SWEET DREAMS: Fern Lindzon used to fall asleep to the sounds of her mom playing piano. (PHOTO: Courtesy TD Toronto Jazz Festival)
Although artists come from all over the world to take part in the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, many already reside in our community. As the annual event, which takes place across 40 venues around town from June 22 to July 1, draws near we profile three local jazz musicians who call North Toronto home.
Fern Lindzon
When jazz pianist and vocalist Fern Lindzon was growing up, she looked forward to bedtime.
“When I was seven or eight years old, my parents bought a piano and my mom started taking piano lessons,” Lindzon says. “She practised when I went to bed — I actually looked forward to going to bed just so I could hear her play.”
Around a year later, she started taking lessons of her own and already knew a lot of the early repertoire from having heard the songs nightly as she fell asleep.
“My mom tells me that the only thing that would get me to stop being a chatterbox and behave myself was plunking me down in front of the stereo and putting on Bach or Beethoven,” she says.
Although she’s been singing her whole life, Lindzon says she decided to take music more seriously because of her piano teacher Mrs. Poole, who would never entertain the idea of letting her quit, and her friend Joanne Ezrin, whose brother Bob has produced the likes of Alice Cooper, Kiss and Pink Floyd.
“She came from a crazy musical family and they had two grand pianos in their living room,” Lindzon says. “Joanne and I hacked our way through piano concertos. What we missed note-wise, we could hear in our minds. We loved Rachmaninoff.”
Lindzon, whose latest release Two Kites was nominated for a 2012 Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, says she feels lucky to work with musicians like her bass player George Koller, who produced the album, sax player Mike Murley and drummer Nick Fraser.
“I love being completely in the moment,” she says. “I love being in a place where anything is possible and where the music can just go anywhere — that’s why I play jazz.”
Having spent part of her childhood in North Toronto, she says she decided to return to the area to raise her own children.
“I remember the playground outside the Locke Library at Lawrence and Avenue Road,” she says. “My dad used to take us to the library every week. I loved the boys and girls section but I think I loved the long twisty slide in the playground even more.”
In addition to all the nearby parks and trees, she says she likes the fact that it’s a family-friendly community.
“I enjoy seeing street hockey and street-run garage sales and lemonade stands in the summer,” she says. “There are a lot of fabulous restaurants and new ones all the time.”
MUSICAL COMMUNICATOR: Andrew Scott loves the universal language of music. (PHOTO: Courtesy TD Toronto Jazz Festival)
Andrew Scott
Musician Andrew Scott first developed an interest in music through his mother, who taught him to play piano at a young age and whose collection of Oscar Peterson, Junior Mance and Dave Brubeck records exposed him to jazz.
“I like communicating with an audience with my music,” he says. “Music, in that way, is a sort of universal language that can really transcend the differences between people and speak to lots of individuals.”
Over the years the award winning guitarist, arranger and composer has garnered attention for his releases, including This One’s for Barney, Blue Mercer and Nostalgia, as well as his collaborations and discography as a side musician.
“I also love to perform with other musicians and to musically communicate with other musicians on the band stand,” he says. “When it goes well, it’s a thrilling experience.”
Scott has also composed for film and TV shows like Pop Switch, Mothers and Daughters, The Border and Douglas Coupland’s Everything’s Gone Green and earned a PhD in Musicology/Ethnomusicology from York University.
These days, when he’s not teaching in the music department at Humber College or performing, Sack can be found in and around his home at Lawrence Avenue W. and Avenue Road.
“I have three young children who continuously inspire me,” he says. “There is a strong sense of family and community around here, which makes it a great place in which to grow up and live today.”
Among his favourite places in the neighbourhood are The Bagel House, Videoflicks, Pusateri’s, Woburn Park and — his kids’ favourite — Orange Dot.
“My wife and I enjoy taking part in the exercise classes at the Fairlawn Community Centre,” he says. “I used to love to play hockey when I was a kid and had some great experiences playing around North Toronto.”
SAX MAN: Alex Dean would skip class just so he could practise his instrument. (PHOTO: Courtesy TD Toronto Jazz Festival)
Alex Dean
One of jazz saxophonist Alex Dean’s favourite childhood experiences was watching his father dance around to gospel music on Sunday mornings to a radio station from the States.
Music was always in the house and my dad used to have players over a lot when I was younger,” he says, adding his aunt June taught all the kids in his family to play piano at a young age.
After learning drums in junior school, Dean took up tenor saxophone in high school because his father, who was also a lawyer, played and took the instrument very seriously.
“I practised a lot — in fact I used to skip class just to practise and play,” he says. “At the time my parents were worried about my choice but when I started to play around town they realized it was what I wanted to do and started to encourage me a lot. I don’t think it would have happened without the strong support I got from my parents.”
Since then he’s gone on to play and record with the likes of Gil Evans, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Harry Connick Jr., Kenny Wheeler, the Dave McMurdo Jazz Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and he has been described as one of the country’s foremost jazz saxophonists.
Dean says one of the things he enjoys most about creating jazz music is the freedom to play with anyone.
“I’ve toured places where I don’t speak the language but we can always play together,” he says. “Good things come out of relating to people on that level. I like what it teaches me about myself and how to relate to people.”
The North Toronto resident says he moved to the Mt. Pleasant and Lawrence area because of the quality of education available at nearby schools. He says his kids currently attend Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute and describes their music department as incredible.
“We were at their May Lyrics concert the other day and it was outstanding,” he says. “The level is so high there.”
Another thing he likes about the neighourhood is the strong sense of community and says he has great neighbours. As for hanging out, he says he likes The Granite Brewery on Eglinton Avenue East.
“I really like the beer and the staff are great,” he says. “I used to go there and have a beer with my father when he was alive. My wife is from P.E.I. and we both like the east coast atmosphere.”
