I am back. No, I did not go to France as the title and photo suggest. As mentioned in previous blogs JB and I took off to Montreal for 5 days to see some jazz concerts during the Jazz Festival. Although I did have my lap top with me, I was too tired by the end of the each day to post any updates.
Our trip was great. We saw some fantastic concerts and let's face it. Montreal is definitely a party town compared to Toronto. For some reason Montreal just feels more "Canadian" to me. The French explorer Jacques Cartier first discovered this island in 1535. Founded a century later in 1642 by Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, the French settlement soon turned into the fur-trading capital of North America. The photo above is a street in Old Montreal. The entire old city has been kept within the city and it is incredible to walk the cobblestone streets and if you close your eyes and listen to the horse drawn carriages it is as if you have stepped back in time to the 18th Century. It is a bit jarring when you open your eyes and see the carriages filled with tourists and cars whizzing by the poor horses. Old Montreal is one of North Americas architectural treasures with one of the largest collections of 17th, 18th and 20th century buildings on the continent.
I am embarrassed that Toronto has done nothing to keep and maintain any remnance of the beginnings of the city. During the past century they blasted and tore down the majority of the older buildings. We have no real defining area that shows our history except for perhaps the Historic Market area. Montreal tries hard to maintain it's French and Canadian heritage. I find Toronto has become Americanized and commercialized to the extreme where Montreal has kept it's history and maintains it's beginnings as a French and British influenced city. I digress. The reason we went to Montreal was for International Jazz Festival and to eat great food. Montreal is known for it's reasonably priced eating establishments and bars and they have the best happy hour in Canada. Known as "Cinq a Sept" or "5 to 7". Between 5 and 7pm each week night every bar and pub in the city offers two for one drinks.
Day One:
We hopped in the "General Mess Malibu" and drove to Montreal last Wednesday. It is a 5 to 6 hour drive from TO to Montreal. As we were making good time we figured we would stop for a late lunch. We decided to stop in Cornwall, Ontario which is close to the Ontario/Quebec border. We were trying to find a place to have lunch and it was tough. All these smaller old Ontario towns all seem to have been taken over by crappy chain restaurants like Kelseys, Montana's or Boston Pizza. There is nowhere on the highway to get anything other than Tim Hortons, Wendy's or Burger King. YUCK!!! As I refuse to eat at these chains I said to JB, let's get off the highway and head into downtown Cornwall. It would appear the influx of chain restaurants has ruined the small town restaurant business. We drove around and around until JB spotted a local diner on one of the main streets. The place was called Spinners and it would appear to be a place where only the locals go. I had a half decent soup and sandwich. We hopped back in the car and headed for Montreal. We arrived at our Hotel around 5:30pm. We were staying at the Queen Elizabeth/ Le Reine Elizabeth. This hotel was my home away from home last year when I was traveling to Montreal for business quite a bit. I love it. It is a big, swank railway hotel which is connected underground to the train station and has subsequently been purchased and refurbished by the Fairmont Hotel chain. They have bought up all the old CN Railway hotels across Canada and have a done a wonderful job at maintaining their beauty.
As we had tickets to a concert that started at 7pm, JB and I quickly changed and then headed down to the hotel lobby bar for a drink and then off to Club Soda (the name makes JB laugh) to see Katie Melua and Denzal Sinclare. To be honest when I purchased the tickets for this show it was to see Denzal. I had no idea who Katie Melua was but figured how bad can she be if she is opening at Jazz Fest for Denzal Sinclaire one of Canada's most popular jazz vocalists.
We arrived at Club Soda to be accosted by scalpers reminding us "tonight's show is sold out! who needs tickets" we pushed through the line up of people looking sad and forlorn as obviously they were not lucky enough to get tickets for the show. Once inside we were greeted by two big burley security men who checked out our tickets and then one of them grabbed my hand and said I need to stamp your wrist. I wasn't going to argue. We then ventured into this club which had an amazing vibe. There was no chance we were getting a table downstairs as it was completely packed but one of the security ladies directed us upstairs where we ended up on the balcony right above the stage. The view was fantastic we were so close to the stage and nobody was in front or behind us. 7pm arrived and they introduced Katie who came out on stage with her band. I was completely blown away. Her voice is amazing and when she mentioned that she was influenced by Eva Cassidy and then proceeded to sing a song she wrote for Eva, it brought a tear to my eye. I love Eva Cassidy. She is one of my favorite jazz/blues artists. She died far too soon in 1996 at the age of 33 years old. You can definitely hear the Eva Cassidy influence in Melua's voice but she does put her own twist on songs. She did an amazing version of "The Cure" song "Just like Heaven" and I could not believe when she started to sing the Canned Heat tune "On the Road Again". I looked at JB and he smiled and I said "wow". It makes me happy that there is a 21 year old making a career promoting great jazz and blues songs and is not slogging away and promoting crappy pop shit a la Britney Spears, Hilary Duff et al. I had no idea any 21 year old these days would even know who Canned Heat was. Her band included a fantastic pianist, drummer and a gent who played all instruments in between including the tin whistle. He adeptly switched from mandolin, to violin to tin whistle depending on the song. The opening act alone was worth the ticket price.
After a short break Denzal took to the stage. He has a great jazz vocalist voice. He always reminds me of a young Nat King Cole but with his own slant on songs. He did a great jazzy version of the Genesis song "Follow you Follow me" I never much liked the Genesis version of the song but I do like Denzal's version. He sang some wonderful versions of quite a few Gershwin tunes and I was reminded of how great a jazz pianist he is.
After the show, JB and I decided to walk a block north up to Ste. Catherine street which was closed off for blocks with stages and had numerous free concerts going on. There were people everywhere. The city has a great vibe at night. We strolled along the street towards our Hotel. All and all our first night in Montreal was very enjoyable and the first show was better then I had imagined.
Quote of the Day:
And I will walk with you on a summer's day,
And I will talk to you,
Though you're faraway,
And we'll sing through the years,
Are you over those hills,
Do you still hum the old melodies,
Do you wish people listened,
Over here with me
Katie Melua - Faraway Voice - tribute to Eva Cassidy
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