Bloor Street Breakdown- Climx JB 1973

Bloor Street Breakdown - Climax Jazz Band 1973

It all started on Bloor Street West in Toronto. In 1971 Albert Nightingale, the owner of the Olde Bruswick House placed an ad for a dixieland band for 6 nights a week. Bassist Chris Daniels and trombonist Geoff Holmes applied and The Climax Jazz Band was born. We replaced an act of wrestling dwarfs. A jazzband obviously sounded to be able to become more popular in the general student neighbourhood of the University of Toronto. For about 5 years we played there 6 nights a week in Albert’s Hall.
The Canadian Talent Library decided to issue a LP and we all went in the Toronto RCA studios to record. In this clip I play the only tune from this album that I composed.
With Albert’s Hall being our basis our band took off in many directions, more recordings, several trips to New Orleans and the start of being part of the international jazz festival circuit. We met many famous musicians and we became the band to record the pilot shows for the TV jazz programs hosted by Peter Appleyard.
The permanent personnel in the band at that time consisted of Chris Daniels bass, Geoff Holmes trombone, Bob Erwig cornet, Bruce Bakewell clarinet, Juergen Hesse banjo and Graig Barrett drums.