Jack
The multi-talented Jack de Keyzer, a gifted songwriter, a mean guitarist and a smooth, sultry singer, is having a record release party at the Silver Dollar on March 8 to celebrate his latest CD, 6 String Lover, a collection of blues, rockabilly, R&B, soul and funk. If you can't make it to the party, 6 String Lover can be ordered through de Keyzer's Web site: www.jackdekeyzer.com.
When it comes to songwriting, Jack de Keyzer 's philosophy is to keep it simple.
That's the approach the multi-talented de Keyzer - he's a smooth, sultry singer and a mean guitarist - has learned to take over the 20 years he's been writing blues and blues-related songs.
Ten years ago, de Keyzer leaned toward writing tight, musically complex songs, then he found other musicians had trouble picking them up at jam sessions. "I would go and sit in with people and they couldn't do any of my songs," he says. "And I thought, why does everybody in the world know "Mustang Sally" and why does every band in the world know "Johnny B. Goode"? Because they're such straight-ahead, simple songs that can be interpreted by so many different people in so many different ways."
De Keyzer says the self-penned songs on his latest CD, 6 String Lover, a collection of blues, rockabilly, R&B, soul and funk, are portable, flexible - they give the players plenty of room to stretch - and jam-friendly. In Edmonton recently, he was happy to note that the musicians in a local band he played with were quick studies when it came to learning some of the songs on his new CD. "I could take that album, play any number of cities in Canada and play with different musicians and they would be able to latch onto it really quickly," he adds.
De Keyzer wrote most of the fine songs on 6 String Lover just before going into Liquid Sound Studio with drummer Tony Ajo, bassist and co-producer Alec Fraser, keyboard player Michael Fonfara, saxophonist Perry White, harp player David Rotundo, upright bassist Shane Scott and guitarist Peter "Sab" Sabourin. The CD was recorded mainly live off the floor during three weeks last November.
One of the few older songs on the recording, "The Answer," a Marvin Gaye-ish "What's Going On" style lament about the sad state of the world could have been written about Sept. 11. "I wrote those lyrics about five years ago, but it's definitely one of the reasons for including it now," de Keyzer says.
He wrote the new songs on 6 String Lover using a songwriting technique that he'd picked up from the former Muddy Waters drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, on whose 1999 and 2000 recordings, Nothin' But The Blues Y'All and Blues From The Heart, de Keyzer plays guitar. "In the past, if I had a song title, I would hammer out the melody and the groove and stick with that, but with Willie Smith I noticed he had lyrics and then he'd experiment with different grooves and moods until he found one that hit what he wanted to do," de Keyzer says. "So that's what I did this time."
"Funk This," on the new recording, de Keyzer says, was originally a rockin' blues track called "Rock This" and evolved into a funk groove during the songwriting process. The country blues song "If You Were My Woman (And I Was Your Man)" began as a Chuck Berry-style rocker.
Some jazz influences have crept into 6 String Lover, too. De Keyzer plays jazz as a hobby and is a big fan of guitarist Charlie Christian. He recorded the jump blues "Jump Right To It" as a nod to Christian.
De Keyzer, 46, started out playing guitar with King Biscuit Boy at 18 and played for Ronnie Hawkins from the ages of 19 to 23. "From Biscuit, I learned about all kinds of blues," he says. "With Ronnie Hawkins, I learned about the business of running a band. He's good at dealing with people and getting lots of gigs."
De Keyzer played guitar for the rockabilly singer Robert Gordon, working alongside Duke Robillard; then he joined the rockabilly band The Bopcats in the early '80s. During his stint with The Bopcats, de Keyzer began developing his songwriting. After The Bopcats disbanded, de Keyzer became a singer and a frontman for The Bopcat off-shoot band Rock Angels.
Starting his own band in 1985, de Keyzer decided to play a variety of musical styles. His early releases include the 1991 Hard Working Man and the 1994 Wild At Heart. His third, critically acclaimed CD, the 1999 Down In The Groove, received the Record Of The Year Award at the 1999 Maple Blues Awards and was nominated for a 2000 JUNO.
An exciting presence on the club, festival and concert scene, de Keyzer plays more than 170 gigs a year. He'll be promoting 6 String Lover in Southern Ontario during March, with a March 8 record release party at the Silver Dollar. "It would be nice if it got picked up by a good label," he says. "I'm real happy with the new record," he says. "I think it's got international potential."
- Ruth Schweitzer