Who: Cameron Chu
Where: Bearfoot Bistro and the Wildflower Café
When: BB nightly, Wildflower for Fathers Day, June 15
Trust me on this one: If Cameron Chu ever invites you for a drink, make sure you take up his offer – his stories are incredible. The unassuming pianist has been serving up smooth jazz sounds to complement those seafood sensations at the Bearfoot Bistro for the past eight years.
As Whistler’s premier musical director, Chu has reeled in some of the most exciting jazz and blues names in the business, including the late soulful saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, who played with Ray Charles, and R&B legend Bobby Taylor, who is coming back again for this year’s Cornucopia wine festival. Taylor not only discovered the Jackson 5 but he played with everyone from Fats Waller to Billie Holliday to Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight. He even fired Jimi Hendrix for playing solos too long!
But back to the man with the nimble fingers – our own Cameron Chu is much more than meets the eye. I’ve had several scotches with Chu at BB’s bar before so I knew he was a walking encyclopedia of jazz and blues. But a recent Bearfoot Bistro lobster special dinner date had me rearing to run off and join a jazz band with the stories he told.
Chu is a classically trained child prodigy who graduated from the Vancouver Academy of Music. He’s travelled the world playing in bands for more than 30 years and is a good friend to many of the jazz world’s biggest names past and present. He also has a biology degree.
"It was never my intention to play jazz professionally when I left school," said Chu. "I was actually working in the department of zoology at UBC."
But his passion for the piano turned him to the dark side. He swapped science rooms for smoky jazz dens and lab coats for lounge suits. Nine to five became five to nine and the big wide world swallowed him up taking him to venues and places that exist only in the memory of true jazz greats or in dusty vinyl albums recorded live and left for dead.
So what sent him over the edge to follow his passion?
"You can blame Art Tatum, a piano player from the ’30s," he smiled. "Even today he is considered the greatest piano player on earth. I was listening to the radio one day in the ’70s and heard him play for the first time. He sounded like four people playing at once. He was all over the place and I couldn’t believe how flawless his execution was. That was it for me. People said his style could never be repeated, that it wasn’t humanly possible and there was the challenge for me. Of course, I’m still trying to catch up to his level to this very day."
Chu spent most of the ’80s and early ’90s playing in jazz venues throughout Canada as a hired musician in bands. He did gigs in Europe, Japan, South East Asia and America. Along the way he became friends to many, including the late, great Linton Garner, probably Vancouver’s most revered pianist and composer, who died just shy of his 88 th birthday a few months ago.
"I’ve had the good fortune to play and work with a lot of amazing talent and you listen to their stories and learn their techniques and take them with you to the next generation. Linton especially was a wise and generous man in spirit and in knowledge. He was extremely humble and you practically had to nail him to the wall to get stories out about people he knew, including Miles Davis and Oscar Peterson. The impact and exposure he had to the industry was just unbelievable."
The stories behind the songs and the personalities up on stage are a big part of jazz and blues. The music is timeless and still cool to this day, recreating an awe-inspiring road one would have to travel in order to fully appreciate. Chu agrees and said the barriers the late and great musicians broke down were insurmountable.
"Jazz was created by black players in the ’20s who were not allowed to perform classical music with whites. Teddy Wilson was the first black musician to play in a white band (with Benny Goodman) and that wasn’t until 1933. In 1962 when Oscar Peterson was at the top of his game, blacks weren’t even allowed to get in taxis to go to their gigs. Nina Simone is considered the greatest jazz vocalist ever and she moved to France to protest against the treatment of blacks in the music business."
The legends suffered terribly for the sake of their art and their music touches the soul even today. Whether it’s traditional jazz, funky jazz, modern jazz like Norah Jones and Diana Krall or electronic jazz from the likes of St. Germaine, jazz is the definition of cool.
Catch Chu most nights at the Bearfoot Bistro or for Fathers Day Brunch at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s newly renovated Wildflower Café from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of the Whistler Jazz and Blues Festival.
CHU’S TOP CHOICES
If you can’t seem to get your head around the hundreds of jazz albums on offer, Here’s Chu’s best bets for beginners.
"These albums are essential to any collection and will make you a jazz fan for life," he said.
1. Errol Garner’s Concert By The Sea and Original Misty . "Errol was probably the best entertainer in jazz ever. The first album was recorded live in Carmel, California in 1936 but is still one of the top sellers even today. Misty has been recorded so many times and even had a movie written about it (Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty For Me). He’s also Linton’s little brother."
2. Oscar Peterson’s Night Train . "This is jazz in its simplest form. The trio is irresistible with a nice, swinging rhythm."
3. Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue . "Miles was always changing things making jazz very exciting and innovative. His choice of songs on this album changed the face of jazz to a more contemporary style. He could play for hours upon hours in one sitting."
4. Bill Evan’s Live At The Village Vanguard . "It was recorded in New York City at a club on 52 nd Street and is very pleasant to listen to. He’s a very academic player but sensitive to keeping the melody and the lyric line going. Even those who say they hate jazz seem to love Evans."
LIVING GREATS TO GO SEE:
• Ahmad Jamal. "The colours he can create from sound are just unbelievable." He is credited with forming the first modern jazz group in 1956.
• Ramsey Lewis. "Some people criticize him for selling out since he got his own radio show and several Grammy awards but his influence on many other bands was amazing. His drummer, Maurice White, went on to form Earth, Wind and Fire and you can hear Lewis’ style of jazz in there with the chord changes and the horn changes."
• Dave Brubeck. "He’s 80 but he’s still playing. He was at last year’s Vancouver Jazz Fest." He had the first jazz song that sold a million copies with Take Five.
• Jimmy Smith. One of the founding fathers on the Hammond organ and influential in jazz as both a player and club owner to this day.
• Oscar Peterson. "He’s still alive but doesn’t play very often since his stroke but he’s a true legend and Canadian to boot."
• Some of the younger guys to catch are the Steve Wilson Quartet, and Joshua Redman.
