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
Continue readingArchive for Montreal
Pat Blythe – All That Jazz VII – The Canadian Connection
Posted in Canadian Music, life, music, Opinion, Review with tags bebop, Bob Segarini, Café St-Michel, cool jazz, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Fusion, Jazz, La Petite-Bourgogne, Little Burgundy, luvthemusic, Montreal, Montreal International Jazz Festival, Pantages Playhouse Theatre, Pat Blythe, Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club, Rockhead’s Paradise, The Original Creole Orchestra on March 30, 2022 by segariniRoxanne Tellier – This Week in Racism!
Posted in Books, life, Opinion, politics, Review, Television with tags ABC News, Alberta, alien race, American football teams, ‘prejudice, Canada, DBAWIS, Edmonton, ethnicity, Globe And Mail, Hitler, Holocaust, Jan Wong, Jewish, master race, Maus, Montreal, Nazi, Neil Postman, old stock, pure laine, Quebec bashing, Quebecois, racial purity, racism, Roxanne Tellier, segarini, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The View, Twitter, us vs them, Whoopi Goldberg on February 6, 2022 by segariniWhen I was a kid, growing up in Alberta, I encountered precisely two black families. One family, that ran a boarding house near my school, had a little girl about my age. When I went to L’Academie Assomption, which was a private girl’s school, the daughters of football player Rollie Miles were the only students of colour.
Continue readingDarrell Vickers – Ted Zeigler Part Two
Posted in Humour, life, Opinion, Review, Television with tags Australia, Beheaded Parakeet, Bob Segarini, CFCF, Darrell Vickers, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, House Party, Johnny Jellybean, Montreal, Peter Cullen, Ted Zeigler on October 27, 2021 by segarini
It’s 1959, okay? Cold war across the U.S.A. Our future manager and the rest of the bewildered Zeigler clan had scurried off to Australia, far from the nuclear winter that would soon melt the rest of us into sticky shadows on the sidewalk. This alcoholic penal colony was infested with squads of fussy little men zipping hither and yon in search of houses with television aerials. Apparently, much like Britain, Aussieland had a TV tax and if you didn’t possess the required pricey license to watch “Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo” or “The Flying Doctor”, someone would come a-rappin’ upon your door and damn well demand you purchase one. It’s uncertain whether Theodore ever threw a shrimp onto a barbie during his time “down there” but he did almost lose a number of his domino-sized teeth one bright aft, by puttering out of his driveway and ramming into a car not driving on the “American” side of the road.
Continue readingGRAN’S CANADA HIGHWAY – EPISODE 3: LOADED TO BEAR by Jaimie Vernon
Posted in Family, life, Opinion, Review with tags Alberta, British Columbia, Buick Invicta, chuck wagon, DBAWIS, Don Valley Parkway, Don't Believe a Word I Say, driving, GPS, Highway 12, Highway 400, Highway 401, Highway 48, Hogtown, Lake Superior, Luggage, Mapquest, Markham, Montreal, Ontario, Ottawa, Port Arthur, road map, Rocky Mountains, Segarini Jaimie Vernon, Toronto, Trans-Canada Highway, Vernons on July 13, 2020 by segarini
In 1965, Canada was well on its way to making inter-continental travel from sea-to-sea-to-sea a lot more enticing and convenient. The Trans-Canada Highway had linked the otherwise awkward and barely passable sections of Lake Superior in Ontario and the Rocky Mountains between Alberta and British Columbia. And so, my grandparents decided to take a little trek out of province to see that the world didn’t end in Port Arthur, Ontario (merely life as we know it).
Roxanne Tellier – Summer of Songs Redux
Posted in life, music, Opinion, Review with tags A&W, Annette Funicello, Beach Blanket Bingo, Beach Boys, Belmont Park, Billy Stewart, Canada, Centreville, CFOX, Chicago, CHOM FM, Crescent Street, Dairy Queen, David Lee Roth, DBAWIS, Dean Hagopian, Doug Pringle, Echo Beach, Expos, Hanlan’s Point, Jarry Park, Jesse Winchester, Katy Perry, Loving Spoonful, Maple Leaf, Mark Bolan, Martha and the Vandellas, Martha David, Montreal, Munich Olympics, Nelly, Olympic Village, Orange Julep, Roger Scott, Roxanne Tellier, Sand Dunes, s’mores, Seals and Croft, segarini, summer, Summer Blonde, Summer of Song, The Bangles, The Cowsills, The Go Gos, The Kinks, The Motels, The Tragically Hip, The Who, Watergate Scandal, Wild Mouse on July 12, 2020 by segariniI’ve been overwhelmed, recently, with the events swirling around us. It’s too much. And today, although I had planned a look into trump and Ford’s plans to re-open schools this fall, I’m gonna take a pass, and a day off. Instead of current affairs, let’s enjoy the summer sun, and take a stroll down Memory Lane, to this slightly edited column that I first wrote in August of 2015.
