THE EVENT I’D BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO for the past month was the Toronto debut of Norwegian electro-jazz collective Jaga Jazzist at the Harbourfront last night as part of the Beats, Breaks and Culture: Toronto Electronic Music Festival. Without a doubt, the best live band I’ve seen this year, and not just because they’re one of my favourites. I took the wife and the boy with me; her, because she loves the band too, and well, it was the closest thing we’ve had to a date in a while; him, because he’s a fan of “Kitty Wu”, the opening track on their disc _The Stix_. He likes some of their other stuff too.
We arrived a bit early so that we could grab a bite to eat and nose around some of the stalls set up. We wound up meeting the group’s drummer/bandleader, Martin Horntveth, and let him know of the little fan’s appreciation of the Wu. Just to give you some insight on the boy’s ear, a live version of said song appears on the group’s recently released _Day_ EP. Within the first minute of hearing it, he lets me know that “this is a different version.” Sniff, sniff [dry away the wee tear]. That’s my boy! The coolest was that our pre-show meeting was announced to the crowd and “Kitty Wu” was dedicated to our wee man. Does that rock or what?
On the way back to the car, a stray balloon was adopted and brought home. His master decided to name it “Cat Willie, the green balloon.” In fun, dad-like fashion, I brought out the Sharpie, drew a face on it and had ‘im talkin’ trash to great laughter. Sadly, the family’s new addition had quickly deflated overnight. Time to buy a bag of party favours and brush up on those silly cartoon faces I used to draw all over my notebooks in grade school.
