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In an increasingly media-savvy world, most educated
consumers are a little wary of the sincerity of celebrity endorsements. But
when he caught Jack de Keyzer's show at Toronto's famed Cameo Lounge some years
back, there's no question Bob Dylan meant it when he said, "If you were from
L.A, New York, or Chicago, you'd be famous!"
Yet while de Keyzer now
makes his home in the decidedly slower paced environs of Whitby, Ontario, fame
may not elude him much longer. With a shelf full of awards coming his way of
late, including a Juno for Best Blues Album, Jack's is unquestionably a star,
however belatedly, on the rise.
His road to future blues stardom was a
circuitous one; he was born in London, England. "I lived there until I was
about 10," he recalls, "and then I moved to Holland with my parents for one
year before we moved to Hamilton, Ontario when I was 11.
"When I was a
youngster, Cliff Richard was the big act in England. He was sort of like the
'English Elvis.' He had a great band, The Shadows, with an excellent guitar
player named Hank Marvin, and I guess he was my first guitar hero. He had such
a great tone and good rhythm… he was just a great guitar player.
"Like a lot of other musicians my age, I got into The Beatles and the Rolling
Stones, and a few years later on it was Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. And as I
started getting better on the guitar, I'd meet older musicians and they'd say,
'Well, that's a Willie Dixon Song,' or 'That's a Jimmy Reed song.' So I started
listening to blues via the English musicians, and when I heard the original
records I just naturally drifted to those. I liked them better.
"I
started playing blues when I was about 15," Jack continues, "and I've just
stuck with it. I took a little sidetrack for a while and started playing
rockabilly, but rockabilly has a lot of blues roots in it as well." (Jack, of
course, was a founding member of the famed Bopcats). That same "detour" saw
Jack spending time with a couple of legends; he's worked with both Ronnie
Hawkins and Robert Gordon.
"He (Gordon) was doing a lot of stuff by
Gene Vincent, and that's how I discovered Gene's guitarist, Cliff Gallup, who
was such a great player in a sort of Charlie Christian mode, real swing and
jazz oriented. And the other guys that I really liked at the time were Paul
Burlison from the Johnny Burnett trio - he had a really raw, bluesy edge - and
Carl Perkins. Again, there was a real bluesy sound. And there's Scotty Moore,
of course."
 But it was
Canada's own hero of the harmonica, Richard Newell - better known as King
Biscuit Boy - who helped de Keyzer establish the requisite foundation for
future blues pursuits.
"When I was about 14, there was a band playing
around the corner from my parent's house, called the Chessmen, and I used to
hang around the basement windows and listen to them rehearse. And about a year
later they started getting hits on the radio. I was pretty enamoured of that,
just to think that a guy from my own neighbourhood was getting international
hits.
"So I eventually hooked up with some blues guys in Hamilton, and
Richard would come down and check us out when he had a night off. A couple of
years later, when I was about 17, he asked me to join his band."
Reflecting on Newell's untimely passing (Biscuit was found dead in his home on
January 5, 2003), de Keyzer allows himself to wax nostalgic for a moment.
"It's ironic," he sighs. "Just a few days ago I came across an old
publicity shot, with Richard and I out in his backyard, in the snow. I guess
you could say he was my mentor where the blues was concerned. He was the
quintessential tape-maker, always turning me on to so much great music. He was
such a natural talent, a natural arranger who always knew the parts, how the
bass and drums should work together, how the guitar and harp should complement
each other. It's just a real shame."
His association with Newell
continued when the two went on to work with Canadian icon Ronnie Hawkins.
"I toured with Biscuit for about two years, and then the two of us
joined up with Ronnie Hawkins. I stayed with the Hawk 'til I was about 24,
about five years. Ronnie was one of the main influences on what I do."
And just what is it about the blues that attracts de Keyzer? "I would say the
honesty of it all," he muses. "I started playing blues, and I drifted away from
it for five or six years, and at the end of the day I decided I just wanted to
play blues, or at least blues-based music."
