RICK KILBURN BIOGRAPHY

Born April 2nd, 1951 I grew up in a musical family in Richmond, British Columbia. My father Jim Kilburn, a fine Jazz guitarist and mother Joyce Kilburn, a Jazz enthusiast. During the '50s I would spend many a weekend night sleeping on someone's lap at an after-hours jazz club called "The Cellar". A number of musicians including my father started this club to have a venue to play bebop music. Many famous Jazz artists came through Vancouver to play at the Cellar including: Ornette Colman, Harold Land, The Montgomery Brothers, Charles Mingus and many more. Quite often these musicians would end up at our house for parties. I remember hearing my father and Wes Montgomery playing in our living room and decided to join them, so I broke out an old violin with two strings that I had been given and was happily jamming with Dad and Wes when all of a sudden the violin was all you could hear. I looked up and they were laughing so hard that they were practically falling out of their chairs. They hadn"t realized that this young upstart (I was four or five at the time) had joined them. I was quite embarrassed at having been busted.

After High school I landed a road gig with an English Show Band called the New Vaudeville Band (made famous by their hit song Winchester Cathedral) and in 1969 I did some Canadian tours playing bass guitar with the Rock Band "Chilliwack". In 1970 I moved to Edmonton in order to play with Dale Hillary's band Hourglass and study bass with Dave Young who was playing Principal Bass with the Edmonton Symphony. My love affair with the Bass goes back as far as I can remember and the move to Edmonton in order to study the Bass made it more real for me in such a way that I decided to pursue my musical education a bit further.

In 1973 I moved to Boston in order to study at the Berklee School of Music. While at Berklee I did a lot of playing and was lucky enough to play bass in Claudio Roditi's quartet and big band. I played bass with Chet Baker when he came through Boston and was picked up along with John Scofield, Kenny Werner and Jamie Hadad to do a tour with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. I played a lot during this period at Billy Drews, Joey Lovano and Steve Slagel's loft. Any night would see musicians the likes of John Scofield, Joey Lovano, Chip Jackson, Billy Drews, Steve Slagel and Claudio Roditi playing all night long. While playing with clarinetist/composer Bob Fritz quartet, I met Gerry Bergonzi who was playing sax with Dave Brubeck's Two Generations of Brubeck and a couple of months later was asked to move to New York City and play with the Brubeck's. How could I refuse?

In September 1974 I moved to Queens New York and started a very exciting phase of my life. After living in queens for a few months I moved to a Loft in the Tribeca area of Manhattan . An artist/composer/pianist named John Fischer had the loft and he introduced me to Avant garde music. While touring with Dave Brubeck helped to take care of the more straight ahead part of my experience along with playing in high profile venues and seeing America, playing with John Fischer's group Interface took care of the 'free expression' side of things. Interface toured a bit in Europe as well. From 1975 to 1979 I was involved in the New York Loft Jazz scene which included performances with Interface at 'ENVIRON', a Loft built by Danny and Chris Brubeck and run by John Fischer. I had the great pleasure of playing with Sam Rivers at his loft 'Studio Rivbea' a number of times during this period.

My stay in New York City was from September 1974 to April 1983. As well as the above mentioned experiences I kept myself fed by doing a lot of Duo gigs with piano players. I worked with Joanne Brackeen, Andy Laverne, Mike Nock, Mike Wolf and Armen Donelian at the Surf Maid on Bleeker Street. Rusty Cloud, Armen Donelian and Lisle Mays at the West Boondocks. Adam Macowitz at Knickerbockers and Jimmy Rowles at Bradley's.

My tenure with the Brubeck's ended in 1976 at which time Mose Allison's drummer Stan Gage called and asked if I was able to go to Miami with Mose for a gig and of course I said yes. Mose was in many ways an amalgamation of the different styles that I had been pursuing up to that time. He embodies a combination of the blues, standard more straight ahead jazz, Latin,Hindemith, Duke Ellington and a free spirit that I couldn't resist. My stay with Mose was until I left New York in 1983 and we still play together when he comes through the Northwest. Some of the other people that I was lucky enough to play with while I was living in the States were Gerry Mulligan, The Red Rodney Quintet, Walter Booker's 'Love Carnival and Dreams' a Brazilian band with two Basses, Raul de Sousa, Justo Almerio's Latin band, Don Rebic and guitarist Jimmy Rainey. For the last eighteen months or so in New York I played bass in the house band at Sweetwaters near Lincoln Center. A lot of the actors on Broadway would do a week at Sweetwaters to work up their cabaret show. I remember enjoying a week there with Chris Calloway.

