May 2021 www.torontobluessociety.com Published by the TORONTO BLUES SOCIETY since 1985 [email protected] Vol 37, No 5 Jay Douglas is this month's Pioneer Profile. Tune in May 6th on TBS Facebook Page CANADIAN PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #40011871 Jay Douglas Blues Reviews Rez Rocket Romance Top Blues Loose Blues News and More TORONTO BLUES SOCIETY 910 Queen St. W. Ste. B04 Toronto, Canada M6J 1G6 Tel. (416) 538-3885 Toll-free 1-866-871-9457 Email: [email protected] Website: www.torontobluessociety.com MapleBlues is published monthly by the Toronto Blues Society ISSN 0827-0597 2021 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Derek Andrews (President), Janet Alilovic, Jon Arnold, Elaine Bomberry, Ron Clarkin (Treasurer), Lucie Dufault (Vice-President), Carol Flett (Secretary), Sarah French, Lori Murray, Ed Parsons, Jordan Safer (Executive), Paul Sanderson, Mike Smith Musicians Advisory Council: Brian Blain, Alana Bridgewater, Ken Kawashima, Gary Kendall, Dan McKinnon, Lily Sazz, Dione Taylor, Julian Taylor, Jenie Thai, Suzie Vinnick,Ken Whiteley MARK YOUR CALENDAR Volunteer & Membership Committee: Lucie Dufault, Rose Ker, Mike Smith, Ed Pioneer Profile Series: Jay Douglas interviewed by Rudy Blair Parsons, Carol Flett Thursday, May 6 | 8-9pm (ET) Grants Officer: Barbara Isherwood Office Manager: Hüma Üster Live Streaming Bootcamp w/ Guillermo Subauste Marketing & Social Media Manager: Meg Tuesday, May 11 | 1-3pm (ET) McNabb Live Streaming Bootcamp w/ Guillermo Subauste Publisher/Editor-in-Chief: Derek Andrews Tuesday, May 18 | 1-3pm (ET) Managing Editor: Brian Blain Live Streaming Bootcamp w/ Guillermo Subauste [email protected] Tuesday, May 25 | 1-3pm (ET) Contributing Editors: Janet Alilovic, Hüma Üster, Carol Flett Talkin’ Blues: Digging into Mako Funasaka’s Archives featuring Morgan Davis, Duane Blackburn, Terrance Simien. 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Nous reconnaissons l’appui fi nancier de FACTOR, du gouvernement du Canada, et des radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada. The Toronto Blues Society is committed to the principles of the Personal Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in safeguarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. CANADIAN PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #40011871 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Toronto Blues Society, 910 Queen St. W. Ste. B04, Toronto, Canada M6J 1G6 Email: [email protected] 2 MapleBlues May 2021 www.torontobluessociety.com flight from Miami to Montego Bay. WINZ “My mother came to Canada as a domestic FM was a Miami radio station that we could worker, so I came to Canada in 1963. I had to Notes &Quotes get on the radio, and we heard so many of get someone to help me find my way around the Great players – B.B. King, Fats Domino, the school in my first year – I wasn’t used James Brown, Robert Williams, Bobby Blue to it being so big. There were about four Bland, Rosco Gordon. All those guys. You thousand students there, so that part was want to talk about influence? Rosco Gordon definitely something I wasn’t used to. It was Jay influenced Reggae music.” He also credits a very good school though, and I was lucky Rosco Gordon as being the main sound that to have gone there.” set the foundation for Ska music and Reggae, One portion of Douglas’ career that encouraging people to listen to Bob Marley is markedly significant is his time as the Douglas and the Wailers to hear that influence. frontman of The Cougars. Researching his Douglas embarked on his first biography suggests that his time in The What do you get when you combine performances in Jamaica at the Palladium Cougars was instigated and embarked upon influence and roots, mix it with strong musical Theatre at the “Pick A Star” competitions in through a musical colleague in Jamaica from talent, and send it out into the sphere wrapped Montego Bay, where perhaps he was honing the days at The Palladium Theatre, which also in a message of peace and love? That formula that sound heard today. (As a side note, lends credence to the notion that Douglas’ has managed to create an original sound, a Douglas tells a story of the connection he later early years remained an influential thread living legend, and someone who has been made with Gordon after coming to Canada – a in the successes to come. (As a side