AMBROSE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-02-13 published
Gordon Kenneth
FLEMING/FLEMMING
By Jack FORTIN
Thursday,
February 13, 2003, Page A30
Musician, husband, father. Born August 3, 1931, in Winnipeg.
Died August 31, 2002, in Scarborough, Ontario, following a stroke,
aged 71.
Gordie FLEMING/FLEMMING was a remarkable music talent, known internationally
as a master of the accordion, especially in the jazz idiom. He
was a life member of Local 149 of the Toronto Musicians' Association.
In show-business vernacular, Gordie was "born in a trunk." He
began playing accordion when his older brother gave him lessons.
His musical ability was such that he began performing publicly
at the age of five. His schoolteachers often saw him being whisked
away in a taxi to perform at theatres and radio stations in Winnipeg.
By the age of 10, he was a working member of various bands in
that city.
In 1949, Gordie lost his accordion in a fire at a Winnipeg hotel.
With the insurance money, he headed for the bright lights of
Montreal where he soon became an important part of that city's
musical life. His accordion ability was complemented by the fact
that he was also a gifted arranger and composer.
He had a marvellous ability to improvise and could string out
complex bebop lines, leaving his listeners in awe. He often slipped
a jazz phrase into ballads or commercial tunes, confirming that
jazz was indeed his first love.
One of Montreal's busiest musicians, he wrote for local orchestras,
shows, radio and television. He had perfect pitch and often wrote
without reference to a keyboard. He was at home in every type
of music from classics to jazz. For several years, he worked
at the National Film Board as a composer and musician.
In Montreal, Gordie performed with many show business headliners:
there was a wealth of home-grown talent in Montreal, such as
Oscar PETERSON and Maynard
FERGUSON, as well as other jazz musicians
who were beginning to be noticed.
Gordie had said that when when he first heard bebop it was like
entering another world. As his career indicates, he had no trouble
in that world. He worked with many personalities including: Charlie
PARKER, Mel
TORMÉ, Hank
SNOW, Lena
HORNE, Englebert
HUMPERDINCK,
Dennis DAY, Gordon
MacRAE, Cab
CALLOWAY, Nat King
COLE, Cat
STEVENS,
Rich LITTLE, Billy
ECKSTEIN, Pee Wee
HUNT, Arthur
GODFREY and
Buddy DEFRANCO.
He also performed with Tommy
AMBROSE,
Allan
MILLS, Wally
KOSTER,
Tommy HUNTER,
Bert
NIOSI, Wayne and Shuster, Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation jazz shows with Al
BACULIS, and many other Canadian
jazz musicians.
On Montreal's French music scene, Gordie performed on radio and
television with Emile
GENEST, Ti-Jean
CARIGNAN,
André
GAGNON
and Ginette
RENO. He was a featured soloist with the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra on several occasions.
Internationally, Gordie toured France in 1952 and performed with
Edith PIAF and Tino
ROSSI. He had the honour to perform for former
prime minister Pierre Elliot
TRUDEAU at a Commonwealth Conference.
He participated with other top Canadian musicians in a Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation tour to entertain Canadian and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Europe in 1952 and 1968.
For me, a memorable experience was playing in a group with Gordie
for several winters in Florida. A popular member of the Panama
City Beach family of musicians, Gordie looked forward to his
winter trek south. Many of the American musicians will miss him,
as will the many snowbirds who looked forward to hearing him
each year.
His extensive repertoire allowed Gordie to author a book called
Music of the World, in which he wrote the music to 280 songs
from more than 30 countries.
Gordie leaves his wife of 47 years, Joanne, and seven children.
Jack FORTIN is Gordie's friend.
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AMBROSE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-02-17 published
AMBROSE,
Terry
Born September 28, 1936, Cambridge, England, died on Sunday,
February 15, 2004, at Mt. Sinai Hospital. On Sunday the world
lost an exceptional man with a prodigious appetite for life.
His loving family and Friends sit around his dining room reflecting
on the rich tapestry of his experiences and this is what they
speak of: his beloved family, English history, superb French
wine, Mozart Symphonies, well-heeled shoes, wood panelled libraries,
single malts, Russian spies, English pubs, broadcast electronics,
romance languages, perennial gardens, opera librettos, animal
documentaries, English public schools, Dickensian novels, pasta
dishes, antiques, punting down the Cam, *and, and, and...*. He
will be forever adored and honoured by his eternal love Shelley,
magnificent daughters Leilah and Caroline, his wonderful son
Keith, daughter-in-law Maria, gorgeous granddaughters Grace and
Nell, Giancarlo in Salerno and his doting sister Jennifer in
Devon. We will carry on his life loving tradition. Service will
be held on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 at 2: 30 p.m. from Benjamin's
Park Memorial Chapel, 2401 Steeles Avenue West (1 light west
of Dufferin). Interment Pardes Shalom Cemetery. Shiva 30 Spruce
Street. If desired, memorial donations may be made to the Terry
Ambrose Memorial Fund, c/o The Benjamin Foundation, 3429 Bathurst Street, Toronto, M6A 2C3, 416-780-0324.
