The Thing Is
Toronto, Ontario, Canada | INDIE
Music
Press
Speaking of salsa, I find Tova Kardonne’s music to be delectably spicy, or as she puts it, “tipsy, sexy music for the brave.” Indeed, this talented vocalist/composer has concocted a daring recipe of jazz, balkan, funk and afro-cuban music fusion for her eight-piece ensemble, The Thing Is. Nearly every piece Kardonne writes is composed in odd meter, each arrangement augmented with dynamic twists and turns, dissonance aplenty and lyrics poetic enough to recite a cappella.
What is it that compels Kardonne to write such challenging music? “There’s no denying…my peers find it challenging and my musical superiors find it challenging too, but only until they can sing it, which inevitably, everyone in the band can, whether they’re playing the melody, the bass line, or the most hidden inner harmony. It’s all singable, groovin’, and highly intuitive. Once everyone’s playing it, it becomes hard to remember why it seemed so challenging at first.” Not exactly dinner music, but a few good listens will likely warrant cravings for the band’s appealing complexity. - The WholeNote Magazine
Speaking of salsa, I find Tova Kardonne’s music to be delectably spicy, or as she puts it, “tipsy, sexy music for the brave.” Indeed, this talented vocalist/composer has concocted a daring recipe of jazz, balkan, funk and afro-cuban music fusion for her eight-piece ensemble, The Thing Is. Nearly every piece Kardonne writes is composed in odd meter, each arrangement augmented with dynamic twists and turns, dissonance aplenty and lyrics poetic enough to recite a cappella.
What is it that compels Kardonne to write such challenging music? “There’s no denying…my peers find it challenging and my musical superiors find it challenging too, but only until they can sing it, which inevitably, everyone in the band can, whether they’re playing the melody, the bass line, or the most hidden inner harmony. It’s all singable, groovin’, and highly intuitive. Once everyone’s playing it, it becomes hard to remember why it seemed so challenging at first.” Not exactly dinner music, but a few good listens will likely warrant cravings for the band’s appealing complexity. - The WholeNote Magazine
... a contemporary diva in the making. She has a warm and engaging yet take-charge presence as a leader, introducing her band mates with a streetwise confidence yet also rawly emotional in terms of her reaction to their performance. Kardonne's voice is dynamic and full of range, from gentle alto jazz and cabaret crooning to high-octave falsetto scat. Yet what shines brightest from The Thing Is is a remarkably mature songwriting and arrangement sensibility for such a young group of artists; and an equally rich palette of musical influences from late 19th century Eastern European orchestral music to hard bop to contemporary fusion. No less a seasoned veteran than flautist Bill McBirnie commented on the challenge of stepping up to Kardonne’s music on this night... - www.thelivemusicreport.com
... a contemporary diva in the making. She has a warm and engaging yet take-charge presence as a leader, introducing her band mates with a streetwise confidence yet also rawly emotional in terms of her reaction to their performance. Kardonne's voice is dynamic and full of range, from gentle alto jazz and cabaret crooning to high-octave falsetto scat. Yet what shines brightest from The Thing Is is a remarkably mature songwriting and arrangement sensibility for such a young group of artists; and an equally rich palette of musical influences from late 19th century Eastern European orchestral music to hard bop to contemporary fusion. No less a seasoned veteran than flautist Bill McBirnie commented on the challenge of stepping up to Kardonne’s music on this night... - www.thelivemusicreport.com
We've been talking a lot lately about jazz and its fusions with other genres. Though, when we look at jazz, we see a genre that bares its roots in the American musical tradition. With the exception of Latin music, it seems to be a rarity when we listen to jazz that has been combined with music from other cultures. Most notably, contemporary bassist Avishai Cohen has been at the forefront of this musical style. However, there is currently a Toronto based group who has been making a lot of noise with their own culturally diverse compositions. The Thing Is was formed in 2006 by Tova Kardonne, a vocalist and composer who uses this ensemble as an outlet for her music. Her compositions have been acclaimed for combining jazz with the Jewish, Balkan, and South african musical styles, respectively. The group has also attracted guest appearances from the likes of Ted Quinlan, Dave Restivo, and Bill McBirnie. ... Kardonne and her octet released an absolutely fantastic debut album. Kardonne is definitely one of those musicians who we should all be watching out for as she takes Canada and the world by storm with her original and incomparable musical style. - The Canadian Jazz Review
