Career Options
Jazzing up the Canadian music scenePay attention to what music your kids listen to -- there just might be a career in it! Look at Dave Restivo, who was named the Canadian Jazz Keyboardist of the Year at the 2002 National Jazz Awards. DOROTHEA HELMS |
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 [ 2002-07-31 ] |
"It clicked with me. I didn't even know what jazz was, but it made sense to me," says Dave Restivo on his first time hearing it at the age of seven.
At seven years of age, he heard a Dizzy Gillespie record and developed an immediate love for the genre.
Can a seven-year-old, you might wonder, appreciate the intricacies of jazz -- the infinite combinations of riffs, grooves and harmonies that have captivated music lovers around the world? "It clicked with me," Restivo says. "It's inexplicable; I didn't even know what jazz was, but it made sense to me."
With a mother who played classical piano for enjoyment and worked as a freelance music and dance critic, Restivo was exposed to music performances of all genres early on. When promotional copies of records arrived for his mom to review, he grabbed the jazz records for himself.
By age 10, he had gravitated to the piano in their home, and "... tried to pick out the sounds I wanted to create by ear."
Today, Restivo is one of the most sought-after jazz performers on the Canadian music scene.
In 2000, his CD entitled "Prayer for Human Kind(ness)" was released to rave reviews, and he has played with the Grammy-award-winning Boss Brass since 1994. Restivo also plays with the Mike Murley Quintet and Memo Acevedo Band, and has performed with the likes of Rita de Ghent, Maynard Ferguson and Moe Koffman.
Dave has appeared on Open Mike with Mike Bullard, Canada AM and CBC's JazzBeat, and has performed at the Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver jazz festivals, plus venues across North and South America. "Dave is a born accompanist," says singer Lynn McDonald.
She and her musician husband, James, run the Amis du Jazz appreciation society from their 19th century church/home in Sonya, just north of Port Perry. "He's a favourite at the club, and he's played piano on all my CDs. He's totally intuitive, and anticipates what everyone else on stage is doing."
That intuition was fueled by guidance early in his life. At age 13, living with his family in Vermont, Restivo took piano lessons from saxophone/piano player Stephen Horenstein. By age 15, Dave had moved to Canada with his mother, and at 16 began private study in classical piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music. "This gave me a foundation in terms of the physicality of the instrument. Everyone needs a certain amount of technique to achieve freedom of expression."
In addition to performing, Dave gives private lessons and is a part-time member of the jazz faculty at Humber College.
"Anyone interested in pursuing jazz as a career needs perseverance. This business can be discouraging at times. Be versatile and flexible. Be as true to yourself as you can artistically, while maintaining a level of openness to fitting into various situations. And it's a good idea to have a back-up plan."
Dave's brand new band is called Tadpole in a Jar -- a phrase from a Led Zeppelin lyric. His wife Peggy Hope-Restivo sings with the group, and he says they enjoy working together musically, as well as parenting their two and a half-year-old daughter, Mary Margaret.
"We're interpreting Led Zeppelin music in a jazz concept," he says, and if anyone can figure out how to blend genres, it's this passionate musician.
"For me it's about music. The music that inspires me comes from many different areas, including classical, pop, folk, world music, and all the different eras and styles of jazz. I respond in a way that goes beyond category or genre. I have to connect with it emotionally, and I try not to limit what I allow to influence me."
Tadpole in a Jar will appear at Sax on Yonge again on June 25 and at Amis Du Jazz in Sonya on Aug. 4. Dave and Lynn McDonald will appear in the Oshawa Jazz Festival this summer.
(Dorothea Helms (writer@wsws.ca) is an internationally published freelance writer who co-owns a communications firm with her husband.)
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