Daredevil of Soul
Ricky Day
Mike Hawker, William Blackburn and Terry Wilkins are The Daredevils of Soul. They'll be backing up Ricky Day at Harbourfront Centre's Labatt Blue's Festival 3:30 Sunday afternoon (July 6) on the CIBC Stage.
This year's Labatt Blue's Festival presents Ricky Day and his Daredevils of Soul, another talent drawn from Toronto's deep pool of undervalued jazz, blues and R&B veterans. Like Curley Bridges and Bobby Dean Blackburn, who were brought to the fore at previous editions of the festival, Day has been toiling away virtually unnoticed for decades.
Hailing originally from Cincinnati, Ricky Day comes from a line of serious big-band jazz musicians _ both his father and his grandfather having played with the likes of Jimmy Lunceford, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Adding a bit of a twist to the family tradition, Ricky first came to Canada, via California, in the early `60s, touring Quebec and the Maritimes with a 14-piece showband, the Montereys.
When the group fell apart he remained in Montreal, gigging with jazz musicians like Charles Biddles and Lee Gagnon, and eventually signing on as keyboardist and vocalist with Billy Martin and the Soul Jets, who held down a longstanding residency at the legendary Esquire Show Bar in Montreal. His one album with Martin runs the gamut from "Knock On Wood" to "Take The `A' Train".
By the end of the `60s Ricky was back on the road, mostly in the States, but as trumpeter with the Buddy Rich and Woody Herman big bands for seven or eight years. More recently, he fronted the Toronto band Atlantis (whose CD garnered notice in this magazine some years ago) and a series of smaller groups under his own name - all the while touring occasionally as a member of vocal group, the Fabulous Ink Spots.
It was with the Ink Spots that he first hooked up with drummer William Blackburn, a Toronto native who has been on the scene since the early 1960s. While old-timers tend to remember him mostly for his days backing his cousin Bobby Dean in the Zanzibar Tavern on Yonge Street in the `70s, his resume is much longer than that, and even includes a Yonge Street duo with the above-mentioned Curley Bridges.
Terry Wilkins, the Daredevils' bassist, needs no introduction to rock and blues fans in the Toronto area, having played steadily around town for more than 30 years in groups both famous and now-forgotten _ Flying Circus, Deja Vu, David Wilcox, Professor Piano and the Canadian Aces, Rough Trade and Compass. Among his current projects is his well-regarded Swing Gang.
Guitarist Mike Hawker, a jazz player with a blues edge, is the newest member of the group. His 20-year history includes recurring gigs with local names like Norman Villeneuve, Bob Mover, Bob Brough and Bernie Senensky. He also hosted the jam session at the Rex for two years.
Starting formally in 1999, the group, with Day and Blackburn as its nucleus, has played steadily throughout the Toronto area, attracting regulars and securing residencies at a variety of Toronto clubs. Their gigs, especially Saturday matinees, have tended to attract guest performances from a who's who from the Toronto R&B scene past and present. Come and see them at Harbourfront!
- Bill Munson