Jazz in Canada
Canada’s proximity to USA meant that it received authentic touring jazz groups before any other country. Freddie Keppard’s Original Creole Orchestra was touring Western Canada as early as 1914, while Jelly Roll Morton appeared in Vancouver in 1919 and again in 1921. American pianist/composer Millard Thomas settled in Montreal from c. 1920, where he led the Famous Chicago Novelty Orchestra, a band made up of ex-patriate African American musicians. The first Canadian jazz bands are hard to pinpoint, but ragtime pianist Harry Thomas (1890-1941) was known to be a proficient improvisor and has been cited as Canada’s earliest jazz musician. He recorded piano rolls from 1916, and also played for silent films. His occasional dep in this role at the Regent Theatre was the British-born female ragtime pianist Vera Guilaroff (1902-1976). Gilbert Watson (1896-1959) led a small 7-piece dance band that recorded several 78s in 1925 and 1926. With American jazz trumpeter Curtis Little as featured soloist, they are undoubtedly jazz recordings. By 1928, there were certainly enough black (mostly jazz) musicians working in Montreal, that when the local musicians union barred them from joining, they were forced to form their own union, the Canadian Coloured Clef Club. This group lasted into the 1940s, by which time the colour bar had been lifted.
Undoubtedly the most successful early Canadian dance band leader was Guy Lombardo (1902-1977), who led the Royal Canadians from 1924. The jazz content was fairly scant, and the band relocated to USA before making their first recordings so, despite his enormous success, his influence on Canadian jazz history is limited.
By the early 1930s there were a number of ‘proper’ jazz bands in various cities in Canada: Mart Kenney (1910-2006) started his Western Gentlemen in Vancouver in 1931; saxophonist Mynie Sutton (1903-1982) led the Canadian Ambassadors in Montreal from 1933; Rex Battle led a big band in Toronto from 1934. In 1940, at 14 years old, Oscar Peterson (1925-2007) arrived on the national stage by winning a competition organised by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This success encouraged him to drop out of school, and he was soon playing in the big band of Johnny Holmes (1916-1989), where the even young high school dropout, trumpeter Maynard Ferguson (1928-2006) was one of his bandmates. Ferguson moved to USA at 20, Peterson relocated in 1949, after Norman Grantz heard him on one of his regular radio broadcasts. Other Canadian transplants to USA included two world class arrangers – Gil Evans (1912-1988) was born in Toronto, but moved to USA where he started his career as an arranger for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra from 1941, and Buster Harding (1912-1965), who worked with Teddy Wilson from 1939, followed by Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and many more. With many of Canada’s most talented jazz musicians finding work in America it was left to the next generation to build the Canadian jazz scene into a vibrant platform for the homegrown musicians.
More to come…
Canadian jazz musician profiles so far:
