MISSISSAUGA MUSIC WALK OF FAME

For a girl who started out singing made-up songs to her hairbrush and her horse in a small voice, Alex Pangman has come a long way.

Her innate musicality caused her to compose songs in her childhood Erin Mills home. She’s ridden all her life so it was natural to serenade the horses while she groomed them.

When musician Mike Walmsley of the Climax Jazz Band heard her singing in the stable, she was recruited for karaoke at the Christmas party. He and other band members lent her Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong and Maxine Sullivan records.

At age 14 she was “petrified” in her club debut at the Suisse Marmite (now The Brogue Inn) in Port Credit. It was likely her back, which was aimed at most of the audience that left the biggest impression.

The doctors at Sick Kids insisted singing was good for a girl with cystic fibrosis.

But that’s not why she sang. The music and sound of the era of 78s enraptured Alex. She started singing in the Credit River Jazz band and Hot 5 Jazzmakers and at clubs around Toronto.

When she went to university at U of T’s Erindale College breathing problems forced her to miss 18 months of school. That’s when she made the decision to pursue music full-time, a decision she’s thankful her parents fully supported.

Jeff Healey aided and abetted her early jazz education, producing the first two albums that earned her the title of Canada’s “Sweetheart of Swing.”

She’s recorded 4 more CDs, cooked up a Lickin’ Good Fried side tour of Western swing/country roots music with husband Colonel Tom Parker and haunted summer festival schedules and concert stages. The first song she published earned a National Jazz Award nomination and the last CD she did earned her a Juno nomination.

The teen who hated to ride the “short bus” in high school that confirmed you were different, wanted people to come out to hear her music, not “to look at the sick girl.”

Although the smoky bars eventually stopped her from performing, she only made her condition public because she “had this wonderful thing called a transplant and wanted to help other people get transplants.”

She’s an ongoing charitable ambassador who’s recorded a single for Hurricane Katrina victims, done videos for the CF Foundation and made a charming Christmas album, with proceeds to the Trillium Organ Donor Foundation.

Shortly after she opened for Willie Nelson at Massey Hall during the Toronto Jazz Festival, Alex had her second lung transplant.

Those lungs, once down to 33 per cent capacity are now up to 94 per cent. They sound best when they fill with the echoes of the 20s and 30s that resonate through the essential music that Alex Pangman lovingly saves, replenishes and champions.

She says thanks – to both the music and the donors who gave her second and third chances to enjoy it – by getting on stage and singing just as loudly as she can.

How appropriate.

That way the gifts that she has received, are given back to the world.

I would just like to say what an honor it is to be here to induct one of our country’s greatest performers, and my friend, Jeff Healey… a guitar genius, a voice most singers would kill for, a trumpet player who played traditional jazz with notes from the past, an actor, a DJ, a family man and a humanitarian!

I’ve known Jeff for over 25 years and we’ve played and jammed together at most of the blues bars in the GTA including many times at his club “Healey’s.” We were lucky enough to have Jeff here at the Southside Shuffle as a guest performer with Downchild as well as both of his bands ‘The Jazz Wizards’ and ‘The Jeff Healey Blues Band’.

I remember the first time I hired Jeff to be a guest at my house gig at ‘Heads or Tails’ in Etobicoke. We agreed on a price far lower than he was worth, but he said he would as long as he didn’t have to sing “Angel Eyes.” That’s why I loved Jeff so much, he never allowed his fame to keep him from playing the blues and jazz that was his passion… anytime, anywhere!
Jeff was one of the world’s great blues guitarist, which he played on his lap and in the heat of the night would stand up and bring the audience to thunderous applause. He performed with many legendary musicians including The Allman Brothers, Bonnie Rait, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy, BB King, ZZ Top, Eric Clapton… and of course Chuck Jackson… Sorry folks I just had to throw that one in there!

He was a jazz aficionado, with one the largest 78 Jazz collections in the world. Jeff also hosted his own radio show, ‘My Kind of Jazz’ on CBC as well as Jazz FM.91.

Jeff had a wonderful sense of humor and he and I would joke a lot on stage. I remember one night at his club, Healey’s I told him I was sorry I drank a little too much the last time I was there but thanks a lot for the ride home… the only problem was you dropped me off at the wrong house! He replied, without skipping a beat “Well, you were the one giving me the directions!”

Jeff was also a great humanitarian. He was an advocate for literacy and participated at CNIB charity events. Jeff also raised money for childhood cancer research…more specifically “Daisy’s Eye Cancer Fund”, now known as “We C Hope” or the “World Eye Cancer Fund”… this one has always been close to the family as Jeff’s son Derek was born with ‘retinoblastoma’… the same cancer that took Jeff’s eyesight. Their research and treatment is the reason Derek is healthy, has his full eyesight and is cancer free today!

At this time, I would like welcome Jeff’s family here today, his Dad, Bud, his step-mom Rose, his sister Laura, his wife Cristie and son Derek. Unfortunately, his daughter Rachel, could not be here today.

It is with great honour, that on this day, September, 10th 2016, that I welcome Jeff Healey to the Mississauga Music Walk of Fame!

Please stand to welcome Cristie and Bud as they come on stage to accept this award on Jeff’s behalf!

Rob Wells has been in the studio with some of the most famous musicians in the world, but it’s the tinkling from behind Westacres Public School that really get his musical motor running. It may not be the Justin Bieber or the Ish or the Nelly Furtado or the Olivia Newton-John or the Selena Gomez product that he’s shaped for the public – but it cuts to the heart of what music is really all about.

Over the past few years, Rob has hosted a Songwriters’ Circle where some of his musical playmates, like Randy Bachman and Matt Dusk, drop by to play at an annual concert. The proceeds go to his local school in Applewood Acres to support and sustain its music program. Rob’s personal interest has helped support, sustain and inflame students’ passion for the pursuit that is his life’s work.

“Music is related to so many different aspects of life,” he says, noting that Albert Einstein, who played violin and piano, insisted that the theory of relativity was a “musical thought.” He’s not the first one to notice that “math, patience, focus, listening skills, give-and-take, and response” all seem to be intimately connected to music. That’s why walking by West Acres and hearing kids banging on bongos or pummelling the xylophone gives him such a thrill.

Some of those kids would be thrilled themselves to know that Wells and his engineering co-conspirator Chris Anderson worked with Justin Bieber not far away from the school to produce My Worlds Acoustic, an unplugged album of songs from Justin’s first two albums.

Rob was a mild-mannered computer animator, writing songs for himself in his spare time until he attended a game-changing one week songwriters’ course with 40 other would-be musicians at Metalworks Studio in 2001. He went from “incredibly nervous” the first day to “depressed” on the last – not because his dream was shattered but because the course was over.

The rest, as they say, is history. Wells, like his brother Rob, is a highly sought-after writer, producer, player and collaborator who works with many of the best-known contemporary acts in the business.

He thrives under the pressure of going into the studio in the morning with an idea and, in collaboration with the artist and lyricist and the rest of the band, emerging with a completed product. “By the end of the day you have a track and people are freaking out about it – that’s the best.” The writing is still the best part of the job. “It soothes my soul… lowers my blood pressure. It’s the best therapy of all time.”

His music has appeared in countless TV shows, film scores and too many CDs to count. He’s doing the new Katharine McPhee album in Hollywood and writing for the new Degrassi series on Netflix. If you walk into the new dinosaur museum in Calgary and catch the epic chase scene that greets you, listen carefully to the chase music. That was written by Rob.

From dinosaurs to Daisy Dares You, Wells has it covered.

It was 2003 when Rob first heard one of his songs on the radio. It was Craig Smart singing What Went On. That’s when he says he first thought, “Wow, I can do this.” Wow, can he ever.

Welcome to the Mississauga Music Walk of Fame Rob.

His fascination with music started as a four-year-old singing in the choir in Toronto. As a teen, he developed an uncanny ear for finding songs with staying power. He was a high school hit-picker for CHUM, then wrote the first “pick the hits” column for the Toronto Star. He DJed dances at almost every high school in Toronto, then started Canadian Bandstand 63, where he played tunes his fellow teens flocked to hear. Gordon Lightfoot was his first “live” entertainment , lip-syncing his first single.

He was the youngest music director ever in Canada when Foster Hewitt hired him at CKFH, where he broke songs like Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf. That group used to be called Jack London and the Sparrow when Joey was occasionally their guest singer in Yorkville.

It was an era when music programmers Frank Gould at Montreal’s CFOX, Nevin Grant at Hamilton’s CKOC, Rosalie Tremblay at Windsor’s CKLW and Joey Cee chose the theme songs for Canada’s musical coming-of-age parties. The last time somebody else paid him a regular cheque was when he left radio in 1970.

“I have to create things because I need to survive,” he says, “and I have to pull out all the stops.”

And, my, how many stops he has pulled. He’s written hit songs and sung a few. He published Record Week for three years — it was printed at Sam McCallion’s presses on Falconer Dr. He’s published HOToronto Magazine for two decades, owned an art gallery, emceed for Neil Diamond, The Who, Tina Turner, BTO and many more, owned and operated his own record label, Nightflite; produced a record album for Playboy Magazine owner Hugh Hefner; published concert books, set up a celebratory “Canada Day” in Los Angeles; been a Juno judge, co-ordinated Toronto’s Chocolate Ball and Chocolate festival; and has been associate director of the Beaches Jazz Festival for 26 years.

