So, first of all, we had a tremendously successful HONK! OFF event on July 7th, meeting with tons of good vibes, support, and raising about $500 in funds for our inaugural HONK! ON Festival coming up in less than two weeks!
HUGE thanks to Drom Taberna for hosting the event and being such gracious hosts to boot. Thank you to Marion Lougheed, my love and partner, for helping me to put all this together! And special thanks go as well to Micaela Morey, who not only was crucial in helping us organize, but also did an amazing performance of various cover songs with her band. Lauren Barnett and her partner Demetri Petsalakis – known as Catchfiyah in their duo appearances – also were wonderful (and it was so much fun to sit in with them playing bari sax!) Both Micaela and Lauren play in my new band…
which leads me to…
A significant detail for me, personally: the launch of Sax Drive. We played a great five-sax set of some of my original tunes, which seemed to go over extremely with our crowd. We are pumped to play our next gig at HONK! ON on the afternoon of Saturday, July 27th at Trinity Bellwoods Park (exact time TBA).
A brief description of Sax Drive goes something like this:
Sax Drive is a new funky jazz combo based in Toronto and led by composer/saxophonist Jason Hayward. The group also features Lauren Barnett and Scott Pearce on alto sax, Nicole Auger and Micaela Morey on tenor sax, along with Tavo Diez de Bonilla on bass and Trevor Yearwood on drums. Beyond that of a traditional jazz combo eschewing a chordal comping instrument, the band’s groove-based aesthetic is informed by diverse influences, including New Orleans street bands, Big Band sax sections, chamber music and EDM.
“Sax Drive” is a name I’ve had in mind for this project for ages! However, seems like some people have beat me to the name. Before we get too far along, I may have to change it or add something to it. Maybe not. We are way, way cooler after all.
In the meantime…
We started our Sax Drive Facebook page.
And next, we take the world by storm!
Eventually.
Aural Fibre 