It's been said that the
blues is a marathon, not a sprint. And one could easily argue that the
attention de Keyzer's been getting of late is long overdue. Did he ever get
discouraged along the way?
"I love playing," he states. "Hopefully
it'll just get bigger. I guess my main focus right now is to expand
internationally and to play bigger shows, to reach a wider audience.
He has no qualms about life on the road. "I like it fine. I like the playing
part. Like Duke Ellington said, 'we get paid to travel, to move equipment, and
to stay in hotels. We play for free!'"
Performing, though, is what
makes it all worthwhile. "When things are going well, it's definitely a
transporting experience, that's for sure," he laughs. "And hopefully we're
transporting the audience along with us."
Asked where he likes playing
best, de Keyzer laughs. "A full house," he declares. "Really, a full house
anywhere is usually pretty great. I've played mammoth halls that were half
empty, and they weren't good, and I've played small rooms that were packed and
we've had a great time. But when the place is full, regardless of size, and the
people are into it, that's the best gig."
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"I guess if I have one pet peeve,
though, it's that so many of our Canadian musicians just keep playing American
music, when there's a huge pool of great music in Canada to draw
from."
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de Keyzer should know - he remains one of Canada's true
road warriors. "I play about 18 to 21 gigs a month," he says, "and I just got
back from a tour across Canada."
Touring, though, isn't what it used
to be. "I can't really just get the guys together and pack up and drive a van
across the country. I use local bands in each location."
When one's
repertoire is largely original, does working with pickup bands present any
challenges? "Not at all," maintains de Keyzer. "The promoters provide me with
the names of the players, and I just mail 'em a couple of CD's ahead of time.
The talent out there is just amazing, and I'm able to get the best players
around, so everything works out fine."
It may, too, have something to
do with his songwriting, something de Keyzer says has changed over the years.
"When I was younger I used to write complicated songs with all kinds
of changes in them. But then I started to ask myself, why are people always
drawn to stuff like Mustang Sally and the other standards, the ones every band
plays and everyone likes. And it's because they're simple; they appeal at a
basic level. So I changed my style somewhat, and now I try for more classic
structures, things people can relate to."
Songwriting, though, is just
one aspect of a well-rounded career. Whereas it's not uncommon to find
guitarists who regard singing as a vaguely unpleasant necessity, de Keyzer
claims he relishes it. "I love singing," he says. "I think of it as kind of a
three-edged thing, with singing, songwriting, and playing all equally
important. My goal is to try to keep all three on the same level."
Despite his recent successes, de Keyzer has yet to crack the U.S. market to a
significant degree. "It's pretty tough to make it outside of Canada unless you
move there," he admits. " I was talking to a friend in the industry not long
ago and he pointed out that statistically Canada represents about two per cent
of the world's music imports. And you can just imagine what our export figures
are," he laughs. "I guess if I have one pet peeve, though, it's that so many of
our Canadian musicians just keep playing American music, when there's a huge
pool of great music in Canada to draw from."
Still, de Keyzer
certainly seems poised to conquer a larger market, having reached what's
arguably a pinnacle within Canada with a pair of very high-profile accolades.
First came the Toronto Blues Society's Blues With Feeling Award in 2001.
"That's sort of like a lifetime achievement award," he explains. "That
was a great honour. And then came a Juno for Best Blues Album (for 2002's Six
String Lover)." The latter in particular has given his career a boost.
"The Juno really sort of validated my name to people who needed that, so it's
provided a certain level of recognition." And what does that recognition result
in? "The biggest thing so far is that we're now headlining some of the bigger
festivals, like the (Toronto) Harbourfront Soul & Blue Festival. Just about
every gig we've played since the Juno has been a sell-out, and it's extended
the life of the record, so it's certainly had a positive effect on my career."
