NATURE: There are only so many weekends left to appreciate the autumn leaves before the big bad winter swoops in. Hence, the High Park Nature Centre invites families to join them in the Hawk Watch Family Nature Walk to watch said raptors as they begin their fall migration. High Park Forest School (250 metres south [...]

Now in its 23rd year, the Beaches Jazz Festival has a lot going for it. Two weekends of free shows in the heart of a great Toronto neighbourhood is definitely something worth celebrating.

WHERE: The tent at David Pecaut Square WHEN: Wednesday evening WHAT: Order of Canada recipient, Juno winner, and hometown fave Molly Johnson performed with her band at the Toronto Jazz Festival yesterday. She wowed with several standards including “But Not For Me” and “Lush Life” as well as some of her original hit songs like [...]

The Enwave Theatre was filled to the rafters Monday night for a powerhouse performance by American vocalist Kurt Elling and his quartet. Elling burst onto the international jazz scene in 1995 with his debut release on Blue Note Records, Close Your Eyes. Since then, it's been full steam ahead for this consistently innovative artist.

Jazz is trendy again. Starting tonight, as it has for the past 24 years, the Toronto Jazz Festival is rolling into town, bringing with it a plethora of shows from renowned local musicians to big name out-of-towners. In his second year as artistic director, Josh Grossman has provided the festival with an expanded vision (both geographically and musically) and a formidable web presence. Our top picks include everything from mainstream, swinging jazz to hip hop, at every price point imaginable, including free.

With the elephants at the Toronto Zoo moving out, a new crop is taking their place just in the nick of time. And, lucky for us, we like their trumpeting even more. Bent By Elephants formed, and are mostly based, in Montreal, but with their trombonist here, Toronto has become a second home for the seven-piece pop/jazz/folk ensemble.

Photo by Gorp and provided by The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. Classical and jazz music are often viewed with suspicion, largely due to the elitism that’s associated with their listeners. Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock are perhaps the biggest superstars in these genres, respectively, and reactions to their current tour only [...]

Oscar Peterson passes at 82. The great jazz musician was a Canadian hero and he did many amazing things, including spending the twilight of his career essentially playing jazz piano one-handed and doing it better than most people who had use of both their hands. Police catch 12-fingered man. Moral: if you have extra fingers, [...]

Primate cloning a success. No, we don’t have cloned monkeys yet, but we do have cloned monkey stem cells, which could in turn be used to generate human-compatible monkey organs. Man, it’s fun just to type the word “monkey.” Monkey. City to revamp Union Station. The plans involve teleporters, a spaceship landing port, monkeys, and [...]

The late Paul Haines’ Secret Carnival Workers was launched at the end of last month, the occasion marked with a concert by his daughter, Emily (his other daughter is television journalist Avery Haines). Torontoist has been mulling over the book, comprised of poetry, fiction, jazz journalism and album liner notes, since then. This is not [...]

Photo by Carrie Musgrave. After a brief hiatus due to NxNE and Bonnaroo, Live Baby Live is back! You’re excited, aren’t you? Don’t deny it. As always, lots of recently announced shows. Interestingly, you’ll notice that all of the horse bands will be through town over the next few months. We wonder what animal trend [...]