Information/Write-up
Pete Schofield was a Don Mills–based bandleader, saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, and educator who carved out a unique place in Canada’s music landscape by championing the sound of young musicians. Beginning in the 1960s, he built one of Toronto’s most ambitious youth big-band programs, assembling ensembles of exceptionally talented teen players and guiding them through professional-level repertoire, arrangements, and recording sessions long before high-school jazz bands became common. His groups — often billed as Pete Schofield & The Canadians — blended the discipline and sophistication of the swing era with the modern pop, soul, and soundtrack influences shaping contemporary radio, creating a “now sound” that echoed Benny Goodman and Count Basie as confidently as Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb, and film theme composers of the day.
Working from Toronto’s Don Mills community, Schofield rehearsed, arranged, and recorded with remarkable focus, turning basements and school auditoriums into training grounds for young brass, reed, and rhythm-section players. His bands were promoted in period liner notes as youthful — ages often ranging from fourteen to seventeen — yet they performed with a maturity and precision that drew attention from broadcasters, festival organizers, and audiences across Ontario. The ensemble won recognition at the Western Ontario Band Festival in 1966, appeared in concert halls, gymnasiums, and civic events, and helped establish a pipeline of emerging talent in the Toronto region. For many players, Schofield’s band was the first step toward a life in music; future jazz figures, including tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart, credited these early opportunities as formative.
Schofield recorded several albums capturing this fresh hybrid of dance-band swing and pop-era flair. His first widely distributed LPs — including It’s a Sign of the Times and The Now Sound — appeared on Quality Records’ Birchmount label, featuring spirited interpretations of hits such as “San Jose,” “Wichita Lineman,” and “Up, Up & Away,” alongside standards like “The Shadow of Your Smile.” He later launched his own imprint, P.S. Records, to issue Do Something Nice Today! and Yes It’s Toronto, the latter highlighting vocalist Karen Hendrix and celebrating the band’s civic roots with renewed confidence and broader orchestral colour. Across these recordings, Schofield showcased crisp horn voicings, polished rhythm work, and the enthusiasm of young musicians performing charts designed to stretch both skill and imagination.
Beyond his recordings, Schofield’s true legacy lies in mentorship. He nurtured musical ability at the grassroots, bridging classical woodwind training, jazz arranging, commercial studio sensibilities, and stagecraft. His bands represented a rare blend of community spirit and professional expectation — a place where teenagers learned charts straight from the bandstand tradition, were treated as serious musicians, and performed with the drive and polish of far older ensembles. In doing so, he contributed to the development of a generation of Toronto players and helped sustain big-band culture in Canada during a changing musical era.
Pete Schofield remains remembered not only for the albums that captured his youthful, contemporary swing sound, but for the hundreds of young musicians who passed through his program — many of whom continued into Canada’s jazz, studio, and music-education communities. His recordings offer a snapshot of a vibrant moment when modern pop met big-band tradition in suburban Toronto, and when one bandleader's dedication turned after-school rehearsals into something far larger: a proving ground for Canada’s next wave of talent.
-Robert Williston
Karen Hendrix: vocals
Ted Toppin: organ
Mark Crawford: guitar
John Welsh: tenor saxophone
Pete Nowak: alto saxophone
Myles Crawford: percussion
Reeds:
Pete Schofield
Glen Schofield
John Welsh
Mike Higgins
Pete Nowak
Rhythm:
Ted Toppin
Mark Crawford
Randy Greene
Gary Krantz
Brass:
Heather Banks
Judy Morgan
Norm Hear
Terry Anton
Engineered by Glenn Clarke
Recorded at Sound Canada, Toronto, Ontario
Photography by Jim Dawson
Front cover artwork by Jacquie Jacobs
Liner notes:
In big bands, it’s youth that counts. Harry James sweetened the Benny Goodman sound when he was a mere 19, Stan Getz joined Jack Teagarden at 15. Harry Carney had just turned 16 when he brought his baritone to Duke Ellington’s band and had to sit on his telephone book in those big hotel ballrooms where crowds often danced and ate at floor level. Sure, the music had a maturity that the young of modern jazz can only dream of, but time was still needed to get into sync on the bandstand. When the band did get into full swing, though, Ellington needed his fullest power to be sure of being heard above the ruffle of tongues round the supper tables, and one improvisation would be passed round the soloists like a baton round a dash to the tape; even the drummer was expected to do his bit on the drums.
That was the early swing period, “swing” being the tenor soloist and the vocalist baritone in front of the saxophones. The modern pattern is surprisingly similar. The big band has become the expression of youth and its music is the sound of modern jazz today. The old unique woodwind blend is sometimes still there but the drumming of years of rock music opens up the bands more than any other percussion instrument. Pete Schofield has revived that blend of full-blown band maturity.
This band follows the traditions of the big band swing and the excitement of the past, beating plenty of modern weight behind its brass and woodwinds, aiming at the same kind of new dimensions that jazz has always sought. This is not just nostalgia, however, it is a brand new scene. Or, as one yet yourself plunges into the fascinating romance of ‘Loves Theme,’ to Humphrey’s and to all Canadians, to have the warmth of a new night club sound, or a ballad sound, the beat-in ‘Do It’ and a sense of sentimentality.
Mark Crawford handles the guitar solos, only one of two old beat men enough to show he’s following in the path blazed by an earlier Schofield guitar phenomenon, Bobby Edwards. Karen Hendrix sings this with a jazz singer’s vitality—her punchy voice has the sweetness and the force of naivety you expect today from older artists. Mark’s solos are built on a ballad sense, a way of hanging on to lyrics that suggests maturity beyond a simple rock romp.
Pete Schofield’s band represents a new image—his success on the dance circuit in recent years, his adeptness with which Schofield’s speed and strength, were once manpower we usually associate with old jazz screamers—make up the full vitality of the Toronto big band sound. The band has drive, precision, and quick perception. Without the pensive romantic feeling that Harry James and Stan Getz and Harry Carney. Youth, no matter what the geography, is still being served in the big band.
Syd Bankston
JAZZ CRITIC FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
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