The TD Canada Trust Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival will run from June 25 to July 4, 2004. For ten days, thirteen nights....over 1,500 musicians will entertain more than 500,000 music lovers during the 18th annual festival. Confirmed guests for this year include Oscar Peterson, George Benson, Wynton Marsalis, the Canadian debut of Stacey Kent, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Bela Fleck and the Fleck Tones, Beady Belle, Blind Boys of Alabama, Thom Gossage & Other Voices, Phat Hed, and more artists to come. Toronto's City Hall once again plays host to the free daytime concerts and the ticketed evening Mainstage Concerts, scheduled daily during the festival at Nathan Phillips Square. Additional concerts and a club series are programmed in over 40 downtown venues.
A rare concert appearance by the legendary Oscar Peterson kicks off the festival on June 23, 2004. Throughout his six-decade career, this world renowned jazz great has worked with the who's who of jazz - Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, to name a few. Born in Montreal in 1925, Mr. Peterson exhibited a flair for the piano from the beginning. At 15, he was studying with the accomplished Hungarian classical pianist, Paul de Marky and by 22, he had formed his first trio. American impresario Norman Granz invited Mr. Peterson to perform in “Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic" at Carnegie Hall which led to a new trio, which included Herb Ellis and Ray Brown, and toured North America and Europe with the “Jazz at the Philharmonic" troupe. The trio recorded dozens of albums during this time, and was widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz bands of the day.
The Oliver Jones Trio will be special guests. It's been over 20 years since Oliver Jones formed his first trio and became a mainstay of the Montreal jazz scene releasing numerous albums along the way. For this special performance, Oliver Jones is joined by Dave Young on bass and Norman Marshall Villeneuve on drums.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
