
![]() |
| Bob Day - flugelhorn | Gary Sill - pianist |
Originally from Toronto, Bob moved to Vancouver before making his home in Calgary during the 1960’s. Known as a gifted player, master composer, as well as an inspiring educator, Bob was a mainstay on the local scene and in-demand session and section player.He passed away in September of 2007. 'Stonehenge Is Burning' was his last recorded project. Bob Day’s career on the Canadian jazz scene began in Toronto where he played with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, Phil Nimmon’s n ‘Nine plus Six and the O’keefe Centre orchestra backing up singers such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Bennett. He also performed and recorded in Toronto with many other jazz greats such as Moe Koffman and Ed Bickert. His move to Vancouver in 1976 led to gigs with the Bobby Hales Big Band, Pacific Salt, Paul Horn and his own trio with Oliver Gannon and Torben Oxbol. After moving to Calgary in 1986 Bob played with the Bob Erlendson Quintet, the Eric Friedenberg Big Band, and his own Quintet Record High which became a vehicle for his original compositions. Bob’s writing was inspired by his association with the legendary valve trombonist and composer/arranger Bob Brookmeyer whom Bob studied with in New York city off and on since 1986. Bob also performed with Brookmeyer as a soloist at the Edmonton Jazz Festival. Internationally, Bob toured the USA in 1970 with Paul Anka, worked in New York city and in 1990 toured Sweden and Germany with Stockholm’s hottest jazz band Panta Rei under the direction of Erik Lundmark. |
With Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Laurie Anderson, Leon Russell, John Coltrane and Ruben Gonzolez among his many formative influences, Gary Sill’s music can also subtly hint at a integration of western melodic styles, indian ragas, and jazz improvisation Raised in a family where his trumpet player father was constantly on the road, he studied piano and trumpet as a child and began improvising from an early age, all the while remaining open to the many musical sounds of his environment. In the early 1970’s, Sill came to the University of Calgary to study composition and piano, looking to balance a natural tendency towards freer playing with a firm grounding in the formal. His sojourn at the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts resulted in studies with Steve Reich, John Cage, R. Murray Schaffer, Oscar Peterson, Carl Berger, and Ursula Oppens; audio engineering with Stephen Temmer, and workshops with Gene Youngblood on the future of electronic media. His CD’s of acoustic solo piano, Spring is in the Poet (2001) and Restless Hearts (2002), remained in the top 5 listings in the USA for 10 weeks following their release and received extensive international air play. Other solo piano titles include Healing Moon (2001), Closer To The Shore (1982) and Pachelbel's Canon (1985). Sill is an innovator in computer assisted composition, performance, and recording, skills very much in evidence on his landmark jazz collaboration with Canadian flugelhorn virtuoso Bob Day, Stonehenge is Burning, released in 2007. |
|
|