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Blog #3

Published on August 29, 2010 Allan Walsh

Jazz Sudbury      Blog #3                                                                                                                 August  29, 2010

In the last blog I wrote about Swing music and its importance to jazz and popular music. The ‘Swing Era’ was when jazz was the popular music of the day. It was a great time for jazz musicians and the many big bands of the time. The incorporation of syncopated rhythms was nothing new to jazz as it was something that developed from Ragtime music at the turn of the century and syncopation abounded in early jazz music. Swinging eighth note lines became an important part of the jazz language just before and during the ‘Swing Era’. This was the spark that gave the music a bouncing, lilting feel and proved addictive to dancers.

The ability to swing is key for jazz musicians’ success. Being able to improvise a syncopated, swinging line was the goal of jazz musicians of the ‘Swing Era’ and this remains true today. Some swing harder than others but most jazz musicians will use swinging lines at one point or another in their music. You do not have to be a connoisseur of jazz to recognize when a band really swings. You can feel it!  

So, typically young musicians beginning to learn jazz will seek out jazz music that really swings. One will discover quickly who the great players are when first beginning to listen to jazz. Probably one of the most swingingest pianists of all time was Oscar Peterson.  Just listening to him play makes you immediately feel like tapping your foot and the urge to move and dance is very compelling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnrmFMnrxAU&feature=related

This video features Oscar with the great guitarist Joe Pass and our own Canadian Dave Young on bass. Dave brought his group ‘In Transit’ to Sudbury many years ago and Reggie Schwager was playing in the group. My own quartet opened up the concert. It was indeed a thrill to be opening for these great musicians. The concert was at Fraser Auditorium at Laurentian University and was broadcast by CBC.  Interestingly my group The Borealis Jazz Quartet which includes the same members is opening up the Jazz Sudbury Community Concert scheduled on Sept. 12 in the same location.

It was great to touch base with Reggie again whom I had met at a jam session a few years before here in Sudbury. The session was organized by Tony Simpkin in his home. I was visiting Sudbury while on tour with the Robert Paquette Band and had met some musicians at the Festival Boreal Northern Lights who mentioned the jam session. It was the beginning of a musical friendship with Tony that has lasted for over 25 years. He introduced me to Reggie who at the time was about 13 years old. Upon hearing this kid play I was taken aback by his command of the guitar and sense of swing and musicality at such a young age. I said to myself after the session, “this kid is indeed going places in the jazz world”. Certainly it was true because only a few years later I saw him again in Montreal playing with the likes of none other than jazz trumpeter Joe Newman who played in Count Basie’s band. After moving to Toronto Reggie soon was playing with everyone and became one of the first call jazz guitarists on the jazz scene there.

So, Tony was instrumental in bringing the jazz scene to fruition here in Sudbury. When I returned to Sudbury again to play I met Reggie again performing with his sister. I sat in with them and through that interaction met Brian Quebec who was the bassist on the gig. Anyway, now I knew a great jazz pianist and bassist in Sudbury. This small city was harbouring quite a bit of great talent. Years later I heard about Kevin Turcotte the great trumpeter from Sudbury who like Reggie had moved to Toronto to become another first call musician on the music scene there. We have been fortunate to have had both Kevin and Reggie grace our stage at Laurentian University for our many jazz concerts over the years.

I hope to attach a picture I got from Reggie which is another jam session here in Sudbury with a very, very young Reggie Schwager, a young Kevin Turcotte, Tony on bass (yes he’s a pretty good bassist too!) I don’t know who the drummer is. I can't figure out how to attach the pic but will try again next time.

I hope you enjoyed reading my experience in meeting some of Sudbury’s great jazz musicians. In my next blog I will write more about meeting Tony and Brian and how we formed a partnership in jazz. There will also be an amazing story about Brian and I that spans a number of years, two cities and has some interesting musical and comical twists!

Till next time.

Allan

Jazz Sudbury