Set for March 8th at the Trane Studio, the showcase will feature some  of Canada’s top emerging acts, including Souljazz Orchestra (Funky  Afro-Jazz, Ottawa), Kobo Town (Calypso World, Toronto), Grüvoria  (Jazz Funk, Toronto), Mélissa Laveaux (Afro-Blues/Neo-Soul, Ottawa)  and Caroline Glass (Acoustic Folksy Pop, Montreal). Bio and full  tracks are available at http://www.musicdish.net/cmw/

MUSICDISH ‘10TH ANNIVERSARY’ CMW SHOWCASE
Official Canadian Music Week Showcase
http://www.musicdish.net/cmw/

Thursday, March 8
Trane Studio, Toronto (www.tranestudio.com)
964 Bathurst street (2 blocks North of Bloor St.)
FREE for CMW badge holders, $10 general public

8:30 pm – Caroline Glass – http://www.carolineglass.com
9:30 pm – Grüvoria – http://www.gruvoria.com
10:30 pm – Kobo Town – http://www.kobotown.com
11:30 pm – Souljazz Orchestra - http://www.souljazzorchestra.com
12:30 pm – Mélissa Laveaux - http://www.melissalaveaux.com

The showcase is sponsored by
The Live Music Report – http://www.thelivemusicreport.com
Composition Music & Communications
Small World Music – http://www.smallworldmusic.com
Long & McQuade – http://www.long-mcquade.com
MusicWorld3D – http://www.musicworld3d.com

MusicDish Founder and President Eric de Fontenay has also been  invited to speak on the “The New Gold Rush: How To Make Money In The  Digital Age” panel at this year’s Canadian Music Week. The panel,  being held on Friday March 9th at 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM in Salon A of  The Fairmont Royal York, will assess how digital revenue streams work now (or don’t) and how they might in the future.

About MusicDish, LLC
MusicDish, LLC (http://www.musicdish.com) has been at the forefront  of the digital music sector, publishing some of the industry’s  leading music magazine, including MusicDish.com and Mi2N.com. Through the MusicDish Network (http://www.musicdish.net), it supports the  development of artists and labels through saturated marketing and  online brand development, whether online street teams or p2p viral  distribution.

About Canadian Music Week (CMW) International
Celebrating 25 years, Canadian Music Week International is Canada’s  largest annual entertainment event attracting music, media and  entertainment professionals from across the globe. Combining two  information-intensive conferences; a cutting-edge trade exposition,  five awards shows and Canada’s biggest New Music Festival, CMW is the  official meeting ground for those who shape the industry. March 7 -  10, 2007 in Toronto, Canada.
http://www.cmw.net

“It is daunting to attempt to describe a CD created by a poet with the eloquence of Trinidadian-born Drew Gonsalves. His “St. James” would fit nicely in an anthology of Caribbean and Caribbean-born poets that would also include the works of Linton Kwesi Johnson. Some heavy material, but there is levity too — and rhythm! Lots of sounds to savour.”

Kobo Town produced and self-released Independence in November. Drawing heavily upon the sounds of traditional calypso, roots reggae and dub poetry, the album is a collection of stories which offer a running commentary on a wide variety of social and political themes including domestic violence, homelessness, globalization, the war on Iraq, and the various frustrations and betrayals of the post-colonial era.

Named after an historic community in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where calypso was born, Kobo Town strives to recover the social conscience, satirical storytelling and strong acoustic/organic rhythms that characterized Trinidadian music in the past. But while the group’s singer-songwriter Drew Gonsalves expresses a wish to “celebrate the musical and artistic traditions formed over the long years of our turbulent history”, the tales that fill the album could be told anywhere.

Independence was co-produced by Lyndon Livingstone (David Rudder, Andre Tanker, Mighty Scrunter) and Drew Gonsalves at the Razorshop in Maraval, Trinidad. Independence will be available for download through CD Baby, iTunes, Music Discovery Network, Calabash Music and select online retailers. For more information or to hear advance tracks from the album, please visit, www.kobotown.com.

