury & The Thunderbirds. Whose current album Visions Of Eden, brings the Riot Grrrlz spirit tempered with Irish mysticism, blazing guitars and a tackle box full of sneaky hooks. Don’t miss the burning cover of bonus track AC/DC’s ‘Jailbreak’ right at the very end.

Woke up to a dismal, damp and screwface kinda day. Much like this one from Judy Blue Eyes. youtube.com/watch?v=eYiyAhAxDQM

No, don't take a friend that makes great Instagram pictures to take your band photos! No, don't be so damn artistic that you don’t know what the pictures are supposed to portray! And for f**k sake, if you don't know how to work with colours and lighting and make then in black and white, we just know that it's not good. Black and white can be cool, but you need to have the option to also have it in colour.

I got a phone call from a booker that will take out some bands at our festival. Of course, he has no chance to listen to all 150 bands that are on the site. Instead, he went into the bands that he knew and after that those that had great pictures and said something. Usually, if the band has a professional picture, they usually have a full show.

I could see so many good bands just be overlooked because they haven't taken the time to work with the picture. Yes, it needs to be a good photographer that knows about lighting that should take pictures not your best friend with a system camera. This is what gets people to look at your band in a roster or a post.

The continuing success of the Mini Pop Kids is a refreshing phenomenon, with young talent doing great things and with a charity element to boot.

The latest is a release of the ‘Old Town Road’, the # 1 hit by Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, and as always the Mini Pop Kids deliver!

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/sckQCtGrAv8

A Quote from Jazzy (Jasmine): “Can't wait for you all to see our new Music Video "Old Town Road". We had so much fun shooting it at a really cool place called Downey's Farm in Caledon, ON.  We got to jump on a huge blow-up jumping pad, ride trikes on a track and pet farm animals (my favourite was the Bunny!!).  There were also some really cool special effects used in the music video, too!”

Each year, more than 500 hopefuls audition to be a part of this legacy act, and many MINI POP KIDS have gone on to perform with the biggest names in the biz, including Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and on national TV and Broadway.