Toronto’s cultural scene is busting out all over
Oscar Peterson died at 82 in 2007, but his music is still bringing pleasure to me and countless other jazz lovers.
The great pianist from Montreal — who toured the world and spent his final decades living in Mississauga — continues to be hugely influential among musicians in the jazz world.
Now, to mark what would have been his 90th birthday, the TD Toronto Jazz Festival is kicking off its 29th-annual event with a tribute concert on Thursday at the Bluma Appel Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre.
This year, the jazz festival coincides with Luminato and Pride, both running from Friday to June 28.
Upshot: on the Toronto cultural scene, June will be busting out all over, to borrow a line from Carousel, the classic musical currently being revived at the Stratford Festival.
Two members of Oscar’s quartet from way back, Ulf Wakenius and Alvin Queen, will be among the performers, along with two of his favourite collaborators, bassist Christian McBride and pianist Robi Botos.
Toronto should have a permanent memorial to him. But if you want to see a mood-elevating, fanciful sculpture of Oscar Peterson, you can find it on the street just outside the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, where, in 1992, he received a Governor General’s Performing Arts lifetime achievement award.
The sculpture, by Ruth Abernethy, shows the maharaja of the keyboard seated at a rounded grand piano, smiling at the audience with pleasure and relief at the end of a performance.
Three days of ideas
Mid-June also brings the l6th incarnation of ideacity, an annual event created by media mogul Moses Znaimer. This year, it runs for three days, starting Wednesday at Koerner Hall.
Each year, Znaimer recruits 50 smart people with big ideas and puts them onstage to share their eureka moments in an unscripted way for 700 ideas junkies, then they schmooze with the audience.
Among the speakers are cartoonists Terry Mosher (a.k.a. Aislin) and Wes Tyrell, who will offer their perspective on a year in which cartoons loomed large. The lineup also includes Simcha Jacobovici, an Emmy-winning documentary producer and biblical archeologist, and Conrad Black.
The price, including a party every night: $4,000 for those who sign up in advance, $5,000 for those who don’t or $2,000 for one day.
Movies and more in Niagara
For those willing to venture outside the GTA, there is season two of what is now called the Niagara Integrated Film Festival, modestly billed as “the most recent brainchild of Bill Marshall.”
NIFF, which runs from Thursday to June 21 at various places in the Niagara region, combines movie-watching with wine-sipping, gourmet food and scenic wonders. A less-recent brainchild is TIFF, which Marshall co-founded in 1976. mknelman@thestar.ca