Page 32 - RSCDS Toronto Golden Jubilee Book

Music Makers
family. His father played modern and ethnic music on piano and accordion, and Jimmy always knew it was going to be one of these keyboards for him. His mother, Ellen Darge, was a great influence, accompanying her son to his weekly accordion lessons, begun in his early teens.
Modern music was Jimmy’s first love, but he became interested in Scottish Country Dance music while listening to the overseas bands of John Ellis and Jimmy Shand. In Canada, Stan Hamilton and Bobby Frew were important influences.
Jimmy’s first Scottish Country Dance engagement was playing with Angus MacKinnon, who encouraged the new musician. Angus MacKinnon and the Scots Canadians were one of the three leading bands in Toronto in the 1960s. The band played in Toronto, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Boston, and New York.
Jimmy went on to play Second Accordion with Don Bartlett & the Scotians, with whom he recorded In Triumph (1978), and Play Favourites (1979). For many years, he was part
of The Bobby Frew Four, along with Cliff Flaherty, and Dave Ferguson. "My greatest influence was Bobby Frew, he was strict but good." When The Bobby Frew Four disbanded, Jimmy rejoined Don Bartlett. Recently, Don has formed another new band with his younger daughters, Jacquie and Lesley, named, appropriately "Donald Bartlett & The Scottish Heirs", with Jim on accordion. Jim has played for Branch classes, workshops, TAC summer schools, social groups and at Toronto’s Youth Ball. Jean Hamilton and Jessie Bryden are attributed to have been paramount to Jimmy’s career, as they encouraged live music for their classes.
Jimmy is a musician who gives a teach- er what he/she asks for. "A teacher
will tell you what music they want you to play at the class, and I’ll play what they ask for. If a teacher requests the ‘original’ tune, even if it’s not a great tune, I play it, whether I like it or not. When a musician is asked to play at
a function, there’s a lot of preparation involved. For example, once I get the teacher’s program, I have to arrange the necessary music, and if I don’t
have it, I have to find it. Then I have to organize practices. And if the teacher changes the program on the day of the
workshop, the musician has to be quick to respond, quick to adjust. Depending on your experience, that can be either easy or very difficult.
"I was well trained by Bobby Frew
and Don Bartlett, especially regard- ing tempo. Bobby Frew was a walking metronome. When he started a dance, it was incumbent upon the drummer to keep the beat steady. Fred Collins is one of the best drummers I have ever heard in that field; he keeps the beat. The drummer is the rhythm keeper."
Jimmy Darge
About two years ago, Jimmy formed
his own group, The Reel Thing, with Gordon D.S. Hamilton, and the two con- tinue to play Scottish Country Dance music for RSCDS functions, and modern music for other groups.
[Jimmy Darge thanks Joyce Frew for her continued support and encouragement.]
Bobby Frew
Bobby Frew was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1928. His family returned to Scotland in 1937, and there he pol- ished his great love for Scottish music
and his wonderful dexterity with the accordion. His musical career started at the age of five on the button key melodeon, taught by his father, and
at eight, Bobby advanced to the piano accordion.
Bobby’s association with Scottish Country Dancing began in 1955 in
Ayr, Scotland, when he was asked to play Lead Accordion with the Jimmy Hamilton SCD Band. Two weeks later, at Castle Douglas, Ayrshire, came his SCD debut. Bobby had only six weeks to learn 24 dances - a nervous night- mare for a musician who never played this type of music before. Entering the hall the night of the dance, a large poster of Bobby MacLeod and his band loomed largely on one side and Ian Powrie and his band on the other, two of the best SCD bands in Scotland. And here was modern musician Bobby Frew about to play Lead Accordion in a SCD band for the first time, following these great musicians. Relying on his innate ability and preparation, he transformed his initial nervousness to musical con- fidence.
Like many other Scots of that genera- tion, Bobby emigrated to Canada in 1957 with Jimmy Hamilton’s son, Stan, locating in London, Ontario. John Middleton, a teacher from the Hamilton Branch, remembers how his father
met Bobby and Stan in the vestibule
of McCormick’s Biscuits in London where they were applying for a job. After engaging the two in conversation, John’s father discovered they "were
not only fellow-Scots but also fellow musicians and, in particular, Scottish Country Dance musicians!" He promptly invited them to his SCD class, and his home afterwards. Bobby sat down with his accordion, Stan at the piano – the rest is history.
The Bobby Frew Trio – Bobby Frew in centre, on accordion
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