Here's a half-hour documentary on Fraser MacPherson from 1967 called Diary of a Musician. It's basically a day-in-the-life of MacPherson, showing him in the studio with his quintet, featuring Ian McDougall, Doug Parker, Cuddles Johnson and Jimmy Wightman, then playing dance music at the Cave Supper Club, talking about his childhood, travelling to Victoria to take his kids out to the park (that's me singing in the car), rehearsing with comedian Jack Carter, then playing behind Carter that night, and rolling dice in the band room. You'll see Stu Barnett, Frank Mansell, Don Clark and others in the Cave band. It's really well done, I think you'll agree. It's available elsewhere on the internet, but maybe you've never stumbled across it before.
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Interesting Bio pic.
ReplyDeleteYour postings seem to allude Fraser
rolls his eyes about the popular music
movement. Doug Parker really seemed to have a beef with Pop, but why is it when they come to do LP's, like the LP I have from 1970 on CBC "the sounds of Fraser Macpherson with the Doug Parker Orchestra" it's full of Pop music! That's not exactly a saturday night Dinner club dance, that's a LP artist statement! THanks for the great vids and blog
Ah, that's a great album! And I use the term 'great' loosely, but I liked it. It's good for what it was. But yes, he would roll his eyes, but at that time he was just a working musician who took whatever gigs came his way. That album, and The Shadow (which he was quoted as saying, "I suspect it'll go over big in elevators" -- his own album!) were jobs. He was asked or commissioned to do them. He had very little say in them. He also played the Ice Capades and did Scottie's Little Softies commercials. It wasn't until the release of Live at the Planetarium that he considered himself a full-time jazz musician, at which point he started playing only what he wanted to play.
ReplyDeleteThanks for comment. And for watching.