Madagascar Slim at TD Toronto Jazz Festival at Shops at Don Mills June 23, 2012

For the third consecutive year, the TD Toronto Jazz Festival brings the pre-eminent sound of the city to the prestigious Shops at Don Mills (1090 Don Mills Road at Lawrence Ave. East) in the Town Square for a series of FREE concerts from June 22 - July 1. For additional information, please visit www.shopsatdonmills.ca or www.torontojazz.com or call 416-447-0618.

Open air concerts are the epitome of summer and what better place to soak it all in than at the Shops at Don Mills, where fashion, dining and entertainment come outside to play. The Town Square, nestled in the heart of the shopping centre, will provide daily entertainment including Madagascar Slim on Saturday, June 23 at 8:00pm.

Performing under the name Madagascar Slim, Randriamananjara Radofa Besata Jean Longin is a Canadian-Malagasy folk and blues guitarist born on Halloween night of 1956 in Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar. He became a fairly decent Salegy player, one of the most popular styles of dance music in Madagascar, after observing his brother’s techniques and emulating his playing whenever he could get his hands on a guitar. Randriamananjara’s life changed when he heard "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix on the radio. He couldn't speak a word of English and did not understand the lyrics, but the feel of the music really touched something in him and he spent days and nights trying to figure out the chords. Hendrix, B.B. King and the local Malagasy music were the biggest influences to his playing. Randriamananjara moved to Canada in 1979 to further his studies and get a good education. He learnt English so he could sing the kind of songs he had fallen in love with when he was younger. He took English as a second language and then finished college, graduating with honours in the "Accounting and Finance Co-op Program" at Seneca College.

One of North America’s premier jazz festivals, the TD Toronto Jazz Festival attracts over 500,000 loyal patrons and features more than 350 performances with over 1,500 musicians performing at approximately 40 locations around Toronto.

Official Website: http://www.shopsatdonmills.ca