Page 28 - RSCDS Toronto Golden Jubilee Book

Music Makers
Cunningham made me feel very wel- come. When I graduated from high school, Tom helped me order a kilt from Scotland in Cunningham tartan.
In 1967 I contributed two dances to the Centennial Book – A Bonnie Lassie and The Maple Leaf Flag and wrote the music for A Bonnie Lassie and for Susie Ferguson Reel, another dance in the book. For the Scarborough group, I wrote Ruth Jappy’s Return to Glen Ravine – dance and music. I’ve written a few dances since, and many tunes, but this was the beginning.
As a young adult, I most enjoyed the Toronto Branch annual weekend at Geneva Park. What a party! I particularly recall the kindness of Bob Blackie, Ed Jones, and Sandy Bain in including me, and so many others, in their social gatherings. Saturday evening after the ball was the highlight; the musicians would gather and play, and people would sing, or dance, or just listen. I learned a lot.
engagements in July and August. This still made for a busy schedule, since each dance involved business arrange- ments and letters, musical arrange- ments and practising, packing equip- ment, travelling to the dance, unpack- ing and setting up, playing, packing again, driving home, and putting the equipment away. The musicians who play for SCD have to love the music!
Over the years, the band personnel changed. Stuart Garbutt joined us on second accordion, and Bill Colvin on drums. Later Fred Collins played drums and Jimmy Darge second accordion.
Vancouver. In order to have a con- crete memory of our years together
we recorded "In Triumph" in April, and a year later came together again to record "Play Favourites". TAC Sound has subsequently re-published both these recordings on CD.
I continued playing band engage- ments without Alex for another four years. Sometimes I played melody on piano, and often Ed Brydie joined us to play lead on button accordion. Ed had studied SCD music with Jimmy Shand and brought a different style to the band. One memorable dance was TAC
Summer School, 1978, when a severe thunderstorm took out the power just before the dance. The band that night was Jimmy Darge on second accordion, Don Williams on electric bass, and myself on acoustic piano. Enterprising dancers found candles to light the hall, and Jimmy and I played unamplified for half of the dance until power returned.
Meanwhile, sometime in the 1978 to 1982 time frame,
the Calvin group asked me
to become the musician for
their weekly classes. I gladly agreed. I supported teachers Iain Macfarlane and then Frances Gray until May 2004.
I formed my own band,
the Scotians, in 1972. I
was fortunate to have the
support of Alex Jappy on
accordion, Don Williams on bass guitar, and Bill Page on drums. Alex, in par- ticular, was my partner in spirit. We all worked enormously hard in the early days, forming our own musical sound. The first dance we played was April
28, 1972, for the Burlington Strathcona group, taught by Arthur and Jean Douglas. The Toronto Branch, under
the leadership of Don Pyper, graciously invited us to the November 1972 monthly dance and the April 1973 AGM dance. In our first year we also pro- vided music for the Fallingbrook group (Ken Inglis), the Scarborough group (John Christie), the George Armstrong group (David Grant and Bill Murray), the Calvin group (Iain Macfarlane), and the Islington group (Les and Elaine James), as well as several out-of-town engage- ments. It was a busy year.
The Scotians usually played forty-five to fifty dances per year. We all had day jobs, so I tried to reserve one week- end each month, and I rarely accepted
Jimmy Darge
The Scottish Heirs
Don Bartlett
The Scotians had adventures, too. I played some crummy pianos, including two that fell apart in the middle of a dance – the same evening. An accor- dionist fell asleep during the briefing
of a dance. Another time, the airline overbooked and informed us that one of us couldn’t fly home. A rented ampli- fier went up in smoke halfway through another evening. At a buffet dinner, we helped ourselves to some creatively presented mashed potatoes – we were mistaken, it was a decoration made
of lard. We played the Calvin dance at Fantasy Farm on March 13, 1976 – the day after Elizabeth, my first daughter, was born.
The Scotians were in demand in Canada and the eastern United States. We played from Victoria to Fredericton, and in the New York and Philadelphia areas, but I always preferred to play
in and around Toronto. In 1978, Alex and Ruth Jappy decided to move to
Music has always been a hobby for
me, never a job. I have worked as
an application programmer, project manager, department manager and assistant vice-president – always in jobs relating to computers. In 1971, I mar- ried Cathie Williams, whom I met at a 1968 Hamilton Branch Weekend. We have two beautiful daughters, Elizabeth and Alison. They both danced from a young age. Cathie and I separated in 1980. In 1981, at TAC Summer School,
I met Elizabeth Ralston, known to
many as "Ticker." Ticker and I married in 1984; we have two lovely daugh- ters, Jacquie and Lesley, and they also danced from a young age. Since 2004, when I stopped playing regularly for the Calvin group, I have been choir director at Grace Presbyterian Church in Scarborough.
It was only natural that I should bring together my interests in SCD music and computers. Using a MIDI keyboard and
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