From daddyo@telusplanet.net Wed Aug 29 15:07:32 2007
Subject:Doug Riley's passing (D. Music)

Comments and link.
He apparently died of a heart attack waiting to board a plane home from
Calgary. I was lucky enough to have a beer with him on Friday night, as well as
see him in his last performance, on Sunday at The Calgary International Blues
Festival. Jack de Kezyer, was on stage with Doug, and Tom Knowles on bass,
Duris Maxwell on drums, and Dave Babcock on saxophone. As one of the site
photogs, I have several pics which I will upload to the site soon. I also shot
a short video of him with sound, which will be my little personal memoir.
Brockster
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2007/08/28/doug-riley-obit.html
Brock Gillis
daddyo@telusplanet.net
"Be thinking of B-3's and Leslies goin round"

"Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies. Great friends help
you move your B3"

Doug Riley, Canada's 'Dr. Music,' dies at 62
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 | 5:47 PM ET
CBC Arts

Doug Riley, a Toronto-born composer, arranger and pianist known as Dr.
Music, has died. He was 62.

Riley died suddenly of heart failure at the Calgary airport on Monday
on his way to his home in Little Pond, P.E.I.

Composer, performer and record producer Doug Riley. Composer,
performer and record producer Doug Riley.
(John Reeves/Toronto Jazz Festival)

Riley is known for composing, arranging and performing with numerous
artists in the classical, jazz and commercial genres.

He has collaborated on more than 300 recordings, with such musicians
as Moe Koffman, Ray Charles, Molly Johnson, Jake Langley, Anne Murray
and Natalie McMaster.

A musical chameleon who played with symphony orchestras as comfortably
as he played in smoky bars, Riley's greatest love was jazz.

"Ray Charles was my first influence outside of boogie-woogie and
stride pianists like Albert Ammons and Fats Waller," Riley said in a
2006 interview with the Toronto Star.
Continue Article

"I was enthralled by his jazz, blues and gospel music and really his
roots and my roots were the same. It was the biggest break of my life
when I played organ and piano and arranged his 1969 album Doing His
Thing."

Charles asked him to join his band, but Riley opted to stay in Canada,
a move that led to a career that combined arranging and producing with
touring and performing.

"I've toured the country, every nook and cranny of its coasts. I've
worked all my life and played all my life," he recalled.

"I've toured with singers Jackie Richardson, Dionne Taylor and Measha
Bruggergosman, who's a riot to hang out with. Writing is the most
lucrative, and the least fun. The most fun is playing," he said.

Born April 24, 1945 in Toronto, Riley suffered from polio as a child
and took to the piano as a way of expressing his creativity.

At four he took lessons in classical piano at the Royal Conservatory
of Music in Toronto. Later, in Montreal, he studied pipe organ with
Harry Duckworth at St. Anne de Belleville Church, and piano with Paul
DeMarky, Oscar Peterson's piano teacher.

"When I was six, I discovered jazz from my dad's stride and boogie
piano 78s — Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, James P. Johnson, Fats
Waller — I had perfect pitch so I learned from the records," Riley said.

He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in composition from the
University of Toronto, while playing R&B with the Silhouettes,
appearing at the Blue Note and other Toronto nightclubs.

Riley was planning to work on his masters degree in composition and
ethnomusicology — he had an interest in First Nations music that was
reflected in later recordings — when he got the offer to play with
Charles.

After deciding not to move to the U.S., he formed Dr. Music, a vocal
and instrumental ensemble that would have several incarnations over
the next 15 years.

With Dr. Music, he had a string of Top 20 hits in the 1970s, and
released Try A Little Harder, Sun Goes By and Bedtime Story, as well
as the later Dr. Music Circa 1984.

He composed jingles, working with Mort Ross, Tommy Ambrose and Larry
Trudel, and then worked behind the scenes on television production.

He began to acquire a reputation as a pillar of Toronto's music
community, forming the Toronto Sound Recording Studio and working as a
session musician.

