Katie Malloch Farewell Party
Last Wednesday a whole host of musicians and music fans gathered for a live recording at the Cellar Jazz Club in Vancouver to celebrate the extraordinary broadcasting career of CBC Radio’s Katie Malloch. This event was the first of three to be held across the country with a second show this week at Toronto’s Rex Hotel followed by the final happening taking place at Lion d’Or cabaret in Montreal.
(not my finest photographic outing. Thanks to Steve Mynett at Mynettworks.com for the photo of Katie and I)
A few of thoughts on what Jazz Beat meant to me:
It’s tough to put into words what Katie Malloch’s years of dedication to jazz music and in particular Canadian jazz music have meant to the fabric of our music scene. For many of us her show Jazz Beat was the first place that we ever heard the giants of this music. It was also the first place that young musicians such as myself were introduced to the icons of the Canadian music scene. Musicians like Don Thompson, Guido Basso, Jerry Fuller, Ed Bickert, Pj Perry, Phil Dwyer and Rob McConnell have helped to define the fabric of the Canadian jazz identity and I heard them first on Jazz Beat!
As my career developed and I moved from one coast to the other and back again Jazz Beat’s recording sessions became a way of keeping in touch with what was happening on the jazz scene around the country. Youtube and easy media streaming on the internet hadn’t quite come into it’s own yet good jazz record stores were already starting to fade. It would have been very easy to slide into a musical vacuum but you could always count on Katie, Jazz Beat and the CBC to keep you in the loop.
I was fortunate to record in the studio for Jazz Beat on three occasions. The first time I got the call it was like I’d won the lottery.
“I’ve finally arrived, I’m a jazz musician, I’m going to be on Jazz Beat!”
The band was Mike Rud on guitar with Jodi Proznick on bass and Tilden Webb at the piano. I had so much fun but I remember that we flew through the music and were done about an hour early so I packed my up gear extra slow to savour the experience.
I could go on but instead I’ll leave off by saying how grateful I am for everything Katie has done for all of us musicians (and of course music fans) all across Canada. We’ll miss hearing your voice on the CBC.
Stay tuned for broadcast details for all three events.
For more on this please check out Peter Hum’s article HERE and Paul Well’s McCleans piece HERE.
JC
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My heart sank when I read that Katie was retiring. Naturally, I have mixed feelings. Great for Katie. For the rest of us…I don’t know.
I listen to a lot of radio.
Katie, your program, and the way you present it is, without doubt, right at the top!!!
Let us know when you will be in Calgary.
All the best,
Greg.
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Thank you for the follow-up.
There is one more comment that you did not mention. We listeners in the US admire Katie, and we will miss her, too.
I know Katie from the time she hosted Radio Active — about 30 years ago — and in fact I taped many of those shows. She introduced me to some fantastic music, and a culture I didn’t know very well, and I will always be grateful.
Katie Malloch’s RadioActive was the highlight of my radio week back in 1982-1983 when I lived in Victoria, BC. I’d just returned from three years of bumming around in France and the songs she played every Sunday night made me feel as if I’d never left. I kept journals during those years and have just now looked at them for the first time. What a nostalgic hit! The woman I married in 1986 (but didn’t know at the time) was also a fan of Katie’s show. So together we are so sorry we couldn’t have personally thanked her, but the comments are closed on the CBC Saying Goodbye blog post. Thanks anyway, dear Katie!