Charlie Biddle

Charles Reed Biddle, CM, ( born July 28, 1926 in Philadelphia, † February 3, 2003 in Montreal ) was a native of the U.S., Canadian bassist.

Life and work

Biddle was born in Philadelphia and spent most of his career in Montreal, Quebec, although he was only in the last years of his life Canadian citizen. After military service in the U.S. Army during the Second World War, which he spent in China, India and Burma, he studied music at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he began with the bass playing. In 1948, he moved to Montreal when he was with Vernon Isaac's Three Jacks and a Jill on tour. Biddle was impressed by the prevailing particularly in Quebec acceptance of African-American jazz musicians and decided to settle in Montreal, where he married soon after.

From 1954 to 1972 Biddle worked in the main job as a car salesman next he performed with pianist Charlie Ramsey, Milt Sealey, Alfie Wade, Sadik Hakim and Stan Patrick in various Montreal's night clubs. As a promoter he booked musicians such as Johnny Hodges, John Coltrane, Pepper Adams, Bill Evans, Art Farmer, Tommy Flanagan and Thad Jones for appearances in Montréal. Between 1959 and 1978 he appeared again and again with guitarist Nelson Symonds, so from 1961 to 1963 under Biddle's leadership in clubs Dunn's or La Tête de l'Art, and Symonds ' line from 1964 to 1968 in the Black Bottom. As a duo, they performed in various departments 1974-1978.

Biddle was known primarily as an important supporter and promoter of jazz in Montreal. He often organized festivals with local Jazzmusicians, such as jazz Chez Nous, a three-day Jazz Festival in 1979 and again in 1983, which laid the groundwork for the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

In 1981, he was a Montreal's Jazz Club in Aylmer Street its name, which then as Biddle 's (now House of Jazz) has been known and where his daughter Stephanie Biddle in the Bruce Willis movie The Whole Nine Yards occurs. Biddle himself entered his life at the club on, under the name Charlie Biddle on the fiddle, and as a leader of the trio, along with Oliver Jones, Steve Holt, Wray Downes and Jon Ballantyne. In 2000 he became a Canadian citizen. Biddle had also been playing recordings of Milt Sealey, Ted Curson and Oliver Jones. He also appeared in films such as The Whole Nine Yards (2000), The Moderns ( 1988) and Les Portes Tour Antes (1988).

Awards

Biddle was in 2000 awarded the Oscar Peterson Prize; In 2003 he was Member of the Order of Canada and was honored in the same year the Prix Calixa Lavallée -.

Disco Graphical Notes

• In good company, Downes, Jones, O'Neal piano, Muhammad Drums, guitar ring (1996 )