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From West to East and pole to pole, there’s nothing like Johnny Favorite’s Big-Eyed Soul! Best throw some ice in the glass and set up to knock back Johnny Favorite’s The Tonight Album (Albert Music), a unique distillation of elements from all over the musical spectrum that, blended with the sophisticated horn section headed up by Richard Underhill and Johnny’s patented smooth-as sharkskin vocals, delivers a much-needed musical tonic. Deftly framed by the detailed production work of Toronto’s David Baxter, it is indeed an exquisite creation, the very definition, like a ride with any good intoxicant, or rough and tumble beauty.
You may know Johnny Favorite from his last project, the Sleeper CD Holiday Romance (featuring the Johnny Favorite Swing Orchestra) that garnered a Juno award and a dozen East Coast Music Award Nominations. This success allowed the band to tour for a year non-stop from New Orleans, Louisiana to St.John’s Newfoundland, from Los Angeles, California to Nassau, Bahamas, generating a happening at each and every venue they played. Having the word “swing" in one’s moniker, however, leads to a certain perception, and like the rest of Johnny’s big life his musical boundaries encompass much broader territory. Johnny left the Orchestra in January of this year determined to explore the wider possibilities of pop music from, as he says. “Tommy Dorsey to David Bowie, from Bobby Darin to Morrissey." Allowing himself to engage in the excitement of ignoring musical boundaries and labels in such a fashion resulted in the creation of The Tonight Album, a voyage into previously uncharted territory, much like Johnny’s own life-story.
We weren’t kidding when we said West to East, pole to pole. The journey started at Jasper Park Lodge, Alberta where the young Newfoundlander delivered room service by bicycle, among other stunts. He followed this with a gig in the green paradise of Jamaica in the hospitality trade – a “pleasure merchant" as it were. Next he decided to try his hand at “minding the store". It happened to be a Hudson’s Bay outpost on Baffin Island – much closer to the North pole than most of us will ever want to get – and he was there for about fourteen months without a break. Our adventurer, hungering for greener pastures thought that travelling the continent of Europe would satisfy that need, so off he went.
Many European escapades ensued (just ask him!), but it was after a complicated motorcycle journey from Norway to the sandy tip of Greece when Johnny’s musical journey began. Faced with an acute shortage of cash for his return airfare home, Johnny for the first time tried his hand at singing. Finally realizing his true calling, he came home with the biggest and best adventure idea of all: a journey into the world of music.
Back in Canada, his career advanced in an ‘overnight success’ style creating a small tidal wave of popularity as the leader of the Johnny Favorite Swing Orchestra. In three short years he and the rest of the band recorded both the independent album Life Desire and the internationally distributed recording Holiday Romance (Universal) and toured incessantly.
Now in the first summer of the new Millenium we have The Tonight Album, Johnny Favorite’s first solo effort, which in his words “is the perfect companion for happy lonely people." The first single, which screams hit, hit, hit is a summer-hopping mix by The Boomtang Boys of Georgie Fame’s smash sixties classic “Yeh, Yeh".
Johnny Favorite and his new nine piece band will soon be taking their rollicking style of contemporary big band pop or as we prefer “Big Eyed Soul" to a concert venue near you. Given his penchant for high-octane fun and adventure, one would be remiss not to experience it.
Universal Music Canada, Copyright 2000
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