The Pearl Company

Santa’s Big Sleep: Friday December 16. Children $6, Adults $10, Family pass for 4 $26 (2 adults max). Reservations accepted. 7:00pm start.  SBS is a heart-warming story about the power of children’s faith in Santa Claus and the spirit of Christmas. As the play opens Santa is at the North Pole supervising the Elves and answering mail from children living in Hamilton.
In Scene Two the Postmaster informs Santa that there is a mail strike and there will be no more letters. Santa falls into a deep sleep and we discover that it is the love contained in the letters from children that keeps Santa awake and alive.
Can the Elves solve the problem and wake Santa before Christmas Eve, or will the Spirit of Christmas Giving be lost forever? In the final scene children in the audience are asked to show their love for Santa and when the shouting reaches maximum level – Will Santa Wake Up and Christmas be Saved?
Santa’s Big Sleep was written by Hamilton’s award-winning playwright, Lee William Fairbanks and is directed by Patti Cannon.

Kaleidoscope Brown: featuring: Brownman Ali with GRUVASYLUM: Saturday, December 10. $15 door. $10 artists/students.  Jazz & hip-hop have long been cross-pollinated by geniuses from both genres.  From the appearance of rappers on the legendary Miles Davis’ “DooBop” recording, to jazz superstars like Herbie Hancock and Donald Byrd guesting in hip-hop legend GURU’s JAZZMATAZZ (now recognized as the 1st successful amalgamation of jazz & hip-hop). And then Brownman, Canada’s own nationally acclaimed trumpet playing jazz icon, replaced Donald Byrd in Guru’s Jazzmatazz and did 4 world tours catapulting him to international acclaim in the hip-hop community.  Now Brownman continues the late Guru’s legacy in the exploration of jazz-hip-hop in his own group GRUVASYLUM.  This 5-man ensemble features Brownman with his now famous electric trumpet effects rig; Mad Dukes – a berserker freestyle rapper from NY; DJ Cutler – turntablist for Jeru The Damaja; Ben Miller, from God Made Me Funky, on electric bass & Chris Lamont, touring drummer from the Brownman Electryc Trio.  This all-star quintet, with Guru alumni and multiple National Jazz Award Winner Brownman at the helm, reminds us that the essence of the jazz solo is not so different from the essence of freestyle — in that improvisation and spontaneous creation is at the heart of both idioms.  Gruvasylum is about modern, thoughtful, conscious hip-hop that tells tales of the world we live in – yet rooted in the jazz lineage.   Brownman & GRUVASYLUM — hip-hop with a jazz ideology.  You do NOT want to miss this. http://gruvasylum.brownman.com Read the rest of this entry »

Nadje Noordhuis Quartet: Wednesday, December 7. 8:00pm. $15 door/$10 artists/students. Australian born trumpet/flugelhorn player and composer, Nadje Noordhuis, produces a unique sound characterized by a warm, rich tone and a lyrical approach to improvisation.  With a gift for unique melody and a lush, hauntingly dark sound, Nadje (pronounced “NA-dia NORD-house”) has been based in New York for the past four years. She has been a featured soloist with symphony orchestras, Afro-Cuban big bands, large and small jazz ensembles, and has appeared on many recordings across a variety of musical genres. Nadje has performed at numerous jazz festivals world-wide and has shared the stage with a number of acclaimed jazz artists. Nadje was also a semi-finalist in last year’s Thelonious Monk International Trumpet Competition and was selected as a Carnegie Hall Young Artist in 2010. She is playing with her quartet featuring Adrian Farrugia (piano), Mark Cashion (bass) and Ernesto Cervini (drums)  www.nadjenoordhuis.com

Meaghan Smith: Tuesday, December 6. 8:00pm. $15 at the door. Hot off her ‘best new artist of the year’ Juno win, London, ON, born, Meaghan Smith wasn’t content to rest on her laurels. She began production of her new album IT SNOWED soon afterwards. This album was inspired by Meaghan’s love of the holidays. In her own words, “It’s the traditions, the food, the friends, the family, the lights and the music that I love. I want to be a part of the joy in people’s holidays.”  IT SNOWED is an eclectic holiday collection of songs, some original and some standard favourites. The album carries on with Meaghan’s unique modern/vintage vibe featuring antique-sounding samples under Meaghan’s pop melody. There’s a simply haunting vocal rendition of the closing track “Silent Night” that ensures that IT SNOWED is sure to be a crowd pleaser for seasons to come.  Smith’s warm and winning voice and personality will make you an instant fan!  She’s wonderfully accompanied on guitar by her husband Jason Mingo.  www.meaghansmith.com