How very different things look now, from the perspective of 2020, and this time of plague! Seems almost naughty to see people gathered together, without masks or social distancing! And I’m not sure if any of the places I mentioned then, are open now. Never mind… Take my hand, come along with me on the wayback machine, and forget about today for a while ….
Bob’s Good Friday for Jesus – GREAT Friday for Amy
Posted in Family, life, Opinion with tags Amy, Cameron Crpenter, Cherry Cola's, Cheryl, Concerts, Daughter, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Marshall, Matilda, Mom, Montreal, music, segarini, Slaughter, Stockton, Toronto on April 10, 2020 by segariniJust because Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms to think about what we’ve done, doesn’t mean we have to sit around and eat everything in the house, shave the dog, dress the cat up, or duct tape the baby to the bathroom door. Not at all.
While we’re home rearranging our sock drawers and seeing if we can build a mountain made out of mashed potatoes and some of the dead houseplants on the dining room table like Richard Dreyfuss did in Close Encounters, we can also reflect on some of the good things we have done in our messy, ungrateful, lives.
Today I celebrate. Not Jesus starting a three day vaycay in a cave after a forced march carrying enough timber to build a parking lot FotoMat kiosk, but the one thing I had something to do with in my life, that I am most proud ….
My daughter’s birthday is today, and to mark the event, I am re-posting this column as I do every year, to share my love for her with you and the joy she brings to me and everyone who knows her. Lots of new pictures, some brand new words …and as always …Lots and Lots of Love.
Love you Ames …you will always be the light of my life. – Daddy
Segarini: Raising Amy – The Annual Hippo Birdie Two Ewes 2019
Posted in Opinion with tags Amy, Cameron Crpenter, Cherry Cola's, Cheryl, Concerts, Daughter, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Marshall, Matilda, Mom, Montreal, music, segarini, Slaughter, Stockton, Toronto on April 8, 2019 by segariniEditor’s Note – Amy’s Birthday Week 2019!
My daughter celebrates a birthday on Wednesday, and to mark the event, I am re-posting this column as I do every year, to share my love for her with you and the joy she brings to me and everyone who knows her. Lots of new picture …and as always …Lots and Lots of Love.
Love you Ames …you will always be the light of my life. – Daddy
Roxanne Tellier – My City Was Gone
Posted in Opinion, politics, Review with tags Big City. tent cities, DBAWIS, digital world, elite., gentrification, globablization, high tech, Living for the City, Montreal, New York, San Francisco, segarini, Tellier, Toronto, Vancouver on November 25, 2018 by segarini“Living just enough, just enough, for the city.”
The Big Cities of the past weren’t for everyone. In the hardscrabble days when I was growing up in Montreal or in Toronto, a city rat could always make ends meet, somehow, some way. There was always that neighbourhood where you could find a deal, that part of town where, while it might not be pretty, but, be it ever so humble, you could find a place to crash if you were short of dough. Or a place to score if you wanted to get high. You might not have a Rolex, but you could find a knockoff for a couple of bucks.
Peter Blount Oops and Blonde…James Blonde
Posted in Opinion, Review with tags "Cry Me A River", Billy Gibbons, Boney M, Colin Kaepernick, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Facebook, James Blonde, Julie London, Montreal, Nike., Ottawa, Peter Montreuil, Philadelphia, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Robert Segarini, Toronto, Windsor on November 23, 2018 by segariniLast week, I wrote about music. This week will be more of the same….but differen
Billy Gibbons of “Z Z Top” fame has released a solo album, and is touring in support of it. He booked an opening act (Benton Blount 1)) and the tour began. Everything was going smoothly……..but then came the mid-term elections. Shortly after voting, the “opening act” went on Facebook and posted a picture of himself wearing a MAGA hat, holding food from Chick fil A and wearing an “I Voted” sticker.