Jazz-lovers will be deeply saddened at the passing last Saturday of beloved saxophonist FRED DULIGAL. In recent years, he performed often as the headlining featured guest with the resident Canadian Jazz Quartet at Kama on King, and Quotes before that, during the long-running 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. weekly live jazz showcase. Fred was, in fact, the featured guest artist for “Fridays at Five” on October 6, 2006, just three weeks after the incomparable early evening jazz feature was first launched, and throughout the years since, when he wasn’t performing, he and his wife Margaret have been there to take in the music almost every week until just recently.

FRED DULIGAL (tenor saxophonist, bassist, clarinetist, flutist, piccolo-player) was born in 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He immigrated to Toronto in 1957, quickly becoming a familiar sight—and sound—in jazz bands featured at clubs and hotels all over the city. An alumnus of the Oscar Peterson Advanced School of Contemporary Music, Duligal led his own group at The Cellar (Toronto) for several years.
He played string bass with the Ian Bargh Trio for nearly two years, and as a tenor saxophonist, has played at jazz festivals all over the world. He was a frequently-featured player with Jim Galloway’s Toronto Alive! band which broadcast on CKFM from the Traders Lounge at the downtown Toronto Sheraton Centre throughout the ’80s, a gig which saw him working with a lengthy list of jazz legends including Sweets Edison, Zoot Sims, and Jimmy Knepper.

Fred was a member of Guido Basso’s Big Band for 11 years, and played with The Spitfire Band since 1985. Just last August, he led his own Trio (with guitarist Lorne Lofsky and bassist Neil Swainson) in a “Year ‘Round Jazz Festival” appearance at the Old Mill Toronto’s Home Smith Jazz Bar.