I studied with Michael Moore mainly and took some lessons with Mike Richmond and Dave Holland. I studied piano with Norman Gold. My very good friend Gerry Bergonzi taught me a lot about music and in many ways the spiritual side of playing as well.

One night while at Bradley's on bass with Jimmy Rowles I was playing a solo with my eyes shut and heard a big gruff voice nearby yelling "don't freeze mother______", so I opened my eyes, saw that it was Charles Mingus and immediately froze. He made a big deal out of giving me a lesson out loud for the whole gig and of course the audience loved it and encouraged the show. At the end of the night I was really angry so I put my bass down and went over to chew him out but he disarmed me by apologizing and asked me to get a pencil and paper so he could talk to me like an "old man". I obeyed and he wrote out some examples of phrasing that Charlie had apparently only shown to Scott Lafaro. I still use the ideas today although the next night Jimmy requested that I play the way I had been playing the previous night. Mingus and I closed Bradley's and went to his apartment where we spent the night looking at his basses and some music that he was writing for a Big Band recording. I went home at sunup with the final words from Charlie saying that I know you! I love you man. What I didn't tell him was that I had met him at my parent's place as a young child in the '50s. I answered a knock at the door and when I opened it I screamed and ran away. I suppose that the sight of Charlie with his bass was a bit of a premonition of things to come. I would see him after the Bradley's experience at gigs that I was playing bass on and I guess I was doing OK because he never reprimanded me again.

In 1983 I returned to British Columbia from New York City due to a necessary change in life style and moved to Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. I was there about a month when I received a phone call from a couple of young fellows named Pat Collins and Phil Dwyer to come over to Phil's parent's house and jam. Well these guys were about fifteen at the time and my mind was completely blown apart. They have turned out to be important musicians on the Canadian scene. After about a year I heard from Diana Krall who was about 17 at the time and really incredible as well. I taught music at Malaspina College for a couple of years and one of my students there was Ingrid Jensen. What is it , the WATER? During this time I started a new phase in my life as a record producer and composer for film and television. In 1986 I moved back to Vancouver where I reside today. I have built a recording studio called Riverside Recording where I produce CD's and music for film and tv. I have a Trio featuring guitarist Bill Coon and Ross Taggart on Sax revealing my continuing love affair with the Bass and Jazz music. I have toured Canada with the Robin Shier Quintet and The Hugh Fraser Quartet and have been known to play bass on a number of recording projects.

From 1987 to the present I have been teaching a recording course at Vancouver Community College and from 1990 to 1995 I helped develop a recording workshop in connection with the Jazz workshop at the Banff Centre for the Arts. While doing this workshop I met incredible young musicians and recording engineers from around the world. Not to mention meeting and recording the faculty who were the likes of Don Thompson, Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, Rufus Reid, Kevin and Robin Eubanks, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Muhul Richard Abrams, Jim Hall, John Clayton, Chucho Valdes and Keith Copeland to name a few. What a great education!

Through my carreer I have had the opportunity to play with the following musicians: Sam Rivers, John Fischer and Interface, V.E.J.I., Hugh Fraser Quartet with Jean Tousseant and Keith Copeland, Joe Lovano, Billie Drews, Gerry Bergonzi, Don Rebic, Skip Brevis, Warren Odes, Fraser MacPhearson, Oliver Gannon, Chilliwack James Moody, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, Adam Macowitz, Jimmy Rainey, Carl Thompson, Red Rodney, Gary Dial, Andy Lavern, Mike Nock, Walter Booker, Darius Brubeck Ensemble, Joanne Brackeen, Diana Krall, Mose Allison, Dave Brubeck, Don Thompson, Rusty Cloud, The Hepner Brothers, Bill Coon, Chris Sigerson, Bill Runge, Ron Hadley, Kathy Kidd, Chet Baker, Ross Taggart, Campbell Ryga, Sharon Minimoto, Jamie Hadad, Bob Moses, Joe Labarbara, Jim Kilburn, Bob Fritz, Bobby Cairns, Pat Coleman, Tommy Banks, Tom Doran, Mike Wolfe, Perry Robinson, Mark Whitecage, Bob Murphy, Ron Johnston, Jimmy Rowles, Airto, Flora Purim, John Scofield, Kenny Werner, Armen Donnelian, Armen Halburian, Miles Black, The Peters Druy Trio, Dee Daniels, Caroline Drury, Karen Plato, Jennifer Scott, Renee Doruyter, Doug Laalo, Kenny Coleman, John Alcorn, Coco Love Alcorn, Nancy Ruth, Michaele Buble, Jim Hodgkinson, Ron Hadley and many more!