Saturday, July 27, 2019 • 7:30

Mandy Lagan has recently released a sparkling CD tribute to her muse Joni Mitchell, titled The Joni Book, featuring a roster of Canada's finest jazz artists. She couldn't ask for a better or more simpatico group of musicians than Kevin Turcotte, Jim Vivian, Ted Quinlan, Dave Restivo, Andrew Downing and Blair Mackay.

Lagan has risen to the challenge of honoring Joni Mitchell's legacy, while making these tunes her own. She has lived with this Joni Mitchell material a long time, and accordingly, wraps her voice around the layers of lyrical meaning and shading embedded in these great songs.

Mandy Lagan's band, ORIGINS, performs The Joni Book on June 27 as part of the TD Toronto Jazz Festival. Exactly one month later on JULY 27 Mandy Lagan and ORIGINS brings THE JONI BOOK to The Cobourg LOFT. The Cobourg players: Mandy Lagan (vocals); Dave Restivo (piano), Ted Quinlan (guitar), Andrew Downing (double bass). 

Mandy Lagan was born in England and raised in southwestern Ontario. She studied piano as a child and sang in various choirs. In her late teens she was inspired by the music of Joni Mitchell and began playing the guitar and developing her own writing. Mandy was introduced to jazz while studying classical piano at Mohawk College. Upon graduation she attended McMaster University where she received a Bachelor's Degree in music. In 1990, now living in Toronto, she formed a band, playing original songs and those of Joni Mitchell's. In 2002 she published "I Thought About You", a collection of jazz standards and originals. In 2003 she released a second CD, "You See Me", another selection of jazz standards and originals. A unique third CD followed in 2007, "Verses", a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson's poetry set to music. This project won Mandy financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts and The Ontario Arts Council.

Over the decade, Mandy has been performing with some of Canada's finest jazz artists, among them: David Braid, Nancy Walker, Dave Restivo, Keiran Overs, Jim Vivian, Barry Romberg, Kevin Dempsey, David Occhipinti, Andrew Downing, Kevin Turcotte, She comes to Cobourg as leader of a very accomplished ensemble - Dave Restivo (piano), Andrew Downing (bass), Ted Quinlam (guitar. Mandy now lives in Toronto with her family, teaching, writing and performing.

Tickets $25 + fees Victoria Hall Box office

Sunday, August 18 • 3 PM

Featuring Brownman Ali

The award-winning NICK MACLEAN QUARTET hits the stage at The LOFT Cinema in Cobourg as part of their Summer Tour 2019. Led by 27-year old fast-rising piano star NICK MACLEAN, this contemplative and often thrilling quartet explores modern jazz in the vein of 60's Blue Note era Herbie Hancock and features internationally acclaimed jazz trumpet iconoclast and "Canada's preeminent jazz trumpet player" (NYC Village Voice) BROWNMAN ALI alongside some of the top 20-something jazz musicians Canada has to offer making this show an afternoon of hard-swinging modern-jazz audiences will not want to miss!

Tickets $25 + s/c - at Vic Hall Box Office 905-372-2210

Friday Sept 6 • 7:30pm

The Friends of Fiddlers Green Once again, it's time for the annual Ontario tour of this now far-flung but still legendary musical ensemble. The once Toronto-based "Friends" boasts versatile musicians, fine singers, songwriters, joke tellers, a fiery dragon, an Order of Canada, a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal and one of the longest track records in Canadian Folk Music. This totally uncategorizable collective has been together, with a few personnel changes, since their inauguration at Toronto's Fiddler's Green coffeehouse in 1971. Nobody, not even the Friends themselves, can predict what might happen during one of their concerts, but it always includes humour, powerful vocal harmony, great musicianship, social commentary and an irresistible urge to dance. The Friends were recipients of the 2003 Estelle Klein Award, given by the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals for service to folk music in Ontario.

Tickets $30 + s/c at Vic Hall Box Office 905-372-2210.