Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charles Reed “Charlie” Biddle, CM was born and raised in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 28, 1926. After completing military duties in the US Armed Forces during World War II, serving in China, India and Burma, he returned home and went on to study music at Temple University, where he started playing bass. In 1948, he arrived in Montreal while touring with Vernon Isaac’s Three Jacks and a Jill. Fascinated by the lack of racism among musicians in Canada, particularly Quebec, where he saw black jazz musicians playing alongside white jazz musicians as the best of friends, he settled in Montreal.

Employed as a car salesman from 1954 to 1972, he performed with pianists Charlie Ramsey, Milt Sealey, Alfie Wade, Sadik Hakim, and Stan Patrick in local Montreal nightclubs. As a promoter, Charlie booked musicians Johnny Hodges, John Coltrane, Pepper Adams, Bill Evans, Art Farmer, Tommy Flanagan and Thad Jones to perform in Montreal.

He performed off and on with guitarist Nelson Symonds between 1959 and 1978, changing leadership and performing as a duo. He was an important supporter and promoter of jazz in Montreal, organizing outdoor festivals of local jazz musicians, particularly Jazz Chez Nous, a 3-day jazz festival in 1979 and another in 1983 which laid the foundation for the Montreal International Jazz Festival, now the world’s largest jazz festival.

In 1981 he lent his name to a jazz club in downtown Montreal that became Biddle’s, now known as House of Jazz. It was featured in the Bruce Willis film The Whole Nine Yards with his daughter Stephanie Biddle on vocals, and he was featured in The Moderns and the French-Canadian film Les Portes Tournantes.

Biddle’s remained at the heart of jazz culture in Montreal during his lifetime. When performing at the club he would use the title, ‘Charlie Biddle on the fiddle‘, led trios at the club on a regular weekly basis, along with pianists Oliver Jones, Steve Holt, Wray Downes, and Jon Ballantyne, and recorded albums with Jones, Milt Sealey and Ted Curson.

Bassist Charlie Biddle was awarded the Oscar Peterson Prize, was made a member of the Order of Canada, was honored with the Prix Calixa-Lavallée and became a Canadian citizen three years prior to his passing away on February 4, 2003 in his Montreal home surrounded by family.

Sponsored By

www.whatissuitetabu.com

  #preserving genius

More Posts: bass