Jonathan Emile – Shaika Cafe – Wedensday, December 16th, 2009

It was a quiet night, most likely due to the -27 weather outside but Emile made sure that we got one hell of a show anyway. The thing that really made his set worth listening to was the variety. He went from soul to freestyle rap to reggae in a matter of minutes!  This wasn’t unexpected to me since I have been listening to his latest album, The Lover/Fighter Document, for the past few weeks, but it’s just a whole new experience live.

His unique and diversified set wasn’t the only brilliant thing to come out of Jon E tonight. If any of you have been to one of his shows before you probably already know that he’s funny and really interacts with his audience. He doesn’t just stand up there and freestyle or sing spectacular music with great lyrics too match, he includes everyone and gets them to participate. One way he managed to get us involved tonight was by using his incredible freestyle skills. At one point he took out a piece of paper and pen and passed it around telling people to write any word they could think of and he would freestyle it. If he failed he would give the winner a free CD. So the paper went around the cafe and made it’s way back to Jon. He then began to freestyle using the words on the paper to a beat he hadn’t heard before. Wait.. Why am I telling you this? We managed to get a video of him doing it along with the words he had to use!

Amazing right!? He then went on with his set blowing us away song after song. I’m happy to report that this wasn’t my usual show experience. Shaika is definitely a more mellow and charming place to see a show and a musician like Jonathan Emile is just the kind of guy you want to make the night worth your trip in our lovely Montreal weather. – Eran Dahan

Photography and Videos by Sarah Touyz

And click here for another video of Jonathan Emile performing the song “Elephant Man”

Tags: Eran Dahan, hip hop, Jonathan Emile, Montreal, Rap, Sarah Touyz, Shaika Cafe, The Love/Fighter Document