note, influencing and entertaining for roughly half connection made by none other than Toronto it is also said that the job of lead singer for a century. For this edition of Notes & Quotes, Blues Society’s own, Derek Andrews. That The Cougars was originally intended to go a conversation with singer and entertainer connection led to a musical collaboration to Eddie Spencer, who was not available, Jay Douglas takes centre stage. between Gordon and Douglas, which Douglas which afforded the opportunity for Douglas To give readers a true sense of Jay looks upon fondly.) to audition, and subsequently, take the job.) Douglas’ impact on the music scene, there It was in 1963 when Douglas immigrated In that time period (60s and 70s), there was are portions of his story that should be to Canada, and he brought his musical a new, unique sound permeating Toronto. told as this offering unfolds. influence with him. Although still a school In fact, Jay Douglas’ time in The Cougars Although near impossible is retrospectively to recount his entire career acknowledged as “the biographically in this forum, arrival of Reggae” the parts of his history that in North America. sparked conversation will Steeped with Soul help give a sense of his singing and Reggae ongoing legacy, as well as roots and funk, this what has led him to present (at the time) fresh times. Within the parameters combination of music of Notes & Quotes, Jay is now defined as Douglas paints a picture “Toronto Reggae of his earliest exposure to Soul”, and Douglas has “western music” (Blues), been credited by Light his arrival to Canada, and In The Attic Records gives a description of what (Seattle based) as an the Toronto music scene instrumental part of looked like for him in the bringing Reggae to 60s and 70s as the live music North America. Matt landscape evolved into a Sullivan (producer culturally diverse setting. for Light In The Douglas also discusses what Attic Records) has motivates him to continue referred to Douglas entertaining and putting as “one of the finest his musical offerings out to Soul-Reggae singers the world, after a lifetime in North America”. steeped in success as a true NOW Magazine has inspiration on generations described Douglas who follow. as a “treasure trove of Toronto-Jamaican Born in Jamaica, Douglas aged youth, that love of music and performing musical history. When spent the earliest parts of his life on the island asked to describe what the live music scene (Montego Bay), and fell in love with “western followed him, and he embarked upon his first Canadian performances as a student at was like at the time, Douglas leaves no room music” (Blues) at a young age. When asked for anyone to be mistaken. Immediately about how that western music was able to Central Technical School in Toronto. Those first performances, however, were perhaps taken back to that era, his voice lends instant permeate Jamaica and influence his musical credibility as he recalls the atmosphere of tastes, he says; remnants of his earlier days spent performing at the Palladium in Montego Bay. When the time when Yonge street was alit with the “As a young man raised in Colonialism talking about what it was like moving to music that was happening in a culturally on the island – Montego Bay – there was a Canada, he recalls; lot of tourism. It is only about an hour’s long cont’d on p4 www.torontobluessociety.com MapleBlues May 2021 3 JAY DOUGLAS cont’d from p3 “One thing I want people to get out of my music is the TRUTH. I want them to get the respect for the foundation, whether it be the diverse way. He says; nation, ska, Blues, soul, Reggae…but mostly, Reggae. Reggae is the “Awesome! It was awesome. There were lots of house parties truth. Where Reggae was born in Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica is and concerts, and then we were accepted into the Toronto scene. one of the worst ghettos in the entire world. Look at what came out of Going downtown Toronto – that was the place to be. Yonge Street it. Reggae. Listen to the messages in the music, and there is the proof was happening! You’d get dressed up to the max to go out, and if you that good can always come out of the bad.” weren’t dressed up, you were out of place, you know? A lot of the As the conversation drew to an end, it remained clear that Douglas players were big time players – their shows were very slick, man.