LIFESON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-06-04 published
Domenic TROIANO,
Musician: 1946-2005
He was a musician's musician who mesmerized both practitioners
and audiences, writes Sandra
MARTIN. A self-taught guitarist
yet a perfectionist, he was a master of his own style
By Sandra MARTIN,
Saturday,
June 4, 2005, Page S7
Guitarist, composer, producer, Domenic
TROIANO was a musician's
musician. Although he played mostly in Toronto, he was widely
celebrated by fans and other musicians for his skillful guitar
work and a finely honed style that morphed from rock to soul
to jazz-fusion. "He lived to make music. It was his life," said
Larry LEBLANC,
Canadian bureau chief of Billboard magazine. As
another great guitarist Randy Bachman said this week: "I'm sure
the heavenly jam sessions with Lenny
BREAU and Jimi Hendrix are
taken to a new level, now that Dom has arrived."
Domenic TROIANO was born in Italy just after the end of the Second
World War and immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was
3. They settled in Toronto where his younger brother Frank and
sister Gina were born. While he was still a student at East York
Collegiate Institute, he taught himself to play the guitar by
studying chord books, aping the sound of such rock 'n' roll icons
as Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley and by watching other guitarists
play. He loved rhythm and blues and used to slide into the kid's
side of the Concord Tavern on Bloor Street West on Saturday afternoons
to sip soft drinks and listen to Ronnie
HAWKINS and visiting
rockers.
By the time he was 16 he was playing in a band, Robbie Lane and
the Disciples. The first song he ever wrote, The One For Me,
became the B-side on the group's first single. He got his first
real break two years later when Ronnie
HAWKINS hired him to replace
Robbie Robertson who had decamped to play with Bob Dylan. "He
was raised right. His parents had that old-school morality, do
everything right," said Mr.
HAWKINS. "He was a quiet type. I
don't think he has ever made an enemy in the world."
Asked what appealed to him about Mr.
TROIANO's playing, Mr.
HAWKINS
said: "He was so into that guitar and music. Nothing else mattered.
That came first. And guys who are like that become the great
musicians."
Mr. TROIANO stayed with Mr.
HAWKINS for less than a year before
leaving to develop his own sound and to form a series of evolving
groups including the Rogues, The Mandala (1965-69) and Bush (1970-71).
He replaced Joe Walsh as the lead guitarist when he played with
The James Gang from 1972-73. He toured a lot in the United States
with his bands in the 1960s and '70s and released the classic
hits Opportunity in 1967 and Love-itis in 1968.
Musician Randy Bachman, formerly of the Bachman Turner Overdrive,
remembers Mr.
TROIANO from the 1960s. "Being from Winnipeg and
having the influence of [guitarist] Lenny
BREAU at the beginning
of my guitar career, I was interested to hear that when Lenny
moved to Toronto, his influence took root there too," Mr. Bachman
said in an email message this week.
"I heard about this cool guitar player who played a Tele and
gigged in an R&B band called The Mandala. I got their album and
Dom's guitar work was a cool mixture of funk/R&B and Lenny
BREAU
stuff, all in one. I saw them play several times and was mesmerized
by both the band and Domenic. Then later I saw him in Bush with
the same reaction. He was totally cool and really laid down some
stuff."
Years later, when Mr. Bachman made his Axe album, he invited
Mr. TROIANO to play on it and he "graciously" did. "We spent
a few days in Chicago jamming together," Mr. Bachman said. "He
was a great person with a beautiful spirit and was a true master
of his own guitar style. I later loved and envied his television
sound-track work. He was a great artist and will be sadly missed
by many."
After
Mr.
Bachman left The Guess Who, Mr.
TROIANO joined the
group as lead guitarist in 1974. By then, the band had scored
big with hits such as These Eyes and American Woman. At the time,
they were coasting on their popularity and indulging themselves
both on stage and off. "He brought a discipline to the group
that had been missing," said Mr.
LEBLANC of Billboard magazine.
"He helped them clean up their image and refine their sound."
He formed The Domenic Troiano band in 1976. It lasted for three
years. Later, he said that he "started to get tired of the band
thing." Although Mr.
TROIANO was revered by other musicians,
he was also feared because he demanded such a high performance
level. "He could be hard-nosed if musicians were making mistakes
or there was an equipment problem," admitted Mr.
LEBLANC.
Still,
Mr. TROIANO "embraced" and mentored musicians who satisfied his
standards, no matter how young or unknown they were.
One of them was a 13-year-old kid named Alex
ZIVOJINOVIC (later
Alex LIFESON of Rush) who approached him at a Canada Day concert
in North York in 1967. The Mandala were playing and Alex was
a huge fan. "He was so innovative. His tonality was unheard of
at the time." Alex went over after and asked for an autograph.
"I told him I was a guitar player and I had dreams of doing what
he was doing and he was very sweet and kind to me and gave me
great encouragement to keep it up and keep playing," Mr.
LIFESON
said in a telephone interview. "I never forgot that."
Mr. TROIANO also made a number of solo albums, including The
Joke's On Me and Fret Fever, played for other musicians such
as Diana Ross and Joe Cocker and produced albums for singers,
including his one-time wife
Shawne
JACKSON. He also worked as
a session musician and composer of sound tracks for films and
television programs such as Night Heat, Diamonds and Hot Shots.
Working in television allowed him to use technology and be much
more experimental with the sound he was producing.
When he first signed on to do the music for Night Heat, he thought,
"this isn't the kind of thing I do," he told an interviewer,
but looking back he realized that it was "the perfect job" for
him. That's because he loved working in the studio. For him,
composing mood music was like "finger-painting, which is something
I used to love doing at school."
By the time Mr.
LIFESON met up with Mr.
TROIANO again at an awards
show in the 1990s, he was himself a famous musician with his
band Rush. The two men laughed and reminisced after Mr.
LIFESON
told Mr. TROIANO of their first encounter. "He's always been
a fabulous guitarist, a really good songwriter and a great arranger,"
said Mr. LIFESON. "
He's a fabulous musician -- very, very well
balanced. But he's also a bright, intelligent man with a great
sense of humour. Many people loved him."
About a decade ago Mr.
TROIANO was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
He was in reasonable health until late last year, thanks to a
holistic and homeopathic regimen, according to Mr.
LIFESON, who
visited him in hospital earlier this year. A tribute is being
planned at the national jazz awards in Toronto next month.
Domenic TROIANO was born in Modugno, Italy, on January 17, 1946.
He died of prostate cancer on May 25, 2005, in Toronto. He was
59. He is survived by his former wife Shawne Jackson, his mother,
a brother and a sister.
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LIFSCHITZ o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-10-17 published
ROSENBERG,
Dora (née
LIFSCHITZ)
Peacefully, on Monday, October 10, 2005 at the Bayview Extendicare
Nursing
Home.
Dora Rosenberg beloved wife of the late David
ROSENBERG
for 50 years. Loving mother and mother-in-law of Paula and Stephen
REID and the late Judith
MONTROSE. Dear sister of the late Reuben.
Devoted grandmother of Aimee. A graveside service will be held
in the Community Section of Pardes Shalom Cemetery on Monday,
October 17, 2005 at 1: 00 p.m. Dora was loved and will be sadly
missed.
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