Pat Blythe – All That Jazz VII – The Canadian Connection

Jazz was birthed in the U.S. but it didn’t take long to head north to Canada. It was first introduced to Canadian audiences in 1914, when a New Orleans band The Original Creole Orchestra performed a matinee gig at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg. The stop was part of their western Canada tour. The band of six musicians included one of jazz’s early masters, cornettist Freddie Keppard. Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton performed in Vancouver cabarets from 1919 to 1921. Canada and the U.S. share the longest land border in the world so it was no surprise Canada quickly became the first country outside the U.S. to cultivate its own jazz scene.  “In Canada, as elsewhere, musicians took to jazz and made it their own, although not before they’d had the benefit of good tutelage from touring U.S. musicians – mostly black – for whom “Canadian time,” as they called touring north of the border, was a relief from the constant racism of the U.S. and a new, quite profitable source of revenue.” – Quill & Quire

Pat Bythe – All That Jazz – Part IV

The other day, I was asked what this week’s column was going to be about. I had no idea, and often I find myself starting one thing that completely morphs into something entirely different. Later that day, I caught up with another friend and during our phone conversation, she mentioned jazz artists. Looking back, I realized I had not completed this series, a writing project I started in 2020, while we were in the initial throes of the pandemic. Jazz, in any form, was a genre of music that was rather foreign to me. It wasn’t played in the house growing up. It wasn’t until a close friend introduced me to jazz in all its glorious forms that I began to listen and learn and fall in love with the music. Here we go again!