My three years programming for the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival was a whirlwind of great music and high drama. Most of the drama was from the festival and ultimately led to me having to sue them for my last pay cheque (which they did settle eventually). Also, it was a constant battle convincing them of the legitimacy of DJs as musical artists. 

I think I got them to come around and their festival sponsor at the time du Maurier was loving what I was doing – so they ultimately put their pretensions aside and let me do my thing. Let’s be real here, there is very little Jazz in big Jazz Festivals nowadays. It is mostly a legacy name. It should be a Jazz-inspired-influenced-Festival to get closer to the musical truth of the matter. 

Having a cigarette company as a sponsor gave me a budget to bring in internationally known artists I really enjoyed and to work with people/clubs that I admired. My partnership with Aki and the influential Movement Collective DJs brought in Bobby Matos, S.O.U.L., Fertile Ground and Osunlade to the sadly gone Una Mas venue. I was also able to present the wonderful Weldon Irvine with the REMG crew at Lees Palace and Jazzanova with the milk crew at Fez Batik. 

As a big ska fan I was also very excited to bring in innovative bands like the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble and Dave Hillyard & The Rocksteady Seven. 

It was also great to have a budget to try different concepts out with local artists and I am most proud of the DjJazz series I put together at Alto Basso and the Decks ‘n Divas night I collaborated with Denise Benson on at Fez Batik. 

Having a big budget also resulted in a CD of some of the artists being created and 5,000 copies being given out at events. It was an unique opportunity I made sure happened and du Maurier’s lifestyle branding on the covers initially infuriated me but now makes me chuckle at how off the mark it was.