There is soulful blues music playing in the background when Jack de Keyzer picks up the receiver and says hello. For three decades, the singer, songwriter, guitar player and recording artist has been happy in his own musical element garnering major music awards and gathering faithful fans along the way.
On April 20 and 21, 2007, de Keyzer plays Prince George.
“I’ll be doing material from my [2003 Juno award-winning] album 6 String Lover and classic blues stuff - B. B. King type songs - and lots of funky rhythm and blues stuff. There will also be lots of high energy, instrumental stuff going on.” Until he arrives here, de Keyzer won’t meet the rest of his band.
“These days, we just send charts and music ahead of time rather than taking along our own musicians. We just do a sound check and the musicians rehearse together the day of the performance. That’s what classical musicians who travel to concerts have always done. They meet the rest of the orchestra when they arrive.”
The artist has been singing, playing and song writing for over three decades.
“I grew up in England at the time Cliff Richard and The Shadows were popular. Then I moved to Canada when I was 10, at about the time the Beatles were big. Guitar music has pretty much been with me since the age of eight. I got my first electric guitar at 10 and went to my first major blues concert at the Palace Theatre in Hamilton when I was 16. I’ve been playing professionally now for 34 years.”
His first gig was at age 18, playing with the King Biscuit Boy Band. From there, he ventured into the Big Apple music scene and found he enjoyed the taste.
“The new wave punk rock scene was alive, it was awesome,” he said. “When I left there I headed for Toronto and joined the Bob Cats, writing and recording and later started singing lead for the Rock Angels. When we started in the 70s and 80s, we didn’t play much blues in the smaller venues.”
Now the blues tentacles have reached out across the country, he said.
“I think people used to think of the blues as slow, sleepy and depressing kind of music. But blues is a great combination. It has great emotional depth so you can just sit there are listen to the musicianship which is usually high [calibre] or you can enjoy the rhythm and get up and dance to it. Not to put down rock music but it often doesn’t have that combination of things going for it that jazz does and as we get older, I think we connect more with it. These days, I find more and more that jazz is creeping into my music.”
Blues Underground Network presents “Guitarist of the Year” 2006 Maple Blues Award winner Jack de Keyzer at The Treasure Cove Casino showroom Friday, April 20 and Saturday, April 21. Tickets $20 members, $25 non-members, available at Books and Company, Treasure Cove Casino front desk. The Blues Underground Network supports local young musicians with donations to the Prince George School District.
