2013 Inductee: Nancy Walker

The 2008 National Jazz Awards ceremony, held at the Palais Royale in Toronto, was a bittersweet affair for jazz fans from Mississauga. The program included a posthumous tribute to three jazz giants who had all lived in Mississauga at one time in their lives. The three were the incomparable pianist Oscar Peterson who was inducted into the Mississauga Music Walk of Fame last year, guitarist and jazz historian Jeff Healey and Doug Riley, the talented writer and pianist who founded and led the group called Dr. Music.

But while the Canadian jazz community paid tribute to those late lions that night, they also recognized another Mississauga musician, one who had five previous National Jazz Awards nominations. That was the night that Nancy Walker was honoured as Canadian Keyboardist of the Year.

When I spoke to Nancy the next day about winning the award, she was typically humble. First, she made it absolutely clear she does NOT consider music appreciation to be a competitive sport. Then she made it clear that any one of the other nominees – who were a stellar group — made up of David Braid, Robi Botos, David Restivo and David Virelles would have been just as worthy a winner.

In fact she pointed out that all of them “have awesome technique, much more so than I do.” But then she added something very telling: “sometimes it’s more a matter of people being moved by your playing on an emotional level.”

Indeed.

If you look at the reviews of Nancy’s half-dozen CDs, issued roughly every three years since 1997, you will see her playing described as “instinctual, strong, expressive, full-bodied, contemporary, probing, contemplative, angular, harmonically savvy, lyrical and intrepid,” to name just a few of the adjectives that professional critics have used to try to pin her down.

“She’s very imaginative and dedicated to what she’s doing,” says her colleague Rosemary Galloway with whom she plays in the Jane Fair/Rosemary Galloway quintet. “Her style evolves constantly and it is a signature that is clearly her own. She seems to always be listening and collaborating with different players — so she’s always expanding her horizons.”

Nancy was born and lived in Montreal until the age of seven when her family moved to Oakville. She was always keen on music but as is so often the case, an inspirational teacher took a special interest in her talent and really incited her passion for it.

His name was John Macdonald. He taught at Blakelock Secondary School by day but was also a successful pianist and arranger who had worked with the likes of Rick Wilkins and Rob McConnell.

Nancy played trumpet at the time but showed early interest in composition. Even in those days, she had big musical ambitions. She wrote an original composition for a 60-piece concert band. Although to quote Nancy, she “didn’t have a clue” about what she was doing, Mr. Macdonald ignored all the technical flaws and just said “let’s play it.” And it was performed in school concerts twice.

Although she had been accepted to Boston’s Berklee School of Music on trumpet, Nancy decided she didn’t have the stamina for that instrument and switched to piano when she enrolled in the Humber College jazz program. When she graduated, she started working right away in the cocktail lounges, bars and travelling show bands that were so much more plentiful in Toronto in the 1980s.

Then began a musical apprenticeship that saw her play with everyone from The Parachute Club, to Raffi, to Sylvia Tyson. She travelled all over Europe with Roger Whittaker’s show, including several stints in Germany where he was particularly popular.

It was at that point in her career she met her future husband, outstanding bassist Kieran Overs, who already had an established career in jazz. Nancy recorded her first CD, Invitation, in 1997 and has shown a steady progression in every recorded venture since. Making, financing and distributing CDs in this age is not easy but Nancy has made sure that there is a body of work extant that clearly documents her artistic growth.

In 2003, she won the prestigious Grand Prix de Jazz at the Montreal International Jazz Festival which landed her a contract with Canada’s premier jazz label, Justin Time Records and led to distribution deals in the U.S. and Europe. That record, When She Dreams, is a poignant tribute to her mother Yvonne and includes some of Nancy’s loveliest and most sensitive pieces.

Nancy has recorded with many of Canada’s best jazz artists, is a festival regular who co-hosted the late-night jam sessions at the Ottawa Jazz festivals for years, was nominated for a Juno in 2006 for one of her “side” projects, works in several groups beside her own trio and is an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Humber College.

She is a professional student in the best sense of that term who has studied with Fred Hersch, Jason Moran and Myra Melford. Her writing is melodically, harmonically and rhythmically complex. Her colleague and friend Chris Chahley says Nancy’s work – quote – “is challenging to players and listeners. It’s often difficult music that requires attention.”

He points out that “she is comfortable in so many different contexts. She is such a sensitive player. She can really feel what’s going on and support it. She has that uncanny sense to play the right thing at the right time.”

And as she has matured Chris says she has developed a “unique sound and touch which is one of the indications of a musician who has truly found her voice.”

Her last CD, New Hieroglyphics showcases that compelling voice in a variety of contexts and is the work of the mature artist at the top of her game. It deserved the universally rave reviews it received. The first time I ever interviewed Nancy, I mentioned to her jokingly that she wasn’t the only talented piano player from Montreal who happened to live in Mississauga.

The words were barely out of my mouth when she responded, “I wouldn’t put myself in the same sentence as Oscar Peterson.” He was, of course, in a class by himself in so many ways.

But there is absolutely no doubt that Nancy Walker is one of the best pianists, and best players in this country.

She may not put herself in the same sentence with Oscar Peterson, but Nancy’s going to have to get used to the fact that she does richly deserve the spot of honour — near Oscar’s — which she will receive today on the Mississauga Music Walk of Fame.