The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada
reviewed by Jim Little
(Copyright © 2004 Jim Little)

The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada
By Mark Miller
The Mercury Press
221 pages, $24.95

Originally published in 2001, this revised edition of Globe and Mail jazz critic Mark Miller’s “Who’s Who” of Canadian jazz is a valuable addition to the library of any jazz fan.

All the names are here from Paul Bley and Gil Evans through to Oscar Peterson and Kenny Wheeler. (The cover shot of Paul Plimley, Canada’s answer to Cecil Taylor, is Miller’s, as are all the photographs in the book.) His justification for his choices for inclusion is given in the introduction.

There are a number of fascinating tales here; for example, the story of banjo player Dave Caplan who led “hot” dance bands of Canadian musicians in England, France and Germany in the 1920s and recorded more than 110 “sides” for English Columbia and Deutsche Grammophone’s Polydor label; or that of Edmonton alto sax player Dale Hillary, who, with legendary Vancouver pianist Al Neil’s quartet, backed American beat poet Kenneth Patchen on an album for Folkways in 1959. Yet, “typical of Hillary’s frustrated career in jazz,” he appeared anonymously on the cover of Down Beat in 1963.

A number of entries dealing with foreign musicians in Canada perhaps could have been deleted or shortened to better serve the aim of the book, the full title of which ends with “and Canadians in jazz.” So we have the story of Jelly Roll Morton’s year and a half in Vancouver, blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson’s final years in Toronto, pioneering percussionist Jasper Taylor’s three years in Quebec and Belgian guitarist René Thomas’ sojourn in Montreal. But why then not Sun Ra, who was stranded in Montreal with his Arkestra in the winter of 1960-61?

Given the amount of data in a book such as this, it is inevitable that there are some errors. Maynard Ferguson’s birthplace is given as Montreal; according to John Gilmore’s Who’s Who of Jazz in Montréal (Vehicule Press, 1989), it is Verdun. Curiously, Miller gives Willie Eckstein’s birthplace as Pointe Saint-Charles instead of Montreal.

Miller devotes a reasonable amount of space to clubs such as 777 Barrington Street in Halifax, the Yardbird Suite in Edmonton and the Cellar in Vancouver. While Montreal’s Alberta Lounge, the Black Bottom, Café St. Michel and Rockhead's are mentioned among others, there are some errors and omissions with some more modern venues – l’Air du Temps is located in the “vieux cartier” (sic) for example, but no mention is made of its closing, which surely could have been mentioned in the 2003 edition of Miller’s Companion. Biddles (now known as the House of Jazz) was not owned by the late bassist Charlie Biddle as the entry suggests. There is no mention of Upstairs.

Record labels get their due, and there is a welcome section on awards, but no distinct entry on festivals or jazz societies, many of which are involved in running festivals or producing concerts, such as the Edmonton Jazz Society or the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society in Vancouver. One also wonders about the omission of non-musicians who have had a large role in promoting jazz, such as our own Len Dobbin.

With his precise ear and judicious diction, Miller is at his best with his critical observations on the playing style of individual musicians. Oliver Jones, for example, is “a long-lost link to the halcyon days of piano jazz in Montreal. Jones’ style clearly [reflects] the influence of that period, the 1940s – Art Tatum, Erroll Garner and to a degree Oscar Peterson, though perhaps not to the extent that is usually, and rather too conveniently credited. But he also [brings] something of the church to his playing, as well as a love of embellishment for embellishment’s sake, creating a dichotomy between the fundamental and the fanciful that only a pianist with Jones’ technical finesse [can] reconcile.”

The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada is highly recommended, as is his previous book, Such Melodious Racket: The Lost History of Jazz in Canada, 1914-1949, also from the Mercury Press.