Ashanti At TD Toronto Jazz Festival 2023

Recording Artist, Producer, Actress: Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas Professionally Known As Ashanti, Location: Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2023, Photographer: Ajani Charles

On Sunday, June 25, 2023, after missing her performance at Nelly’s first Hot In Herre festival in Toronto despite covering it, I had the good fortune of documenting Ashanti’s performance at the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, otherwise known as Toronto's International Jazz Festival, thanks to the Toronto Downtown Jazz Society, a Canadian registered charity, and TD.

What began in 1987 as an eight-day jazz showcase now attracts over half a million loyal patrons annually over ten days as more than 1,500 musicians entertain across the Greater Toronto Area.

The Festival has become a destination event for music lovers, some of the greatest jazz celebrities, and other notable musicians globally, reinforcing its reputation as a leader in artistic excellence and outstanding production standards.

It was boiling, and it did not take me long to realize that wearing my blue vintage Canon/Long Island Marathon jacket was not ideal, although it looked fresh.

I was exhausted, as covering Hot In Herre the day before and engaging in other work leading up to the weekend had significantly drained me.

It was about 8:45 PM, and as I approached the backstage area close to the Royal Ontario Museum, I could hear and see how packed the crowd was, surrounding the stage.

The energy that emanated from the crowd was palpable, the fact that there was a massive Pride parade earlier that day undoubtedly contributed to the concert’s popularity, and I could not remember when I last saw that many people on the Queen’s Park roadway.

I was led to the media pit by the Festival’s media manager Kat Cooper, and I felt at ease amongst my fellow artists, photographers, and media professionals.

Following some opening remarks, Ashanti’s DJ City soon began to get the crowd excited for her entrance, which was not challenging to do, given the pre-existing excitement of everyone involved.

He played some of hip-hop and R&B’s greatest hits, including many classic records by Ashanti’s former Murder Inc. labelmates Christina Milian, Ja Rule, and others.

He sarcastically told the crowd that he took their lack of excitement as a personal insult due to his close friendship with Ja Rule soon after he played the intro to the remix to I’m Real, one of Jennifer Lopez’s most popular records, featuring Ja. A record that must be included in the soundtrack to my high school years.

Soon after, he excitedly jumped higher than I had ever seen a DJ jump. I was convinced he was fully committed to giving the crowd the best performance possible, extracting every ounce of enthusiasm and love for R&B and soul music from everyone in attendance.

The crowd was cheering and primed to experience one of the music industry's most talented and underrated writers and vocalists.

For those unaware, born Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas, Ashanti is a Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, actor and author and when her debut album landed the top spot on both the Billboard Top 200 and R&B album charts, selling an incredible 504,593 units in its first week during a period wherein buying an album involved physically going to and from a store, and placing the album in a device for playback.

Ashanti’s first album set a SoundScan record for the most albums sold by any debut female artist in the chart’s history, granting her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Over two decades, Ashanti has released six studio albums and received several illustrious accolades, including eight Billboard Awards, a Grammy, two American Music Awards, two Soul Train Awards and six ASCAP Awards.

She has also written her music and music for many artists, including many of the hitmakers on Murder Inc. Records during the early 2000s.

She has reigned at the top as one of Billboard’s “Top Females of the Decade from 2000-2010” and continues to break Billboard records having a Hot 100 entry every decade of her career, in the 2000s, 2010’s and 2020s.

If I had a top ten list of the most impactful R&B artists to date, she could be on it, alongside the likes of Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Keyshia Cole, Babyface, Mary J. Blige, Stevie Wonder, Teddy Riley, the Isley Brothers, Boyz II Men, and at least a few others. Creating such a list would be very challenging.

When Ashanti stepped on stage with a huge smile and her right hand and microphone raised to the sky, she was met with resounding cheers and the support of her DJ and live band.

Her pink leotard and sleek sunglasses were reminiscent of 80s nightclubs in Manhattan and other parts of her home city of New York, and her two dancers paralleled her movements and aesthetics flawlessly.

She performed many of her most famous songs, including Rain On Me, Baby, What’s Luv, which is her most popular collaboration with Fat Joe, and Foolish, which topped the charts and became one of Ashanti’s signature songs, as well as Always On Time, Mesmerize, and Happy, which are collaborations with Ja Rule.

Such records are intimately tied to my memories of high school dances and other parties.

One of the standout parts of Ashanti’s performance was an incredible mashup of Michael Jackson’s Rock With You, and her hit single Rock Wit U (Awww Baby).

Video: Ashanti At TD Toronto Jazz Festival 2023, Recording Artist, Producer, Actress: Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas Professionally Known As Ashanti, Location: Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2023, Cinematographer: Ajani Charles

Her band, vocal range, and the effortlessness she embodied throughout her performance impressed me. Michael Jackson would have been proud.

She embodied the Taoist concept and experience of wuwei, which everyone, especially artists, can benefit from.

Wuwei is the practice and state of taking no action that is not in accord with the natural course of the universe; it is effortless action, being in the zone, going with the flow.

Halfway through her performance, she felt compelled to remind the audience that she has been severely underrated over the years, so much so that she has been described as a one-hit-wonder in some rare instances, which shocked me.

She followed up her statement of her underdog status by listing some of her many accolades, most of which the Jazz Festival audience was probably oblivious to.

Soon after, my colleagues and I were ushered out of the media pit after her first few songs. So, I missed Nelly’s cameo appearance, much like I missed Ashanti’s cameo appearance at Nelly’s Hot In Herre festival the day before.

The size of the crowd was overwhelming, and hundreds of people that could not fit into the show’s main area along the Queen’s Park roadway ended up climbing and standing on the Royal Ontario Museum’s facades and parts of the University of Toronto.

Overall, I had a great time at Ashanti’s concert; it started on time and was well-organized, the Toronto's International Jazz Festival team seemed like a well-oiled machine for the most part, and if Ashanti’s recent performance was any indication of what the rest of the Festival was like, I highly recommend that all music lovers, especially those that enjoy jazz, R&B, and soul music, attend the Festival during the summer of 2024.

Ashanti At TD Toronto Jazz Festival 2023

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