Information/Write-up
Guido Basso was one of the most important and distinctive brass voices in Canadian music, whose career spanned jazz, television, studio recording, big band leadership, and popular orchestral work. Born in Montréal, Québec, he began playing trumpet at the age of nine and studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. By his early teens he was already working professionally, performing under the nickname “Stubby” Basso in dance bands and show orchestras led by figures such as Al Nichols and Maury Kaye.
While appearing with Kaye at El Morocco in Montréal, Basso was heard by American singer Vic Damone, who hired the young trumpeter and took him on tour in 1957–58. This marked the beginning of several years of steady work in the United States. From 1958 to 1960, Basso toured extensively across North America with Pearl Bailey and the orchestra led by her husband, drummer Louis Bellson, gaining first-hand experience in major concert halls, theatres, and television productions while still in his teens.
In 1960, Basso relocated to Toronto, where he quickly became one of the city’s most in-demand studio trumpeters. He was a first-call musician for recording sessions, radio broadcasts, film and television work, and commercial jingles, and his playing soon became embedded across a wide cross-section of Canadian popular recording beyond strictly jazz contexts. He was also noted for his versatility, occasionally taking on harmonica assignments alongside his brass work. Toronto would remain his professional base for the remainder of his career.
Basso became a familiar national presence through his long association with the CBC. From 1963 to 1967 he served as musical director for the CBC-TV program Nightcap, followed by similar duties for Barris and Company from 1968 to 1969. He co-starred with vibraphonist Peter Appleyard on the CBC-TV series Mallets and Brass in 1969, was musical director for CBC Radio’s After Noon from 1969 to 1971, and later led orchestras for two major CBC-TV series devoted to big band music, In the Mood (1971–72) and Bandwagon (1972–73). In 1975, he organized and led large ensembles for high-profile concerts at the Canadian National Exhibition featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman.
Alongside his broadcasting work, Basso remained active as a performer in Toronto nightclubs and hotel lounges, leading small groups that often blended jazz and Latin rhythms. He was also a central soloist with many of Canada’s leading jazz ensembles, including the Boss Brass, the Rob McConnell Tentet, Nimmons ’N’ Nine Plus Six, and the big bands of Ron Collier and others. His flugelhorn playing, in particular, became widely admired for its warmth, lyricism, and expressive control, qualities that were heard to great effect on numerous Boss Brass recordings.
At the same time, Basso’s studio career extended deeply into Canadian pop, rock, soul, reggae, and television recording. His trumpet appears on a remarkably broad range of sessions, including recordings by artists as stylistically distant as Jackie Mittoo and Teenage Head, illustrating his role as a trusted first-call professional whose sound moved effortlessly between jazz ensembles, pop productions, reggae sessions, and punk-era rock recordings. That same adaptability placed his playing firmly within the wider soundscape of Canadian broadcast culture, including appearances on hockey-related recordings such as Lafleur! and the Hockey Night in Canada theme.
Despite his stature within Canadian jazz, Basso was often reluctant to present himself strictly as a jazz artist, preferring to work across stylistic boundaries. He was nonetheless capable of incisive bebop trumpet work when required and became well known for his oft-quoted observation that “you attack a trumpet, and you make love to a flugelhorn,” a phrase that neatly summarized his approach to tone and phrasing.
As studio work declined in the late 1970s, Basso shifted much of his professional focus toward leading what became one of Toronto’s most successful society orchestras, maintaining a high level of performance activity well into later decades. His contributions to Canadian music were formally recognized in 1994, when he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. Guido Basso passed away on February 13, 2023, at the age of 85.
-Robert Williston
Musicians
Guido Basso: trumpet, flugelhorn
Phil Nimmons: clarinet
Peter Appleyard: vibraphone
Moe Koffman: alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute
Rob McConnell: valve trombone
Gary Morgan: baritone saxophone
Ed Bickert: guitar
Bruce Harvey: piano
Don Thompson: bass
Terry Clarke: drums
Arrangements
‘Two Bourées’ arranged by Moe Koffman
Songwriting
‘Suite P.E.I.’ written by Phil Nimmons (BMI)
‘Fascinating Rhythm’ written by George Gershwin (ASCAP)
‘Two Bass Hit’ written by Dizzy Gillespie and John Lewis (ASCAP)
‘Liberated Brother’ written by Horace Silver
‘Two Bourées’ written by Johann Sebastian Bach (Public Domain)
Notes
CBC / Radio-Canada broadcast recording
Recorded live at the Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, Ontario
Liner notes
The music included in this album features some of the best-known jazz musicians in North America. The CBC achieved the impossible by gathering these players together for two concerts and committing the results to disc.
I had the good fortune to emcee a concert by this group in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, early in August 1973, just three weeks before the concert at the CNE. It rained for the four days we were there but this neither dampened the spirits of the musicians nor the twenty-five-hundred member audience. Before the concert I was a little worried about how these guys would be received in a city known more for its pastoral scenery. I shouldn’t have worried at all; the response was just as good as the All-Stars received at the Bandshell of the Canadian National Exhibition on August 29, 1973 — with double the audience!
The front line alone consisted of four leaders: Gary Morgan on baritone; Rob McConnell on valve trombone; Guido Basso on trumpet and flugel horn; and Moe Koffman on alto sax and flute. The rhythm section was second-to-none: Terry Clarke, drums; Don Thompson, bass; Ed Bickert, guitar; and Bruce Harvey on piano. Then, of course, there were the two special guests: Phil Nimmons (long-time leader of Nimmons ‘N’ 6) on clarinet; and international-known vibraphonist, Peter Appleyard.
The most extensive work on the program is a Nimmons’ composition featuring Nimmons on clarinet. It’s in three parts, dedicated to the beautiful island province of P.E.I., and entitled “Suite P.E.I.” The slow languid part depicts the rolling hills, the green grass, the red soil. The tempo changes and utilizes the folk music of the Scottish settlers.
This past summer, going across Canada with the King-Sized Jazz Festival, I watched the thousands in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver applaud the artistry of Peter Appleyard. He manages to bring the house down wherever he plays. Here is an example as Peter plays “Fascinating Rhythm” accompanied by Terry, Don, Ed and Bruce.
The first two tracks on the second side bring us the All-Stars playing some great jazz. First of all, a John Lewis/Dizzy Gillespie composition (a sequel to “One Bass Hit”), which later became La Ronde and was recorded by the Modern Jazz Quartet in 1952, featuring the drumming of Kenny Clarke. This arrangement features the drumming of another Clarke, Terry, plus Moe Koffman’s alto sax, Guido’s muted trumpet and some strong support from Rob McConnell and Gary Morgan. Listen to the way each jazz chorus builds a little more than the last . . . and in the case of Guido’s solo, he is accompanied at first by Don Thompson’s great bass . . . and then, too, Guido.
The Horace Silver composition, “Liberated Brother”, serves as a fine base for some great solos by Moe Koffman on soprano sax, the fiery Rob McConnell on valve trombone and Bruce Harvey on piano — all helped by the driving rhythm section of Terry, Don, Ed and Bruce.
The final track features Moe Koffman on his first love, the flute. Moe has had so much success with his albums of adaptations of some of the great masters that it was only natural that he should come up with “Two Bourees” for his feature on the concert. Listen also to Ed Bickert’s guitar on this final track.
Well, there’s not much more to say except I hope you enjoy the music just half as much as I enjoyed reliving the PEI and CNE concerts in the Summer of ’73.
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