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AMBROZIC o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-07 published
Canada's
Catholic leader,
CARTER dies at 91
By Michael
VALPY
Religion And
Ethics
Reporter Monday, April 7,
2003 - Page A1
Three weeks ago, John
TURNER met Gerald Emmett
CARTER for their
annual St. Patrick's Day drink. The former prime minister held
the glass for his friend of 50 years while he sipped his Irish
whisky through a straw.
When the retired cardinal archbishop of Toronto died yesterday
morning at the age of 91, a reputation as richly coloured as
the scarlet of his soutane died with him.
Canadian Roman Catholicism will probably never see his like again:
a prince of the church who, while never unmindful of the meek
and the poor, made no bones about being comfortable rubbing elbows
with fellow princes of politics and business.
He was the close friend of prime ministers and premiers. He enjoyed
socializing in the corridors of power with people like Conrad
BLACK,
Hilary and Galen
WESTON and Fredrik
EATON. He displayed
an unabashed fondness for Progressive Conservative Party gatherings.
("I think at one Christmas party, I was the only Liberal there,"
Mr. TURNER said in an interview.)
Yet academics and religious and business leaders also spoke yesterday
of a man with an acute understanding of Canada and its history.
They described an intense, intellectual democrat who believed
he should speak out forcefully on the moral and political issues
of the day and who welcomed debate with those who disagreed with
him. And they talked of a cleric who profoundly understood the
nature of the church and who welcomed ecumenism and Canada's
emerging pluralism.
"He felt the institution of religion should have a public voice
and he was not shy about exercising it," said Michael
HIGGINS,
principal of St. Jerome's University in Waterloo and co-author
of My Father's Business, the 1990 biography of Cardinal
CARTER.
"Whenever he spoke, his voice was strong, clear, public, undiluted
and welcomed by political leaders even when they disagreed with
him. It is an unfortunate circumstance that the marginalization
of religious debate occurred at the same time as he was eclipsed
by a stroke, retirement and age, at a time when his church needed
him. He embodied a certain kind of churchman we probably won't
see again."
Cardinal CARTER suffered a stroke in 1981 and retired in 1990.
Cardinal Aloysius
AMBROZIC, his successor as archbishop of Toronto,
said Cardinal
CARTER "wanted to know what the movers and shakers
were doing."
Cardinal AMBROZIC described him as a man totally engaged with
his church and with his society -- an advocate for the poor,
for immigrants and for the homeless.
"What I admired about him, what I found so instructive about
him, was his sense of responsibility for the church and for society
at large. He was very much a man of Vatican 2 [the church's 1962-65
ecumenical council] and he knew what the Catholic Church was
about."
There was also, said Cardinal
AMBROZIC, "his own personal style.
He had panache."
The priest who rose from a working-class Montreal background
to become the most powerful cleric in Canada met Mr.
TURNER when
the former prime minister was a young lawyer in Montreal doing
legal work for the church. "He was a great human being who understood
the balance between the religious and secular worlds," Mr.
TURNER
said.
"He loved tennis, and he had a wicked serve."
Former prime minister Pierre
TRUDEAU consulted him on the Constitution
in the early 1980s and became a close friend. At the celebration
of Cardinal
CARTER's 75th birthday in 1987, instructions were
given that an entire pew was to be reserved for Mr.
TRUDEAU in
Toronto's St. Michael's Cathedral.
Mr. TRUDEAU delayed his arrival until just before the cardinal
entered the church. "All eyes were trained on
TRUDEAU until Cardinal
CARTER arrived," said Dr.
HIGGINS. "It was symbolic of the close
relationship they had."
Toronto's
Anglican
Archbishop, Terence
FINLAY, who first met
Cardinal CARTER when they were both bishops in London, Ontario,
in the 1970s, said the Roman Catholic Church in Canada had lost
a great leader.
"He enabled us to bring our churches closer together. I certainly
counted on him as a friend and colleague. He had an impressive
understanding of Canada's history and political situations. He
knew who we were."
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