As a composer and arranger, he has worked alongside symphony
orchestras and Placido Domingo, Ofra Harnoy and The National Ballet.

"All through the time I was writing and playing pop and jazz and
commercial music I wrote three ballets for the National Ballet, a
double concerto for flute (clarinet, sax) and string quartet for Moe
Koffman, a piano concerto for Mario Bernardi's retirement from the
National Arts Centre Orchestra and other works," he said.

Domingo commissioned him to arrange None But The Lonely Heart for
tenor and orchestra, which he recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra.

"I like a lot of different kinds of music," Riley said. "Country,
jazz, blues, funk, folk — I've recorded with Anne Murray (25 CDs), the
Brecker Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, etc."

He has produced and performed on countless recordings with Koffman,
David Clayton Thomas, Bob Seger and Ringo Starr.

Riley also has numerous solo and group recordings under his own name,
including Foxy Lady, Dreams, Freedom and Con Alma.

He served as musical director of the Famous People Players for over 20
years and participated in concerts in support of the Easter Seals
campaign, the United Way and the Princess Margaret Hospital Lodge.

In 2006, he toured throughout Canada and the U.S. with Canadian star
Michael Burgess of Les Miserables and played throughout Canada with
his Doug Riley Quartet. His most recent release is Strike, recorded
with Tyler Yarema and John Roby.

Riley's credits include numerous jazz festivals, including the P.E.I.
Jazz Festival, which he started in the 1990s after he began spending
part of the year on the island.

Doug Riley won jazz organist of the year continuously from 1993 to
2000 at the annual Jazz Report Awards. He was awarded the Order of
Canada in the fall of 2004.

He leaves behind two sons and his wife Jan.

>
> On Doug Riley's passing.
>
> It will be interesting how the Canadian media reports on Doug
Riley's passing. The few I talked to today consider it a music
industry insider type story. Of they can't quite see the bling of the
report.
>
> No Doug was not a household name to Canadians. But his music was
played and played in almost every Canadian home for more than 25
years. His work load was staggering. The loss to Canadian cultural
immeasurable. Only a handful of musicians in this country past 35 with
any chops didn't work with Doug in one project or another.
>
> Larry L.
>
>
................................................................................
.............................
>
>
> If Toronto had a Music Row or a Broadway its lights would be
dimmed tonight in the memory of keyboardist/arranger/producer Doug
Riley--widely known as Dr. Music--who passed away this morning en
route from Calgary back to his home in Prince Edward Island.
>
> Many of us met Doug in the '60s when he played Toronto's R&B circuit
with the Silhouettes which included Dianne Brooks, Jack Hardin and
Little JoAnne (as well as Steve Kennedy on sax). In 1968, Doug was the
second keyboardist and arranger on Ray Charles' "Doing His Thing" LP.
He served as arranger/pianist for a slew of TV shows in the early '70s
including "Music Machine," Tommy Ambrose's "Celebrations," "The
Wolfman Jack Show," "The Ray Stevens Show." and so on.
>
> Then came a stint with the pop/rock ensemble Doctor Music in the
'70s recording for GRT that scored hits with "Sun Goes By" and "one
More Mountain To Climb." Meanwhile, Doug arranged and played on
albums for Dan Hill, David Clayton-Thomas, Anne Murray, Sylvia Tyson,
the Brecker Brothers, and Bob Seger. He also produced many of Moe
Koffman's albums.
>
> Doug started writing music jingles in 1964 and had written over
2,000 by the early '90s, working with producer Mort Ross (with whom he
co-founded the Revolver label with future Triumph member Mike Levine
working A&R) and then with Tommy Ambrose.
>
> Though supposedly retired in PEI for the past few years. I kept
running into Doug, whether it was sitting in with his long-time friend
David Clayton-Thomas or being in town for a benefit in memory of
guitarist Domenic Troiano. I also recall his beautiful playing with
singer Michael Burgess at the funeral of our mutual friend Patrician
McKinnon a few years ago.
>
> A very sad day for Canadian music.
>
> LL.
>


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