Drumhand with Marcus Ali: Saturday, December 3: 8:00pm, $15 door/$10 artists/students. Propelled by a steamroller of drums and energized by jazz horns, DRUMHAND draws inspiration from the circuitous rhythms of hot climates to enforce a high-energy, interactive performance. The group has introduced audiences of all ages to instruments and sounds from around the globe through concerts at festivals, schools and concert events. DRUMHAND, was not born out of any particular tradition but has been informed by the many that have been willing to share. Founded in 2008 by percussionists David Chan (Shoot the Cameraman) and Larry Graves (Mr. Something Something), DRUMHAND features the horn work of Marcus Ali (Cruzao/Jason Wilson) and Rebecca Hennessy (Hobson?s Choice/Broken Social Scene). www.reverbnation.com/drumhandmusic

C.R. Avery: Friday, December 2: 8:00pm, $15 door/$10 artists/students. Outlaw Hip-Hop Harmonica Player; Beatbox Poet; Punk Piano Player; String Quartet Raconteur; Rock & Roll Matador; Playwright.  He is a Canadian music sensation. His lyrics, vocal delivery, energy, and artistry have won him international acclaim. C.R. Avery is a unique, raw and dynamic performer. His genius lies in many genres – blues, hip-hop, spoken word and rock & roll. He is a one-man band, but one for this generation; with the rare ability to sing poetic verse while beatboxing simultaneously, pounding the piano, and adding harmonica like a plot twist. He has toured throughout Canada (including almost every major folk festival) the USA and Europe and garnered the attention of music peers the likes of Tom Waits (“…he’s blowin’ my mind”); blues harp trail blazer Charlie Musselwhite (“…no one plays harmonica like him… no one…”); and folk legend Utah Phillips (“…raw talent”).
His incredible live performances have been described as Bob Dylan in the body of Iggy Pop; colliding with Little Walter, the Beastie Boys and Allen Ginsberg.  Every show is all or nothing and his fearless approach to all genres of music both on stage and in the studio proves the longevity of this talented, astonishing creator has so much more to come. www.cravery.com

Jon Brooks: Saturday, November 26; 8:00pm, $15 door/$10 artists/students. CD Release. A songwriter dedicated to uniting folk song tradition with today’s stories, with an honest, gritty delivery and straight-shooting songwriting which honours the tradition of folk music without the earnest format.  Jon’s music is featured on Neil Young’s Livingwithwartoday website and he recently won both the coveted Kerrville New Folk Competition in Texas, and the International Songwriting Competition (Folk category). Jon’s music mandate is unequivocal: “I’m not interested in ‘happy songs’ – I’ve chosen to write healing songs and, for that reason, I’m obliged to reveal a wound or two now and then.  I’m even less interested in writing unhappy songs:  I want to write hopeful songs, inspiring songs and I expect I owe today’s listener some hopeful argument – some legitimate reason – as to why we should believe our present world could be improved, or healed.”  His 4^th collection of songs, DELICATE CAGES searches the defining issues of our time and looks at them from the perspective of freedom and enslavement.  The message is delivered gradually and gently over 43 unwasted minutes.  The message: the opposite of love is not hate, but is in fact, fear. Whether about the times we live in, its past or its future promise, Brooks’ songs are underscored throughout by his gently weather-beaten voice, the singular beautiful sound of hand on guitar, and his uncanny ability to press his ear against the heartbeat and the soul of the times we live in – transforming, inspiring and uplifting us as we bear witness. http://www.jonbrooks.ca