We've been talking a lot lately about jazz and its fusions with other genres. Though, when we look at jazz, we see a genre that bares its roots in the American musical tradition. With the exception of Latin music, it seems to be a rarity when we listen to jazz that has been combined with music from other cultures. Most notably, contemporary bassist Avishai Cohen has been at the forefront of this musical style. However, there is currently a Toronto based group who has been making a lot of noise with their own culturally diverse compositions. The Thing Is was formed in 2006 by Tova Kardonne, a vocalist and composer who uses this ensemble as an outlet for her music. Her compositions have been acclaimed for combining jazz with the Jewish, Balkan, and South african musical styles, respectively. The group has also attracted guest appearances from the likes of Ted Quinlan, Dave Restivo, and Bill McBirnie. ... Kardonne and her octet released an absolutely fantastic debut album. Kardonne is definitely one of those musicians who we should all be watching out for as she takes Canada and the world by storm with her original and incomparable musical style. - The Canadian Jazz Review
Discography
The Thing Is (CD released April 2012)
Photos
Bio
Founded in 2006, we play the sounds of our global future -- the New World Music. Fusing Eastern European folk with South African, Brazilian, South Indian, Cuban and the North American African-based forms, this company of musicians are game for reckless rhythmic mind-benders, inside of heavy groove, with orchestral tendencies. Ours is a tipsy, sexy hybrid that tells the heart's stories from a whirling storm of harmony. The release of The Thing Is CD in 2012 won the Toronto Jazz Festival Special Project award, and has been in steady radio rotation across the country since then (reaching #2 on the Jazz charts in Kamloops).
Led by composer Tova Kardonne, whose musical studies have led her on a merry chase, from Cuban drumming master Mike Marcuzzi, to viola with Talisker Players Mary McGeer, Voice with Shannon Gunn and Fides Krucker, and Composition & Arranging with John Macleod. Kardonnes compositions have taken her to the National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute, the Banff Centre for the Arts Creative Music Residency, the ARTerra artist residency in Portugal the Isabella Freedman Jewish Music Festival, and virtually, around the globe with NewYork-based New Music 60x60 project presented by Vox Novus. Commissioned by the Thin Edge New Music Collectives inaugural 2012 season, Alex Samaras' GREX vocal ensemble, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in honour of Marc Chagall's visiting exhibit, co-presented by the Music Gallery and the Chicago Museum of Modern Art, playing Wavelength, Word on the Street, Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market, Kardonne's compositions have traveled, and appealed, to audience of all sorts, far and wide.
The Thing Is has collaborates with musicians the like of Bill McBirnie, Jim Vivian, Dave Restivo, Rob Clutton, Nick Fraser, Mark Segger and Rich Brown in performance. We laughingly inhabit the category World/Avant-garde Fusion, performing at such Toronto venues as The Rex, the Tranzac, The Music Gallery, The Distillery, the Wavelength Series, Word On the Street, Toronto Alternative Fashion Week, as well as the AGO and the 918 Bathurst Centre for the Arts. The release of The Thing Is debut self-titled CD in April 2012 won them the a TD Toronto Jazz Festival Special Project Award; they have since been nominated for the Harbourfront Centre 2013 SoundClash Award, and will be debuting the material for their next album in a residency at Toronto's Rex Hotel in February 2014. With Cds criss-crossing the globe to unlooked-for fans from far-flung places, The Thing Is anticipates exciting times ahead.
Band Members
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