Hot 8 Brass Band, Live TD Jazz Festival, June 21, 2019


2019.6.21
Hot 8 Brass Band, Village of Yorkville Park, TD Jazz Festival, Toronto

Like Luminato, the Toronto Jazz Festival, with TD and other sponsors over the years, managed to present a bunch of excellent free concerts in addition to worthy ticketed events in an accessible spot.
Since this jazz festival contracted and diminished over the years, the small park where free events are held can almost accommodate the numbers who show up. Despite the smaller venue, the sound is no better and the crowds even more dense along the street and every surrounding square inch of space. One wonders if sponsors’ marketing has been fine tuned as it were, to be foisted on a smaller but presumably more affluent crowd.
The Hot 8 Brass Band brought out a large after-work crowd, and kicked off with an extended jam, singing “life is a party” before finding their way into covering “Atomic Dog.”
To the uninitiated, brass bands are typically all brass, no strings, with the bass parts played by something large enough to handle it, like a tuba or sousaphone. New Orleans is bubbling with brass bands and players leading straight-up funk and anything else-bands. This sets the bar high for New Orleanian brass players. The city has historically enjoyed a ruthlessly competitive scene, with jobs on the line virtually all the time.
The Hot 8 were a typically fun-with-a-‘k’ bunch of horn players, definitely capable of holding their own, but there are more intense brass experiences to be enjoyed from the Crescent City. Still, one can’t criticize any big band that bring on a party on a summer night.


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