Here’s to 75 years of blues at Grossman’s Tavern
While Spadina Ave. awaits the promised rebirth of beloved rock ’n’ roll watering holes El Mocambo and the Silver Dollar at some vaguely defined point in the near future, there still remains one dilapidated oasis of authentic grottiness on the Chinatown strip in the form of Grossman’s Tavern.
Grossman’s is celebrating its 75th birthday this year (and looks the part) and yet — rather true to unpretentious form — the venue isn’t really making a big deal of the anniversary. That makes the seventh annual Amy Louie Grossman’s Music Scholarship fundraiser going down Tuesday about the clos- est thing to an official all-star birthday throwdown you’re likely to get out of Grossman’s to mark the milestone.
A veritable Who’s Who? of familiar faces from Grossman’s blues-steeped past and bluessteeped present will be on hand for the event, which aims to ensure that the $2,000 bursary that the tavern awards each year to a deserving, developing musician in memory of the late Amy Louie, whose family has owned the room since 1975, will be there well into the future.
Park yourself at the bar from 7 p.m. onward and you’ll have the opportunity to catch the likes of Frankie Foo, the Swingin’ Blackjacks, Downchild Blues Band members Donnie Walsh and Gary Kendall, Danny Marks, Paul Reddick, Rus- sell Williams, Robbie Antone, Bill Hedefine, Terry Wilkins, Alec Fraser, Eric Schenkman, Leonardo Valvassori and Vince Maccarone and the Happy Pals — a piece of Toronto music history themselves, since they’ve been hosting the Saturday-afternoon New Orleans jazz matinee at Grossman’s for more than 40 years. Previous scholarship recipients Dan McKinnon, Chloe Watkinson and Jerome Godboo will also drop by to prove that Grossman’s money has previously been put to good use.
That sounds like a party. Here’s to another 75 years, Grossman’s Tavern. Please don’t ever change because Toronto is distinctly lacking in scuzz these days. And modern Toronto could use a little more scuzz. And blues.