Trad Modern and all that jazz...

Ever since I can remember, music has played an integral part of my life. My mother was a classical pianist and I can remember when I was very young, hearing her playing Chopin, Beethoven and Brahms to my delight.

Probably my earliest musical memory was when I was still crawling, putting a 12" 78 record of Doris Day on the turntable. I remember the song well. It was, "I'll Never Stop Loving You". At this point in time, my keen interest in records along with an endless fascination of the magic of it all would stay with me for the rest of my life.

Over the years I began to appreciate music in all it's glory. From pop to jazz, ethnic to rock, it all made sense...

One Christmas when I was very young, I remember getting a couple of albums from the Beatles. Help! along with Twist And Shout. After carefully examining the album covers (yes, we did have real album covers back then), I carefully placed one of the albums on my Fleetwood portable record player. There it was again. The magic of music coming through what I would later learn were speakers.

I used to think that when I heard music on the radio that the artist was actually performing in the studio. Another early belief was that musicians could do no wrong. They ruled the world so to speak. They were "IT". The ultimate in artistic freedom.

When you are a young boy in the process of discovering music through a little box tucked under a pillow, well, there is nothing to describe the feeling of how these sounds mysteriously crept from this magical little box to my ears each and every night. Little portable radios were all the rage back then. A distant relative to the iPod for sure...

When I graduated from high school in 1974, I decided to attend Marionopolis College. Little did I know that my fascination for radio would take a quantum leap. It was here that I started working at the newly formed radio station, CMCR, Radio Marionopolis. Working here doing a weekly radio show that was broadcast locally to the students gave me an opportunity to discover new music.

Bands like Gentle Giant, Genesis, early German experimental music from the likes of Klaus Shultz, Tangerine Dream, Nektar along with many other up and coming groups formed my inner circle of musical exploration.

After graduating from Marionopolis, I attended Concordia University. CRSG-FM was their radio station. In 1976 I was given a weekly rock radio show. This gig lasted all of four years. All of my studying took place in the radio station. It was in a sense my second home...

For a few years after graduating from Concordia I had no involvement in radio. Then, in 1988, after recently moving to Ottawa, I became host of a Jazz radio show that would soon become known as In Transition.

I also had an opportunity to work with Gordon Bennett. Gordon was part of The Capital City Jazz Band for over thirty years. He had a deep appreciation for traditional jazz and the musicians that made it all possible. After his passing in 2004, I decided to extract the best moments from his radio show (At The Jazz Band Ball) which are featured on this site. You can also hear some of my radio shows as well.

Over the years I would feature interviews I had done along with a plethora of new and established jazz musicians. To this day the journey continues. It's hard to believe how fast time flies. Twenty years of radio in Ottawa this year (2008). One of the greatest and most important gigs in my life. No regrets.

With no immediate plans of giving up radio, I plan on featuring even more musicians, that next "big thing" in the world of jazz, along with expanding my international base of jazz musicians.

If you would like to hear something jazz related on my show, please let me know by filling out the Comments and Feedback form. I look forward to hearing from you and more importantly, what you would like to hear.

For anyone interested in viewing my radio playlists, you came to the right place. Each and every week, I feature a wide variety of jazz artists not only from North America but around the world.

Happy listening!