SAX APPEAL
PJ Perry comes out swinging with SJO
“Don’t fence me in,” the song goes. That could be jazz itself speaking.
The varied musical genre refuses to be reined in, as indicated by the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra’s next concert, The Way the West Was Swung.
The idea of jazzed up country music reminds guest artist PJ Perry of the Sonny Rollins album Way Out West.
“Music is music, and if it’s arranged in a jazz fashion, with taste and swing, you can turn a lot of different genres into jazz swing music.”
There’s a lot of excitement around Perry’s appearance. The Edmonton musician is regarded as one of the best alto sax players in the country. The band is looking forward to being schooled. That’s how Perry himself learned.
“I learned how to play music in big dance bands. My father was a bandleader and dance hall owner. He had a very good swing/jazz big band that played Sylvan Lake seven nights a week during the summer.
“It was like going to university. I was sitting with young, very good musicians that my dad would get out of university who went on to all kinds of Canadian and U.S. fame. So I was learning on the job, which is a great way to learn music.”
Perry turned 75 in December, received the Order of Canada last year, and remains as busy as ever. He’s recording a live album at the Yardbird Suite in Edmonton next month. This summer he returns to the picturesque and stimulating Music by the Sea festival on Vancouver Island. Not long ago he sat in on a recording session in Toronto with his daughter Kira, an actor and singer, who was recording a demo.
“There was my daughter and me in a great recording studio and I’m feeling elated over the fact that I’m still here playing — I think, at the peak of my ability, and being able to play on a recording with my daughter. It doesn’t have to be Carnegie Hall to be important.”
Back in the day, you could hear more big band music in a week than you would now in a season. Perry doesn’t lament that loss as much as the decline of live music in general. At the same time, some things remain the same.
“There’s a small pocket of musicians that hear the music and it pulls them and changes the course of their lives, and there’s always been a very small audience that understands what jazz is about and have the opportunities to hear it in its best form.”
People who say they don’t like jazz need to hear the masters perform it, Perry adds.
“If you’re playing jazz music melodically with a good sound, with a good rhythm section that swings, it’s a music that most people would like if they had the opportunity to hear it.
“But it’s a rare thing. You don’t go to a music college and come out of there playing great jazz music. It takes years and years to hone that art.”
Perry has travelled the world and played with the biggest names in jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie. But he remains as humble as his background. He grew up on a Wadena-area farm, convincing his father to sell a cow to buy his first mail-order sax which he taught himself to play. PJ followed in his father’s footsteps.
“I love Saskatoon. My roots are in Saskatchewan, so I always have a good time,” says Perry.