The thoroughly older crowd at the New Roads Performing Arts Centre experienced, at the Maple Blues Revue, this overdose of goose bumps. For those who don’t speak Canadian: Gänsehaut.
The Maple Blues Revue was completely unknown to me when a friend gave me two tickets. I like it when I’m sitting in an audience with little to no idea what’s coming my way. The theatre was packed to the rafters, and the audience seemed to know more about the evening than I did. At least that’s what their expectant faces seemed to say.
Then the musicians showed me what a revue about the Maple Blues actually means: eight musicians and one musician (female) let their talent pulse mightily through the hall. That pulse was, right down to the hair tips, packed with playfulness and pure delight in the blues and its stories. The Maple Blues Band has existed since 1999 and celebrates its skill with a horn section of the highest order. But the puzzling thing was the total absence of singing. Blues without a story and without a voice? How’s that supposed to work? Gary Kendall — bandleader, and bassist for sixty years — made sure to use his voice as an excellent storyteller between songs. The stories told of musicians, living or already passed, and their contributions to the Canadian music scene. Above all, the spicier, off-colour stories went over especially well. With me, at least.
But the evening didn’t stay voiceless for long. Soon the term “revue” explained itself, when Gary announced the first guest singer: Suzie Vinnick, the powerhouse voice from Saskatoon. Anyone who’s been nominated three times for the Juno Award, hauled in twelve Maple Blues Awards, and has two Canadian Folk Music Awards sitting on the bookshelf simply cannot disappoint. Suzie now lives in the Niagara Region and made sure to travel to Newmarket for two songs. The goose bumps went after me full force at the very first note of her voice.
Again and again I watched, with great pleasure, the four people on horns. Any band equipped with saxophone, trombone, and trumpet appeals to me. And again and again I ask myself — the musically thoroughly untalented one — how trumpet and trombone players always hit the right note. Saxophones, after all, have various buttons you can press for correct use. What do trombone and trumpet have to offer? Stepless operation, powered by talent and an ear for music.
Four names, four stories, a horn section of the highest calibre. Pat Carey owns the tenor saxophone and was with the Downchild Bluesband for nearly forty years. Gary is decorated, and has been so repeatedly with the Maple Blues Award. The man on trumpet is named Howard Moore, and he shines with a genuinely academic musical education. He played trumpet and keyboard at York University, the University of Toronto, and the Royal Conservatory. The man was never idle — he’s contributed to over two hundred albums. Meiron Mel Kelly handles the trombone and, as an accomplished Master of Jazz from Queens College in New York, knows how to masterfully wield this sliding instrument. He works as a studio musician and music educator when he isn’t standing on the world’s stages with the Maple Blues Band. Alison Young always travels with baritone and tenor saxophone in tow. The Juno Award nominee is also a composer from Ottawa. If you’re going to be a musician, do it properly: her role models are Sonny Rollins and Cannonball Adderley.
The Maple Blues Revue ended before I was done listening, as all the musicians delivered a rousing finale. But before that, a lot more happened, as further guest singers conquered the stage. Gary Kendall told the story of a once-young man who had also been nominated three times for the Juno Award.
Jay Douglas is producer and leader of his own Jay Douglas All-Star Band. In Toronto and Montreal, Jay toured with the Cougars, right there as frontman. The Cougars were out and about in Caribbean clubs through the ‘60s and ‘70s, celebrating ska, reggae, R&B, soul, and funk. Jay and his voice shook up the audience straight away. I didn’t credit the spindly man in the suit with hiding a powerful voice in there. Then he opened his mouth, and the spindly suit vanished behind a voice like a bass foundation. The man is soul and rhythm in their purest form. Naturally he sang his way straight into our hearts and into the audience space, shaking hands and dancing through the rows.
The Maple Blues Band played a few songs with meaning, which Gary explained. As an instrumental band, you can name any song whatever you like. Without lyrics, the title has a clear runway. Have I already mentioned that nine musicians altogether shape the band’s sound?
Al Lerman is hard to overlook, or even to overhear. Al is Mister Harmonica and is considered one of the best Canadian harmonica players. He’s already won two Juno Awards. He doesn’t only play with the Maple Blues Band — he also spreads out across stages as a solo musician. In this career, he’s produced five albums so far.
Teddy Leonard is the guitarist with an extreme joy in playing. The man smiled with delight whenever one of his playful solos landed well with us in the audience. And every single one landed well. Twenty-three years ago, he won the Canadian Indie Award with his band Fathead.
Samantha Martin is the tireless workaholic woman of the music business, Gary announced as he introduced the next voice of the evening. If Joe Cocker and Tina Turner had had a daughter, it would have been Samantha. “Gravel-voiced” doesn’t even half cover it — her voice grinds where others merely scratch. Samantha sings, writes, and produces albums somewhere between roots rock, blues, soul, and gospel. She’s already up to five full-grown albums. She, too, has been nominated for the Juno Award several times. Her voice yanks the audience straight out of whatever daydream they’d wandered into.
And then there were two more, easily forgotten when counting up voices: the drummer and the keyboarder.
Jim Casson has been drumming, successfully, in the Canadian blues scene for over thirty years. He’s a two-time Maple Blues Award winner and was once even crowned Drummer of the Year. In his own Cherry Pit Studio he produced three solo albums, and he’s also made a name for himself as host of the radio show “Cerebral Cinema.”
Martin Alex Aucoin is the keyboarder and the youngest member of the Maple Leaf Band. After his musical training in Sudbury and at Humber College, he played with Morgan Davis and Jack de Keyzer. While living in Nashville, he toured with B.J. Thomas and stood on the Grand Ole Opry stage for four years. He’s been back home in Toronto for 26 years now.
Up until now, I knew the term “revue” through a handful of performances, and my associations were shaped accordingly. Last night, the Maple Blues Revue didn’t just redefine the term — it also dialed my goose bumps up to a whole new dose.
