Jaffa Road

Nominated for a Juno in 2010 for “World Music Album of the Year”, Toronto’s Jaffa Road is an acclaimed world music ensemble, whose members play in a wide range of other bands and are some of this country’s most exciting and creative interpreters of inter-cultural music. Inspired by such diverse traditions as Jewish, classical Arabic and Indian music – which are then filtered through modern styles such as jazz, electronica, rock, pop and dub – the unique soundscapes of Jaffa Road are both timeless and modern. It’s probably not surprising that this great band won the grand prize in the recent John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and were awarded “Best World Music Artist” at the 2010 Toronto Independent Music Awards: these musicians can shift beguilingly from ethereal to exotic, and from trance to dance. These veteran musicians include multilingual singer Aviva Chernick, Aaron Lightstone guitar/oud, Sundar Viswanathan saxophone/flautist, and Jeff Wilson percussion. Join us for TD JazzFest’s final night of the festival with world music!

“Their eclectic mix of world beat, jazz and electronica has a combination of cultural elements that is a virtual peace plan for the Middle East.” –Distillery Jazz Festival