Eastside, Beaches!

I headed into enemy territory Saturday afternoon, namely the East side of Toronto. To fortify my courage, I stopped at Cafe Fiorentina near Broadview and Danforth for some brunch. I opted for the Brioche French Toast with Roasted Peaches and Cream ($11). The toast was good, soft, buttery, and eggy. There was just enough syrup to add some sweetness. One of the peach slice was tender and sweet and tasted great with the cream, but the rest were too tart.

Afterward, I headed further east toward the Beaches, the almost self-contained enclave that feels separated from Toronto, for its annual Jazz festival. It has been a few years, I forgot how beautiful the beaches were: wooden boardwalk, sandy shore, and murmuring waves. By the Big Band stage, couples were learning the Lindy Hop. Further on at the Latin Stage, a band played some Latin groove.

After soaking up some sun, I made my way to the Main stage at Kew Gardens. The Heavyweights Brass Band, a young group of Jazz musicians (trumpet, trombone, tenor/alto, sousaphone, drums), was setting up. They played a post-show in the Koerner Hall lobby after the Spanish Harlem Orchestra last Christmas, but I wanted to hear them in a more welcoming venue. They were energetic and got the geriatric, afternoon crowd happily engaged. Their music was comprised of primarily original arrangements of pop tunes. Some of would seem to be a natural fit (Bill Withers' Just The Two of Us), others were more surprising (Michael Jackson's Beat It, Justin Bieber's Baby.) The biggest cheer came when they did their own take on Rush's YYZ. But they had original Jazz compositions too including a dynamic Speaking My Language and their up-tempo "theme song" Heavyweight Don't Bring Me Down. On the latter, they were joined on stage by the tapping feet of Carlos Bustamente (host of YTV's The Zone.)

It was a fun show, but marred early on by the incompetent sound engineer. He failed to turn on the mics when the musicians wanted to sing or talk to the crowd, once by staring at the soundboard and not the stage, and once because he had his back to the show, chatting up his buddies. The third time was the most egregious, he actually did not know which input was the vocal mic, and fumbled around until the song was half-finished.