Event Description

Queen Kong features Toronto's top young jazz and world music performers, improvisers, movers and shakers; Tom Richards (Tuba), Max Forster (Trumpet), John Williams (Clarinet), Nate Dell-Vandenberg (Trombone), Graham Campbell (Guitar), and Lorie Wolf (Bandleader, Vocals, Drums).

Queen Kong is an exploration of music inspired by the Radical Jewish Culture movement in New York, founded by pioneer saxophonist John Zorn. Led by Toronto drummer, vocalist and composer, Lorie Wolf, Queen Kong seamlessly blends Ashkenazi Jewish idiom with jazz, free improv, rock and punk to explore new sounds and ideas.

The group's musical talents offer a new twist on klezmer jazz. Klezmer is the traditional social music of Central and Eastern European Jewish communities, marked by both ritual melodies and improvisation. Queen Kong is a band of klezmorim, informed by a wide range of musical styles: the band’s collective CV spans Balkan punk, hip-hop brass, classical ensembles, reggae, traditional jazz, and Brazilian psych-rock. Their collective experience fills a deep niche: it is music clearly sprung from the world of klezmer, but with migratory flight paths to destinations yet to be determined.

Main Stage in the Dawson Restaurant
All Ages Event