Veteran jazzman Tom Keenlyside returns to The Old Schoolhouse Arts Centre this weekend for its Music on Sunday series, with a show beginning at 2:30 p.m.
Born and raised in Vancouver, jazz flutist Tom Keenlyside took up the trumpet in 1962 at the age of 12, and played in various rhythm and blues bands throughout the 1960s. He played his first gig for money in 1964. Keenlyside started to play the flute at the age of 15.
In the 1970s, Keenlyside played flute and trombone with the band Sunshyne during which time he began to play saxophone.
Keenlyside earned a bachelor of arts degree in music (flute major) from the University of British Columbia. He was invited to perform and record with such acts as Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult, Foghat, Alvin Lee, Styx and many others. In the late 1970s, Keenlyside began to focus on commercial studio work, writing and playing jingles and album cuts. He worked on large orchestral arrangements for commercial sessions for Safeway, McDonald’s, and many major oil company advertising campaigns.
During this time, Keenlyside co-founded the band Skywalk in the early 1980s which produced five albums for MCA, Zebra and Mesa Blue Moon.
In the 1980s, Keenlyside also toured Canada with the Tom Keenlyside Quintet. He also arranged tracks, collaborated, and recorded with various popular artists including Aerosmith, David Lee Roth, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, INXS, and others. Since then, Keenlyside continued to hone his craft focusing on jazz and jazz fusion for saxophone and flute, and playing live with Natalie Cole, Harry Connick Jr., and Diana Krall (to name a few), and recording with more popular artists such as The Barenaked Ladies and Jim Byrnes (for which Keenlyside earned a Juno Award for production on That River).
Keenlyside currently composes and produces music commercially and for personal enjoyment. He writes and produces advertising and a great amount of television and cartoon scores with partner John Mitchell. His love of jazz composition and live performance is realized through notable collaboration with many talented, local and visiting singers and instrumentalists.
Keenlyside performs at TOSH on Sunday from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $18.
— Submitted by TOSH