Fest forward

So far, so fly. Jazz Fest performers have torn off so many roofs in the past week that downtown is starting to look like a diorama. Before I get to upcoming fest highlights, music lovers needing a break from the madness at the city core might want venture west to Clyde’s in Pointe Claire on Friday, July 2, and take in the soul/funk/blues/punk magic of HMG as they release their new LP, Hollow Money God. Get down on it.

Saturday, July 3, is, I’m certain, packed with possibility back on festival grounds. All I know for sure is that at midnight, Club Soda turns into a hip hop shrine when Rakim pics up the mic. When the fest goes large with rap, it goes all out, and it’s not like the R lands on Montreal every other year. We’ll surely get the classics, but the power of last year’s long-awaited The Seventh Seal should also help create the rare concert atmosphere of an audience as excited by the new stuff as they are by the old. And while Eric B. was tragically never elected to the Oval Office, NYC party-rocking live outfit Chin Chin (notably affiliated with the Def Jukie camp) get the nod to back up the God.

Why, oh, why, must funky Christmas come but once a year? I dunno, Virginia, but there really is a freaky Santa. His name is George Clinton and he’ll be crash-landing his sleigh (more commonly referred to as the Mothership), Parliament, on the Metropolis stage on Monday. Those who pay attention to these things have wondered what constitutes a Parliament show in 2010, as Clinton has toured most of the past two decades with a line-up known as the P-Funk All-Stars, comprised partly by musicians from both Parliament and his other legendary outfit, Funkadelic. Does the billing simply reflect an upswing favouring Clinton’s camp of copyright lawyers, or might Montreal be privy to appearances by funk heroes with names like Worrell and Collins? Only one way to find out, babies. Toronto’s God Made Me Funky set it off.

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