The Jazz Connection Big Band w Paul Hoffert: Friday, November 25. Doors at8:30, jazz at 9:00 $15 at the door: The JCBB is a well established 17-piece jazz ensemble comprised of professional and semi-professional musicians from the Hamilton/Toronto area. They perform only the best modern big band charts from the books of Goodwin, Martin, Menza, Rich, Basie, and many other great contemporary composers. Jazz Connection’s approach is high energy, uncompromising, straight ahead jazz. They combine the highest level of musicianship with great charts in an entertaining show that engages both the jazz enthusiast and the casual listener equally. Once more into that cool space of surround sound big band music. http://www.jazzconnection.ca Withrenowned jazz pianist Paul Hoffert! Paul has the soul of an artist and the mind of a scientist. By the time he was twenty-six, Mr. Hoffert was an established jazz recording artist, television performer, off-Broadway musical author, film composer, and had studied mathematics and physics at the University of Toronto. He co-founded Lighthouse, a rock band that sold millions of records, and toured the world.  Hoffert has parallel achievements in science and technology; he writes best-selling books: he has received the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest honour; he is a Fine Arts Professor at York University, and he is coming to The Pearl!  www.paulhoffert.ca

Matthew Barber & Louise Burns: Thursday, November 24. Doors 7:30. Concert 8:00 $15 advance / $20 at door. Singer songwriter, Matthew Barber is a seasoned songwriter and performer with five albums, numerous tours across Canada and around the world, a handful of record deals, a Juno nomination, and an award-winning musical to his credit.  His latest album is a simple, honest pleasure.  He’ll bring it to The Pearl with old friends  Julian Brown on bass and Dean Stone on drums. Both Stone and Brown have played with Feist and Apostle of Hustle.  These shows will mark Barber’s first Canadian tour with a band in over 2 years. The new album is a disarmingly honest record of appealing simplicity.  Melodic instrumental hooks weave in and out of the  spare arrangements, providing an engaging musical setting for Barber’s signature vocals and neatly-packaged lyrical turns about love, lust, longing, disillusionment, injustice, hope and the modern experience.  http://matthewbarber.com Louise Burns, already an industry veteran at the age of 24, also has a new album.  She plays nearly every instrument on ‘Mellow Drama’; It’s a pure expression of musicality and talent, for which she made the Polaris Music Prize Long List.  Mellow Drama has an honest, confessional quality about it; listening to it is like stumbling across someone’s (incredibly relatable) diary. And Louise’s performances come straight from the heart.  Her influences include – Neil Young, Nick Cave, Johnny Cash and June Carter, Harry Nilsson, Sam Cooke – but never at the cost of her own voice.  http://louiseburnsmusic.com

Jenn Grant with Amelia Curran: Tuesday, November 22. Doors 7:30. Concert 8:00 $15/$18 at door. Jenn Grant, an East Coast Music Award winner for Best New Artist, rose to attention with her intuitive songcraft and with her jazzy, Feist-influenced folk/pop. She’s a fine arts graduate with a voice like brushstrokes on a canvas. Her latest album, Honeymoon Punch, is a frisky concoction of spirited, synth-sweetened songs balanced with muted, natural elements; it drives the dark clouds away. Jenn and her album Honeymoon Punch are nominated for Female Recording Artist of the Year, SOCAN Songwriter of the Year, Recording of the Year, Video of the Year (“Getcha Good”), and Bell Alliant Entertainer of the Year at the Music Nova Scotia Awards www.jenngrant.com Amelia Curran: With a number of East Coast Music Award nominations and an extensive discography, over the past two years she has returned to Newfoundland to record with Don Ellis in various caverns in St. John’s, the city of legends, For Curran St. John’s captures the essence of her inner huntress. A songwriter by trade, but a writer at heart, Curran believes language is everything. She describes the craft of song-writing as an act of “expressing the inexpressible, …. describing the indescribable.” www.ameliacurran.com

