Lifetime Achievement & Musician of the Year Awards

The Toronto Musicians’ Association is delighted to recognize Dave Young & Jeanne Lamon with our Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the group Billy Talent with our Musician of the Year Award for 2012

The Toronto Musicians’ Association is delighted to recognize Dave Young with our Lifetime Achievement Award

Dave Young joined the Toronto Musicians’ Association in 1967, one of the rare bassists who is truly at ease swinging a bow or walking in a jazz rhythm section. He has been a member of the Edmonton Symphony, the Hamilton Philharmonic, and, in his home town, the Winnipeg Symphony.

At the same time, Dave has been a first call “go-to” jazz bass player since he arrived in Toronto, where he has gained a reputation as not only a great bassist but as a joy to work with. Highlights of his illustrious career include his work from 1961 to 1966 with Lenny Breau, and of course his 35-year association with Oscar Peterson, as well as performances with Clark Terry, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Zoot Simms, Oliver Jones, Kenny Burrell, Cedar Walton, Hank Jones, Nat Adderly, Peter Appleyard, Joe Williams, Gary Burton, Barney Kessell, Ed Bickert, Ranee Lee, Marcus Belgrave, Don Thompson, Kenny Burrell, and James Moody.

Dave has also recorded as a leader, including We Three with Phil Dwyer and Michele Lambert, Tale of the Fingers with special guest Cedar Walton, Mainly Mingus, and, with co-leader Phil Dwyer, Fables and Dreams, which won a Juno Award as Best Mainstream Jazz Album in 1994. Two by Two – Volumes 1 & 2 (1995 & 96) featured Dave in duet performances with jazz legends Oscar Peterson, Cedar Walton, John Hicks, Mulgrew Miller, Tommy Flanagan, Ellis Marsalis, Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Renee Rosnes, Cyrus Chestnut, and Oliver Jones. His most recent CDs are Mean What You Say, released in 2009, and Octet Volume One (2012) with the Dave Young-Terry Promane Octet.

As a teacher, for many years Dave has been a member of the Faculty of Music at The University of Toronto. As a classical player, he regularly tours with clarinetist James Campbell and pianist Gene Di Novi. For many years, he has been an ongoing feature in both classical and jazz groups at the annual Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Ontario.

Dave was recently named a Member of The Order of Canada — our country’s highest civilian honour. Beyond the long list of accolades and acknowledgements, Dave is known for his pragmatic, realistic view of the music business, always ready to adapt, and to “put the music first.”

When not in the studio or on the stage, you will often find Dave Young playing a duo or some such with guitar or piano, in a small venue you might have discovered by accident, playing for the sheer enjoyment of it, surrounded by a small jazz-loving audience.

Putting the music first.

The Toronto Musicians’ Association is delighted to recognize Jeanne Lamon with our Lifetime Achievement Award

Jeanne recently announced that she will be stepping down as Music Director of Tafelmusik, an organization she has guided for over 30 years. In that time, the ensemble has put Toronto on the map as a centre of excellence in period performance. Under her leadership, they have travelled the globe, performing in over 325 cities in 30 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and the Musikverein. With a discography of some 78 recordings — winning 9 Juno awards — on such labels as Sony Music, CBC Records, Analekta, BMG, Collegium, Hyperium, and now their own house label, Tafelmusik Media, they have shone a fresh light on a huge amount of repertoire, not just by achieving relentlessly exacting musical standards in everything they do, but by keeping the music relevant long after it was new. Jeanne was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2000.

What makes Tafelmusik’s international success particularly remarkable is that so much of it was accomplished from an old church basement. Tafelmusik achieved greatness despite a lack of air conditioning, doors too narrow for a pair of timpani, a stage that needed to be torn down every Saturday night for church services, offices without windows, and a backstage area no bigger than a postage stamp. These obstacles were overcome in large part because Jeanne’s talent, passion, determination, and leadership ability allowed her to gather a critical mass of people with a common goal, whom she guided to become greater than the sum of its parts. That is truly a lifetime achievement.

It is leaders like Jeanne whose skills and vision create the institutions in our city that we as musicians depend upon for sustenance, both financial and — much more importantly — musical. Musicians are by nature dreamers, and we strive to communicate great ideas and emotions with notes. Some musicians, like Jeanne Lamon, are dreamers who cause their dreams to come true, and we are better for having them in our midst.

Thank you Jeanne, and congratulations on an exceptional journey!

Musician of the Year Award for 2012

The Toronto Musicians’ Association is delighted to recognize the group Billy Talent with our Musician of the Year Award for 2012

Billy Talent

Just find a style, so you can mimic
The tortured artist, the jaded cynic
The latest gadget, is just a gimmick
Another sucker, born every minute
“Surprise, Surprise” from Dead Silence — Billy Talent

Billy Talent is a Canadian melodic punk rock, alt rock, post-hardcore band from Mississauga, formed in 1993 by lead vocalist Ben Kowalewicz, lead guitarist Ian D’Sa, bassist Jon Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk.

TMA members since 2004, the band existed for almost a decade before starting to find mainstream attention. Billy Talent’s major label debut album, Billy Talent I found much commercial success and went three times platinum in Canada. Billy Talent II hit the shelves in 2006. It fared very well in Canada, landing at number 1 in its debut week on the Canadian charts eventually going two times platinum, selling over 200,000 copies. The album also enjoyed significant success in Germany, where it also debuted at number 1 in the album charts, and was one of the ten top-selling albums that year, going platinum there as well. The band’s fourth album, Billy Talent III, was also released in the United States through Roadrunner Records.

During their career, the band has toured extensively across Canada, the US, Europe, and Australia, and are currently wrapping up 22 headlining arena tour dates before heading to Europe for additional dates in support of their current release, Dead Silence.

Billy Talent has racked up an impressive list of achievements and accolades, winning 2 CASBY Awards for favourite new single and new album in 2004. The band has won two ECHO awards in Germany, for Best International Newcomer and Best International Rock/Alternative Album in 2007. Billy Talent has received a significant amount of recognition in Canada, winning 9 awards from 29 nominations at the MuchMusic Video Awards, and 7 awards from 17 nominations at the JUNO Awards. Overall, Billy Talent has received 16 awards from 46
nominations in Canada. At this year’s JUNO awards, they are nominated for the Fan Choice Award, Group of the Year, and Rock Album of the Year.

If you’ve seen the video on YouTube, you can’t help but marvel at the sight of over 100,000 fans singing along to “Viking Death March,” the first track released to the public from Billy Talent’s latest album, Dead Silence. Watching the mass celebration of this song is powerful enough, but the fact that the track had only been released days before the band hit the stage at the Rock am Ring festival in Germany is testament to the loyalty of the band’s fans around the world.