Montreal Jazz Festival: Two to Watch

Every year the Montreal Jazz Festival serves as a launching pad for new talent and this year is no exception. Spinner took note of two singer/songwriters in particular, and both happen to be local boys with guitars on their backs and harmonicas at their lips.

Bobby Bazini plays the circuit in his native Quebec and word has slowly been spreading that he is one to watch. In Bazini there's something akin to celebrated Scottish singer Paolo Nutini, and it goes beyond their rhyming surnames. It's rather in the way that their music is forceful yet playful, inspiring finger snaps and toe taps, especially on Bazini's stand-out track 'One Thing Or Two.'

At just 21 years of age, Bazini already has the flavour and soul of a musician with twice as many years behind him, and roaring praise following both of his jazz fest shows promises a bright future ahead.

Meanwhile most of Montrealer Colin Moore's tunes are better suited for St. Patrick's Day than a jazz festival, so it was fitting to see him take the stage at the Pub Heineken. Don't let his tattoos and sex appeal fool you -- in between the frat boy Irish fare are some torrid tunes about love and loss that truly hold their own in content and delivery.

Moore owns one of those treasured voices that can climb at the drop of a hat. It's raspy, likely thanks to the cigarettes, and has a whiskey-drenched quality that's not easy to come by. Both French Canadians did their province proud.