The birth of cool. In Oakville?

Oakville has a jazz festival. I knew that. But I always thought it was a third-rate affair, at best. Could be that I just wasn’t paying attention.

This year they had some pretty good shows. Yesterday Heidi and I caught performances by Allen Toussaint, and then John Hammond. Showed up to both about 10 minutes early and had no trouble finding a good place for our lawn chairs. And on top of that, it’s free. That’s always a plus.

Fun fact: Hammond claims that he was the one that introduced Bob Dylan to the Band, after seeing them play at the Concord tavern in Toronto.

PS: I didn’t take the photo of Allen Toussaint – found it on Flikr.  Here is the link