The weather is always supposed to be a mainstay of conversation for Canadians, and it has been serving us well here in Toronto this summer. We are currently experiencing below-seasonal-norm temperatures, and everyone is walking about saying to each other "Feels like September, eh?". That meant that last night, when my husband and I went down to the Harbourfront to see the show, we layered for warmth, instead of choosing a pair of shorts and a favourite T-shirt. We were at the CIBC Stage, and the open sides of the venue were allowing the rain to be misted in by the wind, and onto everyone. This air current aspired to more than just being called a breeze. It kept blowing all around the sides, trying to find the best place from which to wrap itself around the performers, and have a chance to mist them, too.
   While the "warm-up act" was on stage, the chill in the wind was too easy to feel. The man tried his best, and I'm sure he reached various members of the audience, but I can't even remember his name, now. Then, the real reason for the evening's gathering took the stage, in the person of the Neville Brothers. Right away, the wind seemed to drop down, in awe of the talent that was beginning to wash the audience with waves of mellifluous melody. Aaron was subdued at first, seeming almost to regard the mike with suspicion, and limiting himself to being friendly with his tambourine. But in no time, with the lively "Yellow Moon" and the classics "Tell It LIke It Is" and "Everybody Plays the Fool", he was swept up by the music that carried him on its tide, as it did so obvioulsy with all the others on stage, and in the audience. His incredible voice rang out. First,it demanded our attention and then caressed our eardrums, in moments that felt like they somehow were being shared solely with each individual hearing his vocalizations. There were no rappers scowling at the audience and making obscene gestures. No-one grabbed at their crotch the whole time they were on stage, and no-one spouted lyrics that demeaned or demoralized. Yet the audience happily sang along, and danced at their seats and in the aisles. There is a lesson here, for any of today's "musicians who are able to read the writing on their own private wall. One of the brothers said it perfectly in an interview. "One of the reasons (for our lengthy music careers) is that our music crosses so many boundaries and our performances are not contrived," says Neville. "We don't have slick choreography and fireworks. We just play the music -- it's just our feelings and thoughts about the world."
   "Just play"?. They do so much more than that. The Neville Brothers bring freedom to all those notes that the lines of the staff imprison in a jail of ink and paper. So many are unable to free them from their silent captivity, but the Nevilles liberate them all. They break the chains and send those notes soaring through the night air, while people listen, enraptured.