Lester McLean Quartet at TD Toronto Jazz Festival at Shops at Don Mills June 30, 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 Lester McLean Quartet on Saturday, June 30 at 2:00pm.

Lester McLean is a native of Toronto and has been active on the city’s busy music scene since the early 90’s. He studied jazz as a saxophonist while earning a Bachelors Degree in Mass Communications and Sociology at York University. Although he performed as a lead vocalist in high school, he resumed singing with a serious focus in the late 90’s. The instrumental funk-fusion band The Colour of Soul was the first outlet for McLean’s songwriting and under his leadership the band recorded and released 3 Independent records in 1998, 1999, and 2002 respectively. The next endeavour was The Lester McLean Trio featuring Lester on lead vocals and Soprano Sax, Juno award winning and nationally recognized Michael Occhipinti on acoustic Guitar, and multi-instrumentalist Louis Simao on upright acoustic bass. The trio released their first full length CD entitled “Best Foot Forward” in 2005. Drummer Mark McLean guests on a few tracks. Fast forwarding to 2009, the band went into John “Beetle” Bailey’s Drive Shed Studio for sessions that resulted in the Lester McLean – LMXL “Just a Taste” EP released in March ’10 and the fourth coming full-length release tentatively titled Lester McLean: 4, 3,2,1. The new CD will continue to feature a wide array of musical styles, great melodies, thoughtful lyrics, ear catching grooves, thick harmonies, and the soulful, eclectic sound that defines Lester McLean’s listening tastes and performance.

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.