Some Sad News . . .

After 1 and a 1/2 years, RenJam has been doing great but the Renaissance Café isn't. After 8-odd years, owner Randy announced that he's permanently closing down the venue in May, and going off to enjoy his retirement. We will have 2 more RenJams in March and April, and then we're going to hunt for a new club to set up shop.

Here's what's coming up:


March will feature David Hein and Aaron Bentley subbing for Dominic Major on sound. David Hein is a great performer with a fun onstage persona. It should make for a great night of music.

April's RenJam will feature The McDales, a country music duo featuring Toronto fixture "Uncle" Herb Dale with Fran McCann. Some wonderful traditional country likely featuring the house band playing back-up. Hopefully Fran will strap on a bass at some point, but she admits she's pretty intimidated whenever house bassist Sarah is around. ;)

So while it's sad for the Toronto music scene that the Renaissance is closing its doors, rest assured that RenJam will return at another club. We hope you will join us in thanking Randy for many years of supporting Toronto's live music scene, and we look forward to jamming with you in the future.

Cheers,
Dominic

February Wrap Up

Valentine's Day was a more subdued affair than at previous RenJams; guess the long weekend and holiday conspired to keep some people away. Still, we had a good crowd and some tasty jams happening. DMajor and Sarah were away, but the 2 Aarons (Bentley and Reid) did a great job subbing in on sound and house bass respectively.

Here are the highlights:

- Teri sang Dock of the Bay and The Thrill is Gone with the house band. Good fun, but I think somebody didn't mention that Aaron R. needed to see those charts too!

- John Layton played some folk blues on a no-name (but great-sounding) resonator guitar. Nice singing, great songs.

- A guy called "Mario" (hey, that's what he said his name was!) played some blues harmonica with myself on bass and Richard Weisdorf on the keys. Very minimalist, but there was some nice interplay going on.

- Richard Weisdorf played and sang 2 songs while Aaron B. sat in on flute. Rich's come a long way as a performer in his own right. Sounded great.

We then set up for our feature, Paul Gellman, giving him a jam over the Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want to bring him in. Paul plays some wonderful songs over jazzy piano backing that reminds me a lot of Randy Newman. Aaron, Simon and I had fun mixing it up over some different styles. I threw in some jazzy tritones, reggae skanks, gritty soloing and my usual ambient noises in the backdrop. Tons o' fun.

- Frank Patrick, a regular at the 'Jam, did a couple of his tunes with myself, Simon and Paul. Another great jam, especially over his song Maya Na. Whee!

- Aaron B. took the stage to do 2 of his own songs while I ran sound. Always a pleasure seeing him perform.

- Simon Loban, our house drummer, picked up his guitar and did a couple of tunes to keep things going. We crunched along to his tune Slow Down. Good times.

- Aaron Reid then did a couple of tunes on solo acoustic guitar, including The Jackson 5's I Want You Back.

- Andy Griffith then returned to do a couple of tunes. Always fun harmonizing with him again.

Finally the house band rocked out some songs to end the night. Once again, thanks to Aaron B. and Aaron R. who did a great job subbing for DMajor and SvR. SvR will be back for March, but Aaron B. will still sub for DMajor for another month.

Next month sees David Hein featuring at RenJam. I've known David since university and I've seen him develop as a performer. It's always great to see him play his tuneful folk-rock and his witty persona onstage. Once again, it's going to be a great night at RenJam. Hope to see you there.

Cheers,
Dominic