Page 29 - RSCDS Toronto Golden Jubilee Book

Music Makers
a computer, I created The MacClones,
a virtual band with a singular style
– mine! I play lead accordion, second accordion, piano, bass, drums, and occasionally fiddle. With the MacClones I resumed playing for occasional band engagements in the late 1980s – in Fredericton, Kitchener-Waterloo and Ottawa. In 1996 the MacClones played for the first time in the Toronto area. Alas, The MacClones don’t help me
lift and carry the equipment, but they never complain, and they’re ready to play whenever I am.
When Bobby Frew’s band came to a close, Jimmy Darge rejoined me on second accordion. In 2002 my daugh- ter Jacquie joined me on fiddle, and in 2003, my daughter Lesley joined me on electric bass. The MacClone musicians gracefully drop out whenever there is a real person to play their part. The new band is called The Scottish Heirs in rec- ognition of our rich heritage of Scottish music and the pleasure I find in passing that heritage along to my daughters.
Bobby Brown
first Canadian musician to receive this recognition. His band is the first band outside of Scotland to record for the RSCDS (Book 12).
Bobby’s father, John Brown, was a fid- dler and his
mother, Jean
Day, was a
and The Flying Scotsmen (1961-73) for transforming him into a professional musician. Playing with Hamilton, a unique pianist, and with band member Bobby Frew, a first-class accordionist, taught him discipline, and the highest
graduate of
Edinburgh
University,
an accom-
plished
pianist,
professional
soprano,
and teacher.
Bobby’s
aunts and
uncles were
pipers and
pipe drummers and his uncle, John Day, had a Scottish dance band, the D- Day Band. Dennyloanhead was a tiny hamlet, but musicians driving north from Glasgow had to pass through it. Bobby’s father was also the owner of The Crown Hotel, which became a pop- ular place to stop and when musicians stopped, there was music.
Bobby and his older sisters, Jean and Christine, all took piano lessons. He realized quickly, however, that formal music lessons weren’t for him. "My ear was strong but my attention span was short. Of course, I read music; however, my ear is still my best friend."
After immigrating to Canada at the
age of sixteen, and not having a piano, Bobby found a small accordion at a store on St. Clair Ave (at a huge cost
of $35) and started to play. Starved for authentic Scottish music, Bobby began playing piano and accordion evenings and weekends with a small country band, while working days in Toronto.
In the early 1960s, he was visiting his friend Alec Martin, the drummer for Stan Hamilton. Martin persuaded Bobby to stay the night and play for Stan
and Bobby Frew, who were coming
to Martin’s the next day to rehearse. Hamilton says today, remembering that meeting with Bobby, "When he hit his first grace note, I knew right then he had the soul for the music. He could follow a flea up the wall."
Bobby credits the years he spent as second accordionist with Stan Hamilton
standards.
The late 1950s and the 1960s were, says Bobby, the "Glory Days" of Scottish Country Dancing in
Canada. The Flying Scotsmen would regularly play for 300 or more dancers
at a monthly
dance and close to 700 might attend the Toronto Ball.
They also played for many of the social groups’ dances and balls.
A spur-of-the-moment phone call back in 1973 paved the way for Bobby to leave his daytime job as a sales man- ager and become a full-time profes- sional musician. Bobby was in Ottawa on business, when his friend, fiddler Wilfred Gillis, phoned him to see if he was interested in playing piano for the pilot of what would become The John Allan Cameron Show. Bobby jumped at the chance, even though it meant trav- elling to Montreal.
Bobby’s job on the show, in addition
to playing piano and accordion, was to arrange the music and write the charts for the musicians. Encouraging four talented Cape Breton fiddlers - accus- tomed to playing solo - to come togeth- er as a unified group was a challenge. Bobby earned the respect of all the musicians on the show for his wit and meticulous arrangements of the music.
In 1982, Bobby took The Cape Breton Symphony Fiddlers and The Scottish Accent band to Scotland, the group’s first tour outside Canada. The tour
was a tremendous success, and along with subsequent tours, fostered musi- cal friendships between Canada and Scotland and thus a deeper understand- ing of their shared musical heritage.
Never one to wear a single hat, Bobby at this time was also playing with The Scottish Accent, as well as composing,
The Scottish Accent:
Wolanski, Laird Brown, and Bobby Brown
Kathleen Fraser-Collins, Fred Collins, Rob
Growing up in Scotland, Bobby Brown would sit in his school classroom, look out the window, and dream about music: listening to music, composing music, playing music. Bobby says, "All I ever wanted was to be in the Scottish music".
Today, Bobby and his group, The Scottish Accent, formed in 1975, are widely acknowledged as the leading Scottish Country Dance Band in North America. In 2004, The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society awarded Bobby its Award of Scroll for his role in pre- serving and nurturing Scottish tradi- tional music and dance. Bobby is the
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