When he published Record Week his fiercest competitors were Walt Grealis and Stan Klees, who ran RPM Magazine and established the Junos. Years later, they honoured him with the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame Award. “When you came along, you lit a fire under us,” Grealis explained.

Since 1986, he’s run most of these ventures from his Erin Mills home. As promotion manager for Heartbreakers nightclub in the city centre, he established the first Mississauga Talent Search contest and pioneered the concept of all age dances, since widely duplicated. And he’s helped put on numerous local charity shows, including the Rainbow Ball and mentored about 100 interns, many of whom now work in the music business. And he knows a thing or two about walks of fame.

He nominated Norman Jewison for his spot on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Blvd. He tried but failed to find backers for a Walk of Fame in Toronto, a decade before it became a reality.

He’s usually the guy organizing the Walk of Fame ceremonies but today Joey Cee can add a new innovation to his resume — first time being on the receiving end of a Walk of Fame induction.

Congratulations Joey.

The 2008 National Jazz Awards ceremony, held at the Palais Royale in Toronto, was a bittersweet affair for jazz fans from Mississauga. The program included a posthumous tribute to three jazz giants who had all lived in Mississauga at one time in their lives. The three were the incomparable pianist Oscar Peterson who was inducted into the Mississauga Music Walk of Fame last year, guitarist and jazz historian Jeff Healey and Doug Riley, the talented writer and pianist who founded and led the group called Dr. Music.

But while the Canadian jazz community paid tribute to those late lions that night, they also recognized another Mississauga musician, one who had five previous National Jazz Awards nominations. That was the night that Nancy Walker was honoured as Canadian Keyboardist of the Year.

When I spoke to Nancy the next day about winning the award, she was typically humble. First, she made it absolutely clear she does NOT consider music appreciation to be a competitive sport. Then she made it clear that any one of the other nominees – who were a stellar group — made up of David Braid, Robi Botos, David Restivo and David Virelles would have been just as worthy a winner.

In fact she pointed out that all of them “have awesome technique, much more so than I do.” But then she added something very telling: “sometimes it’s more a matter of people being moved by your playing on an emotional level.”

Indeed.

If you look at the reviews of Nancy’s half-dozen CDs, issued roughly every three years since 1997, you will see her playing described as “instinctual, strong, expressive, full-bodied, contemporary, probing, contemplative, angular, harmonically savvy, lyrical and intrepid,” to name just a few of the adjectives that professional critics have used to try to pin her down.

“She’s very imaginative and dedicated to what she’s doing,” says her colleague Rosemary Galloway with whom she plays in the Jane Fair/Rosemary Galloway quintet. “Her style evolves constantly and it is a signature that is clearly her own. She seems to always be listening and collaborating with different players — so she’s always expanding her horizons.”

Nancy was born and lived in Montreal until the age of seven when her family moved to Oakville. She was always keen on music but as is so often the case, an inspirational teacher took a special interest in her talent and really incited her passion for it.

His name was John Macdonald. He taught at Blakelock Secondary School by day but was also a successful pianist and arranger who had worked with the likes of Rick Wilkins and Rob McConnell.

Nancy played trumpet at the time but showed early interest in composition. Even in those days, she had big musical ambitions. She wrote an original composition for a 60-piece concert band. Although to quote Nancy, she “didn’t have a clue” about what she was doing, Mr. Macdonald ignored all the technical flaws and just said “let’s play it.” And it was performed in school concerts twice.

Although she had been accepted to Boston’s Berklee School of Music on trumpet, Nancy decided she didn’t have the stamina for that instrument and switched to piano when she enrolled in the Humber College jazz program. When she graduated, she started working right away in the cocktail lounges, bars and travelling show bands that were so much more plentiful in Toronto in the 1980s.

Then began a musical apprenticeship that saw her play with everyone from The Parachute Club, to Raffi, to Sylvia Tyson. She travelled all over Europe with Roger Whittaker’s show, including several stints in Germany where he was particularly popular.

It was at that point in her career she met her future husband, outstanding bassist Kieran Overs, who already had an established career in jazz. Nancy recorded her first CD, Invitation, in 1997 and has shown a steady progression in every recorded venture since. Making, financing and distributing CDs in this age is not easy but Nancy has made sure that there is a body of work extant that clearly documents her artistic growth.

In 2003, she won the prestigious Grand Prix de Jazz at the Montreal International Jazz Festival which landed her a contract with Canada’s premier jazz label, Justin Time Records and led to distribution deals in the U.S. and Europe. That record, When She Dreams, is a poignant tribute to her mother Yvonne and includes some of Nancy’s loveliest and most sensitive pieces.