On Tuesday, November 14, we witnessed another in a fine series of events under the rubric of “Listen Liberally.” These New York City events showcase bands and offer a chill place for fans and D.I.Y people in the music industry to see them. This most recent event was the record release party of Kobo Town, a pan-Caribbean music group from Canada that has updated Trinidadian calypso and mixed it with reggae and other regional music, while still keeping the traditions of fable-style storytelling and political commentary. Led by Drew Gonsalves, primary song writer, vocalist, cuatro (a four-string mini guitar) and guitar player, Kobo Town has created something unique, a rarity in today’s musical environment fraught with the cannibalism of music styles, little innovation or even creativity.

The show started off with friends and fans milling about Club Midway getting lubricated, or should I say prepped for the show. With the music space in the bar’s basement (a concession to the new well-heeled residents of Avenue B) I cringed, since the sound in most places like this is loud, shrill and muddy. All right for generic punk, horrible for anything else. When the band took the stage and started playing, to my surprise, the sound was excellent. It was also clear that this band sounded so good because of touring off their new record Independence. There is nothing like touring to make a band tight.

The show started with “Half of the Houses.” Beginning with Gonsalves’ voice, the song jumped into a full on roots/dub reggae number. Bass player Pat Giunta and drummer Rob Milicevic laid down a serious Roots Radics-style groove, peppered by Cesco Emmanuel on lead guitar and Derek Thorne on percussion, conga and djembe. As they went through a set that consisting mostly of songs off the new CD, it was clear that between their last visit to New York a year ago and this show, that the recording and touring had turned a good band who played a nice set into an awesome band playing great. After this straight up dub, they went to the other pole of their musical world, the traditional sounding calypso tune “Trinity,” a sun drenched island love song that got backs off the wall and started the staid Tuesday crowd moving. “Abatina” followed. This song brought forth more of the group’s signature sound, a blend of calypso melody, reggae beats and call/response backup vocals.

By this time the crowd of Kobo Town cognoscenti and newbies was on the floor dancing, unable to keep that somnambulant New York City cool pose. While the show, like the CD, had moments of danceable fun (aforementioned “Trinity” and Higher Than Mercy) the overall theme of Kobo Town is hope and struggle, expressed through music that is both marching strong and grooving happily. The song “St.James” is a signature number for this band, especially live, because it has everything that good about the band. The beat is spacious like the best reggae, but the bass line has the strident macho quality of old school Afro Cuban music – think Cachao (if you don’t know ask somebody). Percussionist Thorne played melodic riffs on cowbell and conga drums. Gonsalves’ cuatro has a folkloric sound that brings up juice from the music’s roots. His vocals have an unaffected power and simplicity reminiscent of Peter Tosh or Barrington Levy.

The lyrics express the rebellious spirit of old and new calypso – and the music of cultural resistence everywhere: “In the pool of our sorrow, in the sea of our wrong / Like a pothound sniffs the ground for a bone / For something thrown away to call his own… / Hope whispers into the air of night Œbrother, haul yuh tail this town is mine’/ St James night is falling down / Like an eyelid closing on the town / The whole place like a boil ready to bus’/ St. James pray for us.” “Sing Out Shout Out,” which opens the CD, closed the set. Over a classic reggae one drop complete with a bouncing step in the bass and drums and sweet, offbeat guitar, Gonsalves sings the story and history of imperialism and control: “New name new flag same old game while the lucky laugh and the poor endure having lost the will to fight again / Well I remember when we were young and hope was strong.” Mr. Thorne was a treat throughout the concert but especially on his show stopping djembe solo and conga work on this song.

Overall, Kobo Town delivered. The tightly and powerfully performed songs possessed cohesion, dynamics and clarity that went beyond the recorded versions, excellent though they may be. And isn’t that what we all want from a live show?