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Bruce Cassidy's Bio
It's not easy to fully portray artists
who are so varied in their
skill and involvement
Bruce is such an artist. He is not only a skilled
musician, but also facilitates creativity and personal transformation
in players and this has endeared him to students that he has taught
and artists that have worked with him.
Born in Fredericton and schooled
in Nova Scotia, Bruce Cassidy made the leap into jazz in the late
1950s, getting his start in Montreal in the company of trumpeters
Herbie Spanier, Guido Basso and pianist Joe Sealy. After a period
of study at Berklee College of Music in Boston he moved to Toronto
and was soon performing at Toronto's main jazz venues and in studios,
including the first seven albums released by Rob McConnell's Boss
Brass.
He started out with trumpet as
his first performance instrument and is today also one of the world's
foremost performers on the EVI (Electronic
Valve Instrument), a wind synthesizer invented by Nyle Steiner.
He wrote and recorded the first orchestral concerto for this instrument
and with it has performed the Ondes Martenot solo part in Olivier
Messiaen's Turangulila Symphony with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra.
His love of variety led to extended
playing, recording and touring with Doug Riley's Dr. Music, Lighthouse
and, the fusion band Blood, Sweat and Tears for which he contributed
compositions and arrangements for their last two albums. Artists
with whom he has appeared in concert include Duke Ellington, Quincy
Jones, Dionne Warwick, Anne Murray, Marvin Gaye, Chucho Valdez,
and various symphony orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra.
After a world tour in 1980 Bruce
moved to South Africa and immersed himself in the African music
scene. He wrote and produced music for orchestral concerts, film,
television and international dance competitions. Under the auspices
of the South African Department of Arts and Culture he composed
and produced an opera based on African Xhosa folklore, The Clay
Flute, and produced a number of concerts for European artists and
the SA internationally renowned opera singer Sibongile Khumalo.
His latest album production in South Africa was Our World, a modern
orchestral/jazz outing for the renowned Soweto String Quartet. In
1995 he was contracted to return to South Africa to lead an international
big band at the National Arts Festival there.
His own projects in South Africa
include:
- Timeless, an award winning duo which combined the
EVI, with the ancient instrument specialist Pops Mohamed which
toured Scandanavia and central European countries
- The Body Electric (a group focused on the healing
power of music, and
- A 10 piece band, the Hotfoot Orchestra which has
taken root here in Toronto with the finest local musicians.
Since Bruce's return to Toronto in 2003, he has produced,
with his Los Angeles partner Ken Wiley, the first jazz play-along
book for French horn.
He has also arranged Joe Zawinul's classic "Birdland"
for 16 french horns, and has written arrangements for Rick Morrison's
band The Carnival of Souls
Bruce has formed and recorded a new, expanded band
for Blood Sweat and Tears vocalist David Clayton-Thomas for whom
is now musical director.
You can hear Bruce performing in free-form trios with
guitarist Rob Piltch and bassist Shelly Berger, as well as other
small groups. He is also working in a new combo, The Leaders Band,
with pianist Joe Sealy, as well as a duo with Sudanese expatriate
multi-instrumentalist Waleed Abdulhamid.
In the spring of 2006 Bruce performed on trumpet and
EVI in the revival of the musical Hair in Toronto.
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