Nancy has recorded with many of Canada’s best jazz artists, is a festival regular who co-hosted the late-night jam sessions at the Ottawa Jazz festivals for years, was nominated for a Juno in 2006 for one of her “side” projects, works in several groups beside her own trio and is an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Humber College.

She is a professional student in the best sense of that term who has studied with Fred Hersch, Jason Moran and Myra Melford. Her writing is melodically, harmonically and rhythmically complex. Her colleague and friend Chris Chahley says Nancy’s work – quote – “is challenging to players and listeners. It’s often difficult music that requires attention.”

He points out that “she is comfortable in so many differentcontexts. She is such a sensitive player. She can really feel what’s going on and support it. She has that uncanny sense to play the right thing at the right time.”

And as she has matured Chris says she has developed a “unique sound and touch which is one of the indications of a musician who has truly found her voice.”

Her last CD, New Hieroglyphics showcases that compelling voice in a variety of contexts and is the work of the mature artist at the top of her game. It deserved the universally rave reviews it received. The first time I ever interviewed Nancy, I mentioned to her jokingly that she wasn’t the only talented piano player from Montreal who happened to live in Mississauga.

The words were barely out of my mouth when she responded, “I wouldn’t put myself in the same sentence with Oscar Peterson.” He was, of course, in a class by himself in so many ways.

But there is absolutely no doubt that Nancy Walker is one of the best pianists, and best players in this country.

She may not put herself in the same sentence with Oscar Peterson, but Nancy’s going to have to get used to the fact that she does richly deserve the spot of honour — near Oscar’s — which she will receive today on the Mississauga Music Walk of Fame.

If you can make your passion your profession, you will never have to do any real work again. It’s a philosophy that many men and women have dreamed of, but few have successfully executed.

Pre-eminent among musicians who have transformed their careers on the stage into a business that hasn’t just survived off the stage, but has earned its stripes on the forefront of the Canadian music industry, is Mississauga’s Gil Moore.

Everyone knows the story of Triumph, the Mississauga band who performed anthemic metal miracles in arenas around the world in the 1970s and 1980s, releasing more than a dozen albums, selling millions of records and eventually earning a place in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame.

In 1978 the band opened its own private studio on Mavis Rd. so it could tinker with its songs and not have to worry about booking studio time. When Triumph stopped performing a decade later, Moore dedicated himself full-time to the studio.

“Who doesn’t want to work at Disneyland each day?” he said when asked about his motivation in launching the studio. It is a decision that Canadian musicians — and musicians everywhere — look back on with deepest gratitude.

Metalworks has gone from a hole-in-the-wall industrial unit, with 20 students, to a musical mecca that is now more than 17,000 sq .ft. in size and features six studios, state-of-the-art lighting and sound, and audio facilities and innovative teaching techniques that reflect its owner’s unmistakable stamp of professionalism — a word that isn’t always top of mind in many aspects of the music business.

“Word of mouth from the artists is important,” Moore told The Mississauga News in an interview last year. “I think trust is number 1.” When the referrals are coming out of the mouths of artists with first-hand experience at Metalworks whose names are David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, The Cranberries, Rush, Prince, Tom Cochrane, Christina Aguilera, Guns ‘N Roses, Nelly Furtado, Anne Murray, Feist, and Metric, to name but a few — that’s a gold-plated endorsement.

Metalworks was named Recording Studio of the Year at the Canadian Music Industry Awards for a dozen consecutive years – so often that it might as well have been renamed the Gil Moore Recognition Award.

With all of the accolades that Triumph and Metalworks have received, you might think that a little some of that might go to a person’s head. But Gil Moore remains the same native son of Mississauga, the same unpretentious guy who founded Gil Moore Audio as a teenager and attended Streetsville and T.L. Kennedy Secondary Schools.

The same guy who always had a yen for construction – which may be why the never-ending expansion of Metalworks continues to this day. If you need a Mississauga Idol judge or sponsor, Gil is there. The prize may be studio time for just the winner, but somehow, he finds time for the top three finishers to record.

Metalworks sponsors the Q107 Homegrown contest , which is no accident. Moore has always had a deep and abiding respect for homegrown talent and he’s always respected his roots — which were planted deep in Mississauga, where he still lives.

He grew up in Erindale Woodlands and his parents, Martha and Herb, wrote columns for many years in The Mississauga News. One of those columns was called Suburban Style.

The Moores would be infinitely proud to know that their son has come to epitomize his own form of suburban style — one grounded in respecting and teaching the entire business of music, from conception to performance to recording to marketing and beyond, to succeeding generations of musicians.

Yes, Gil Moore is a wonderful musician, but we recognize him today for all the things he has done that make him so much more than that — those things that make him a true champion of his craft and a perpetual leader of his industry.