Chris Butcher Music

Toronto is full of interesting people. They likely aren’t hanging around North York, or Bay Street, but you may find them in Kensington on a sunday, in art galleries on Dundas, Queen West, around Parkdale. Musicians, artists, dancers, photographers, cyclists, inventors, social media celebrities, business owners, chef’s etc. etc. Just thought I’d share a story of meeting an interesting one a few weeks ago.

I went up to Gate 403 to see my friend Keith Price, an excellent jazz guitarist, whom I used to co-host a Jazz radio show at the University of Manitoba (with frequent hilarious awkward live on air moments), who was spending some time in T. after a trip he took to Europe. It was a good little Winnipeg hang, and after Sean Bellaviti was playing the late slot. The horn player couldn’t make it last minute so I played the gig, that’s why my gig bag never leaves my left shoulder, always prepared. It was a fun one with Sean, Lee “Jorge” Hutchinson and Jeff Graville, with J.B. and Gillian sitting in.

There was a guy at the bar who was really into it at the end, requesting some Herbie Hancock tunes. When we finished, he told us about this shoe store he was in the process of owning across the street, and insisted that we were so moving that he demanded giving us all a pair of shoes of our choice, he also made a strong case for never playing a gig in running shoes. The shop was the European Shoe Boutique at 394 Roncesvalles Ave.

Christian's Shoe Emporium

This shop has been open since 1962, opened by a German immigrant, upon moving to Roncesvalles village, passed down to his son, and sort of passed to Christian, the enthusiastic patron at the Gate. This place has a basement full of European made shoes, most of them having not been opened since the 1960’s. We listened to a Thelonious Monk record, told stories about NYC as we looked through hundreds, of vintage shoes. Jeff left with one pair, I got three (the other two for a REALLY low price), and Lee left with 11 pairs. Since several of my friends have gone back and cleaned up. I wouldn’t recommend  stopping by if you’re a size 10-11, I think those are mostly gone, you can thank Lee.

JG and JK came back to pick some up

Just spreading the word as there’s few things I like better then a great deal. I grew up in Winnipeg and my father was a first child in a post  great depression family starting a farm in rural Manitoba so it’s in my blood. If you’re interested you can check out Christian Aldo the shoe mogul’s website at http://christianaldoart.com/ he has some pretty interesting and eclectic art up.