The need to promote Canadian blues artists is a recurring theme in de
Keyzer's conversation. "I'd just like to see more Canadian promoters taking a
chance on Canadian bands, giving them a chance at some of the festivals and
shows," he says. "We have a number of, let's say, mid-level bands, and they're
just as good or better than the mid-level bands from the States. They may not
have the same recognition yet, but the talent is there, and they deserve a
chance to get their names out there."
 So who, among Canadian musicians, does de
Keyzer admire most?
"Well, there's Downchild, of course. I saw them
when I was 15, in Hamilton, at a local high school. It's pretty amazing to
think that they're still going strong. That's pretty inspirational. I also like
Harry Manx, what he's doing with his Indian sound and how he's integrating it
with the blues. I like some of what Colin James has done, and the success he's
achieved at the major label level. And David Rotundo, who's played with me
quite often - he's a good up-and-comer."
But there are so many great
blues players across Canada. And de Keyzer's doing his part to help ensure
there's a next generation to carry on; he's been giving guitar lessons to Jimmy
Bowskill, the 13-year old phenomenon on whose first disc, the aptly-titled Old
Soul, de Keyzer also guests.
"Well, I tried to give him some lessons,"
he laughs, "but really, there's very little I could teach him. He's a natural.
There must be something in his DNA."
de Keyzer remains largely
optimistic about the future of blues music.
"When I started playing,
all the major cities had at least some blues, but we'd never play in a town
like Whitby, where I live, or Peterborough or Collingwood. But nowadays it
seems that every town, if they don't have a blues club, at least they have a
blues night once a month. I've played more towns in the last five years than I
ever would have before, so I think that's a good sign, that it's catching on in
smaller centres as well."
He doesn't see blues as an art form that's
fading along with an aging audience.
"True, we're not getting too many
18 to 20 year olds out to our shows," he observes, "but we're getting a nice
mix of people from their 30s on up. Remember, too, that Toronto tends to be a
lot more of a niche thing - I mean, if you have green hair and like to wear red
socks there's a specific club for that. But elsewhere there's more of a
cross-cultural, mix of people. There's less separation, less specialization.
And people just come out and enjoy the music."
de Keyzer views
technology as an important tool for musicians.
"To me the whole
digital revolution has really put the power into the artist's hands for the
first time. You have the ability to broadcast world-wide from your website. You
can get your music and your image out there to the world. With the Internet it
doesn't even matter where you are or where you're from.
"And the whole
digital thing in general, the way that artists can make their own records now,
the way artists can afford to do their own artwork… what 10 years ago
might have cost thousands, you can now do for a third of the price for the same
quality. And that's just made it possible for musicians to make their own music
and get it out there without having to be at the mercy of the record
companies."
Although he's made a few himself, de Keyzer doesn't
consider music videos important for blues artists. "Videos are a waste of
time," he states. "They're basically just a commercial for your music. But
blues has never been very commercial."
Without a traditional recording
contract, a musician like de Keyzer has to be a businessman as well. As a
result, he launched his own Blue Star Records label to handle his own
administrative affairs.
"A lot of musicians who make their own
records, they might not realize that in essence they're starting their own
record label. It might not be a label on the scale of, say, Warner Brothers,
but they're still producing records and selling them. And I just decided that I
should have a name for this label I was creating, and I came up with Blue Star.
On a business level, it's more professional if you have a proper name for it."
And having an established label of his own has opened up additional
avenues for de Keyzer. "I've actually put out one record on Blue Star besides
my own, by a rock 'n' roll singer named John Mars. And I'm interested in doing
that, in producing and putting out records."
Jack de Keyzer's career
may be on an upswing, his talent at last receiving the recognition it's surely
due, but he remains decidedly down to earth, friendly and approachable to all.
"I'm just really happy to see the blues has gained in popularity in
the last 10 years or so," he shrugs.
Know what, Jack? We have you to
thank for much of that!
© Copyright 2003
Feature by John Taylor. Interviewed by Baron Bedesky. All
photos Andie Maranda
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