“Stella Pearl” and other Albums From Ralph Pastore

Ralph Pastore has been around the Toronto Trad Jazz scene since the mid-2000s and the music scene there even longer. He was in a ska band, Frankie Foo, when he was introduced to trad jazz by his bandmates Marla Dixon and Toby Hughes. They brought him to watch their other band, the Don Valley Stompers, at a now-defunct pub called Paully's. He was hooked. In addition to piano, his main instrument, he learned the banjo to help him secure a place in the scene. He began to play with various bands around the city and though he left Frankie Foo in 2015, still plays with Hughes in the Don Valley Stompers, and it's spin-off collective, The New Orleans Connection All-Stars. Marla Dixon, after relocating in 2009, has gone on to lead two of the hottest New Orleans based groups, the Shotgun Jazz Band and the Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band. Pastore's main band is now Combo Royale, an ensemble group he formed that has, he says, developed its own style organically, "a mishmash of old styles ranging from trad to 'hot' to swing to jugband/stringband." They've released two albums, a self-titled release in 2013, and Follow Them Footsteps in 2015. Their first album was almost all crowd-pleasing standards; "Avalon", "Tishomingo Blues",  "When I Get Low", "Some Of These Days", " Please Don't Talk About Me." They have a smoothly blended sound that makes great use of accordion (played by Pastore),  violin