RALPH BENMERGUI SAYS he isn’t really a jazz expert. Surprising, considering he’s the host of Benmergui in the Morning on JAZZ.FM91, Canada’s only notfor- profit radio station dedicated to jazz music.
“I’m a broadcaster,” he says, modestly. “Most people know more about jazz than I do.” We’re in the Home Smith Bar at the Old Mill (21 Old Mill Rd.). Benmergui has agreed to give us a mini-tour of some of the best places to hear live jazz in the city, and the Old Mill is our first stop.
His picks are a result of a collaboration with Jaymz Bee, another of the station’s hosts who can be heard alongside Benmergui between 7 and 9 a.m. every weekday.
“Jaymz’s whole life is to go out. I have kids at home, but there are no obligations like that in Jaymz’s life.… He goes to at least one jazz bar per night, if not two or three.” Nonetheless, Benmergui knows his stuff, too.
“After four years and 20 hours of listening, I have learned something. Nobody can not pay attention for that long,” he explains. What emerges from the pair’s collaboration is an accessible list of quality concert halls.
“I love jazz, but I’m not a jazzophile,” Benmergui explains. “You don’t have to be some kind of expert to listen to jazz.” The Old Mill, for example, is one of Benmergui’s favourite places because, he says, it’s “an oasis spot.”
“My wife and I stayed here once [at the inn] and we felt like we were just … gone. We were 10 feet from Bloor West Village, but we felt like we were somewhere else entirely. It’s a self-contained place. We came to the Home Smith Bar, listened to jazz, and it was great.”
Benmergui says besides the basic, positive vibe, one of the best things about the Old Mill is how committed the management is to the live music scene.
“Our Sound of Jazz Concert series happens here, and that’s really important,” he explains. “When I got to the station, the Sound of Jazz was being held at the Ontario Science Centre, and it was really hard to get an audience.
It was really counterintuitive. And Ross [Porter, president and chief executive officer at the radio station] moved it over here, and now we sell out every show. It’s really popular. I’ve hosted the shows in the main room. It’s great for live performances. Great sightlines. Everybody’s got good tables. It’s the way I think good jazz should be.”
Despite that statement, Benmergui doesn’t think there’s just one way to present good jazz. Our second stop is Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas St. W.), a venue that seems to have nothing in common with the Old Mill but is, nonetheless, another of Benmergui’s best bets for good, live jazz.
“There are a whole bunch of different kinds of jazz,” he explains. “It’s so many different things. Some of it is vocals and pop influenced, some of it is completely outside that, improvisational, some of it is bop.… There’s all this other stuff going on within jazz.”
What’s going on at Lula Lounge is Latin, salsa and world music, which Benmergui calls one of his “passions.”
“I love world music, and that’s one of the things this club is great for,” he says.
The interior calls to mind a Cuban dance hall. The raised stage gives way to a large, open dance floor, flanked by the bar, with intimate tables around the perimeter. Both the ambience and the service at Lula are top notch, it’s a wonderful place for jazz newbies.
“You can come here, have dinner, see a show and get home before it gets too late,” he says. “It’s a nice way to spend a night.” The third stop on the jazz minitour is the Rex (194 Queen St. W.), a spot Benmergui calls “one of the most important jazz clubs in the country.”
The place is charmingly understated and the vibe publike homey and welcoming. Owner Bob Ross greets us, while his son Avi offers food and drink.
Benmergui is a favourite patron. He even has a regular table.
“The Rex, to me, is the most accessible jazz bar in the city,” he says. “You can walk off the street, sit down and watch somebody play and it’s completely unpretentious. You can order onion rings or fries and just relax.
And everybody gets to play here. Guys just out of Humber or York play here, and so do some of the best jazz performers in the city. They have big bands on a Monday night. They come pouring out off the bandstand. It’s one of those places you can slide into and it’s always happening. You just show up and hang.”
So if you’re looking to get into the jazz scene, that’s the way to do it. Just show up and hang. “When you see live jazz, you get it,” Benmergui explains.
“Go to any of the places that have jazz in the Toronto,” he adds. “Any of them. Just Google ‘live jazz Toronto’ and take your pick. It’s not this thing that you’re not cool enough for. Just go.” You won’t be sorry.