Doug Willson Dead
By Len Dobbin

March 16, 2002

I awoke this morning to an email from Doug Willson’s wife Pam. On Thursday, March 14th, Doug had a massive heart attack at his home in Niagara Falls and died instantly. As a bassist Willson was active in the Montreal area in the 60s, Cisco Normand remembers working in a group with Willson, Stan Patrick and Bill Barwick in Three Rivers. He once, back in 1968, rented a room in my home for a couple of weeks, I can pinpoint the year because my wife was in hospital for gall bladder surgery and I remember Doug and I sitting in the kitchen when they announced on the radio that Robert F. Kennedy had been killed.

Shortly after I was married, we were in Toronto and saw 1967, Canada’s Centennial year, in at the Town Tavern where Pepper Adams was fronting a band with Maury Kaye on piano. After the club closed it was off to Doug’s place where we partied until it was time for Pepper to catch a train to Detriot to visit his mother. I lost track of Doug till last July when, out of the blue, I received an email from him - thank God for the internet! He brought me up to date saying he was now living with his wife Pam in Niagara Falls, about 10 miles from St. Catherines, where he was born. He said that he was back to playing the bass, he had switched to trumpet [and I believe the saxophone] sometime before.

In 1967 he recorded a 45 rpm single, his salute to Canada’s 100th birthday. On Bobby Gimby’s Canada he was joined Henry Cuesta, Hagood Hardy and Don Vickery, while on his own, beautiful, Canadian Theme, Freddie Stone, Hardy and Vickery were on hand to back the voice of Tommy Ambrose. The label was Capitol.

Willson’s discography is unfortunately small and hard to find. In 1964, on June 15th he recorded Jimmy Namaro’s We Three and Blues For Fives, with vibraphonist Namaro’s trio with Gord Carley on drums. The label was CTL [Canadian Talent Library] and with strings added [arranged by people like Frank Fusco and Namaro] they also did The Moon Is Low, Let’s Fall In Love and The Man I Love. In 1965 he, along with Rob McConnell, Eugene Amaro, cellist Ron Laurie, Ed Bickert and drummer Stan Perry, was heard on the soundtrack of a 90 minute B&W white film, Winter Kept Us Warm. The film, with a title inspired by a T. S. Eliot poem, was a production by students at the U of T and Ryerson, written, directed and produced by David Sector. That year on November 25th in Toronto, Willson was involved in another CTL session, probably the most important recording of his career. The leader was saxophonist Pat Riccio and Doug was joined in the rhythm section by pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Ed Thigpen [the group also worked at the Colonial Tavern] and ten tracks were released under Riccio’s name - Take The ‘A’ Train, Sophisticated Lady, Stompin’ at the Savoy, What’s New, Undecided, Misty, When You’re Smiling, Out Of Nowhere, Just One of Those Things and I’m Confessin’ That I Love You. On November 3 of last year I got to hang out with Thigpen at the Montreal Drum Fest and he was happy to have news of a musical friend that he had lost all track of and asked me to send his best to Doug. While living in Toronto, Doug also worked with Jim Galloway’s Metro Stompers and possibly recorded with that band in 1969.

I got an email from Doug in September where he recalls: "Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons arrived from California and stopped in front of Oscar’s School [Peterson]. The curbside door [almost off its hinges] opened and out jumped this cool looking dude in a large black cape which he twirled about and in doing so exposed a brilliant red lining. That was my introduction to [the] Prince and Sonny, but they had their music together. We played the 'First Floor Club' [a Toronto after hours spot], Terry Hawkeye on drums, Lennie Boyd and I on basses. I think the gig was for two nights. We had rehearsed tunes from the album they did [for Contemporary]- Green and Go, I think was one of the tunes. I really enjoyed playing with those guys," This despite the fact someone split with all the bread!

In that email Willson also commented on the scene then and now: I can remember [in Montreal] going by someone’s pad and there would be three or four drummers in the room arguing about what Philly Joe [Jones] was doing on one of his 4 bar breaks on the latest Miles Davis album - people like Rejean Emond, Cisco Normand, Billy Barwick, Spike [McKendry] and Billy Graham. I never saw that in Toronto where more than one musician playing the same instrument would hang out and have a good time. I guess it’s that competition is so strong now especially with the advent of a lot of schools teaching jazz and that’s where competition begins whereas before it was the after hours jam sessions.

I hadn’t seen Doug Willson in years [as I said thank God for email] and circumstances would prevent that happening on the night of the Herbie Spanier memorial at the Rockit [in Toronto] on January 14th last. I found out later that Doug had driven to Toronto to attend, arrived and parked in a lot at Lombard and Church Streets. He got within 100 feet of the club when he got severe angina, got back in his car, after taking a few nitros, and drove home. The next night he has another attack and was taken to hospital by ambulance. He remained there on Sunday, January 20th - I got another email that day which stated in part: "Been practicing hard and thought I was getting close to the doorstep I wanted and then shit happens...so have to start all over again, slowly at first. Sorry I missed you at the Rockit." That was the last time I was to hear from him 0 he was still hoping to get well enough to make the trip to Montreal to see his many friends. It’s a trip he won’t be making - but he will live vividly in the memory of all those who were close to him - a fine musician and a wonderful human being. God bless!

You can reach the family at dwillson8@cogeco.ca

lendobbin@sympatico.ca

Len Dobbin is a well known Montreal jazz writer and radio host. He hosts "Dobbin's Den" on CKUT 90.3 FM each Sunday from 11 AM through 1 PM.