Kid Bastien Happy Pals 25th Anniversary

Kid Bastien at heritage hall in New orleans Kid Thomas on Drums
Tracklist

Jambalaya;
Sing On;
Sammy’s Blues;
Kats Got Kittens;
In the Upper Garden;
Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone;
Sail Along The Silvery Moon;
C’est Magnifique;
Blue and Broken Hearted;
Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez.


There can be few musicians anywhere in jazz as single-mindedly dedicated as trumpeter Cliff Bastien of Toronto. This anniversary CD celebrates his regular Saturday afternoon job at Grossman’s Tavern, a somewhat Bohemian Toronto watering hole. The Happy Pals are practically part of the furniture by now, and the place is an ideal setting for their music.

The music is New Orleans jazz, based without reservation or apology on the dancehall band led by the late New Orleans trumpet player Kid Thomas Valentine. Thomas’ wonderful band is rightfully revered by New Orleans devotees around the world, and there have been other imitators, but none has come so near to the original. The rough, deceptively primitive Thomas style is easily reduced to caricature by casual imitators, but Bastien wisely steers away from over blowing, playing – as Thomas himself did – rhythmically incisive phrases that drive the band without overpowering it.

Like its model, this band is not a concert outfit by any means, but a dance band perfectly suitable for neighborhood entertainment. Nobody here is a virtuoso, but there are no pretensions in that direction, either. The format for most numbers is the tried-and-true ensemble-solos-ensemble, used by Kid Thomas and countless others, perfect for the informal good-time music played in those long hours in the dancehalls. In the informal Grossman’s, this casual approach is just right. The payoff is the same one offered by the Thomas band itself – solid, trumpet-driven ensemble choruses that swing uncannily like the original.

A visit to Grossman’s is certainly recommended to any New Orleans music lover who finds himself in Toronto over a weekend. You’ll think that it’s 1955.

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Kid Bastien’s Happy Pals are:
Kid Bastien: Trumpet
Patrick Tevlin: Tenor sax
Roberta Tevlin: Trombone
Roberta Hunt: Piano
Len Samuels: Banjo
Jim Jones: bass
Chuck “Sammy” Clark: Drums
Photography by: Cover- M. Silander, Band- David Goldberg
Recorded by: Mike McDonald
Produced by: David Goldberg
Special thanks to the staff and owners of Grossman’s Tavern and all the Saturday regulars.




OBIT
CLIFFORD (KID) BASTIEN (trumpeter, banjoist), trombonist, pianist, drummer) was born in London England's East End in 1937. He died February 8, 2003 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was known throughout North America as a great Canadian jazz musician and leader of Kid Bastien and The Happy Pals, a New Orleans style jazz band that was a fixture at festivals and jazz cruises for over two decades, celebrating their 25th anniversary in 1993 at Grossman’s Tavern in Toronto where the band was a mainstay, playing every Saturday right up until and even after Bastien’s death.

Kid Bastien immigrated to Canada in 1962 after a stint in New Orleans. There, at the age of 19, he heard "Kid" Thomas Valentine in concert was entranced by Kid Thomas' style of playing New Orleans jazz, seeking Valentine out and adoptiing him as his mentor, dedicating himself to this authentic style of jazz. In later years, Bastien resisted a number of invitations to make New Orleans his permanent home, but he preferred Canada to the United States and remained in Toronto.

He is credited with starting the New Orleans jazz scene in Toronto 40 years ago. Arriving from London, England, he placed a classified ad in the newspaper seeking out like-minded musicians. The six or seven musicians who responded became his life-long friends and fellow musicians on the Toronto New Orleans jazz scene. It is recorded that Bastien was considered to be an institution in Toronto called “a legend” and “a national treasure” in the authentic old New Orleans jazz form. He taught dozens of people how to play in the New Orleans style he had made his own, including the members of his last band, The Happy Pals. He was most accomplished at the trumpet, but could also play almost anything else in the New Orleans tradition, including banjo, piano, trombone and drums. He taught himself how to play by listening to recordings, only learning how to read music in the last few years of his life.

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