Ben Caplan & The Casual Smokers with Charlotte Cornfield: Saturday, November 19: 8:00. $15 door. $10 artists/students. (Charlotte and Ben have just received a “Best Bet” from Graham Rockingham at the Spec!) Rugged, raspy, and roaring with charisma, former Hamiltonian, now living in Halifax, Ben Caplan delivers it all from poetic ballads to frenetic gypsy anthems.  Expressive percussion, upright bass, violin, sax, clarinet, flute, and terrific use of call and response sing-along choruses all help Caplan & The Casual Smokers stand out from the masses. In pace with the gypsy-inspired strings, amid the sultry tones of clarinet and saxophone, Caplan has marked his place in the Canadian music landscape with a growling spirit similar to that of Tom Waits. His tours have extended throughout the Commonwealth, the energy of his live show gaining attention around the world. www.bencaplan.ca Charlotte Cornfield writes some of the most emotionally raw, beautiful songs this country has heard in years. She has mastered her potent blend of soulful vocals and stylish guitar playing; (The Montreal Mirror has named her “The next it-girl of folk-rock.”). Her pop sensibility makes her tunes catchier than the new Justin Bieber single, always in the most surprising of ways. “Cornfield’s got something luminous about her,”: Maisonneuve Magazine. Seeing her perform or listening to her recordings, it’s hard to miss. Her latest album, ‘Two Horses’, just released, is a fleshed-out, conceptual tour de force, reflecting the duality of Cornfield’s musical influences: the deep lyricism and raw emotion of Mitchell, Dylan, and Young, mixed with the intense energy and hookiness of late-70’s New York rock and roll. www.charlottecornfield.com

In the Pearl Company Gallery: The Waterfall Show. Opening November 18. 7:00 – 10:00. Our unique
geography surrounds us with waterfalls; Artists find them irresistible! Paintings, sketches and photographs: The Tiger Group, Michael Babyn, John Davies, Rob Laffier. Also showing: Private Collection Sale: Prints, lithographs, some originals, featuring such well-known names as Benjamin Chee Chee, Ken Danby, James Fraser.  No charge. Through December.

Cam Penner: Thursday, November 17: 8:00. $15 door. $10 artists/students. In a complicated world, Cam Penner finds beauty in simplicity, with an honest, spare approach to folk music that is refreshing in an age filled with so much insincerity and irony. Singing uncompromising songs about redemption and truth, his is a voice for the disenfranchised, a storyteller for those who never reach their destination. Penner’s fiercely personal lyrics are complemented by a gentle acoustic guitar style, and the defiant heroes of his songs are weary, but they are never defeated. His new album, Gypsy Summer is full of hope. It’s full of love. It’s electrifying and provoking. It’s full of everything we should be looking for, not only musically, but in life.  Cam has shared stages with Richard Thompson, Fred Eaglesmith, Blue Rodeo, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, John Prine, Glen Campbell, and Lyle Lovett.  http://www.campenner.com

Kaleidoscope Brown: ARECIBO: featuring: Brownman Ali – trumpet (Trinidad): With Paul Morrison – piano (Canada) Amhed Mitchel – drums (Cuba): Ben Miller – 6-string electric bass. Saturday, November 12. 8:00pm. $15 door. $10 artists/students. A brand new latin-jazz outfit delving deeply into both Cuban and Brazilian modern jazz traditions in the New York latin-jazz spirit of Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band featuring some of Toronto’s most acclaimed jazz and latin music specialists. The group is named after the Arecibo radio telescope housed in Puerto Rico – the largest radio telescope in the world, responsible for the deepest exploration of space mankind has achieved to date.  http://arecibo.brownman.com Jazz writer Conrad Gayle writes: “Brownman Ali does it again being the great mastermind creating bands as vehicles for his creative output.   His unbridled versatility always pays huge dividends when he adapts and integrates his own unique jazz voice to straight ahead jazz, funk, hip-hop and Latin sounds, and ARECIBO is yet another example of his chameleon like abilities to fit into any mode of music.  In Arecibo he has assembled a great band that brings all 4 of those elements together into a sound that – like the trumpet player himself – is one-of-a-kind with it’s own special identity. “

The Art Bus is Sponsored by Judy Marsales Real Estate:

Next Tours: December 2 and 9

November 11: Off first to Ottawa Street to take in the multitude of galleries, antique stores and excitement now making this street one of the “best streets in Canada”.  Then for something completely different, we will stop at the Sheraton to catch the vibrant and transcendent artwork of Hamilton-born Toller Cranston who’s presenting his art as the ‘Artcracker’ part of the upcoming Nutcracker.   Then we’ll head for the James North Art Crawl for more excitement and blocks and blocks of artists studios and galleries!

•    Starting at 6:30 from ‘The Pearl Company’, 16 Steven Street @ King William.
•    Please reserve a spot via email or phone, and purchase your trip ($15.00/$10 students/artists) when you arrive
•    We finish up at The Pearl for an après-tour wind-down which includes a tour of the building or whatever event is  happening on the theatre floor