It is a rare privilege to encounter as original a musician as Toronto’s Ryan Driver, whom savvy locals know, for example, for mysterious, evocative synthesiser playing with the Cluttertones and for singing languorous, rapturous jazz standards (and originals; he’s a splendid composer) with his Sextet. The Titillators is a new band underpinned (almost literally) by his extraordinary street-sweeper-bristle bass, an actual tine of metal that he flicks off the side of a wooden block in a bewildering approximation of jazz bass playing. Add three percussionists (Germaine Liu, D. Alex Meeks, Phil Melanson) playing all manner of things strewn about a colourful carpet, and a pair of synth players (Tania Gill and Thom Gill) to play standards in ways that are whimsical, experimental, psychedelic, and consummately joyful.
Thursday, 12 September, 10:30pm, 10C Shared Space, 4th floor Gallery, $15/$10
The Titillators on Bandcamp
Ryan Driver website
Photo by Ryan Driver