Tommy Banks

Thomas Benjamin Banks ( born December 17, 1936 in Calgary, Alberta ) is a Canadian politician ( member of the Senate from 2000 to 2011 ), who worked as a jazz pianist and long TV shows had as a musician. He also worked as a conductor.

Life and work

Banks moved in 1949 to Edmonton in 1949, where he in the following year a member of the quintet of Don DT Thompson was. In the sixties he had a first television show, The Solo Piano of Tommy Banks. From 1968 to 1983 he was the host of The Tommy Banks Show, which ran on CBC. He played with Clifford Jordan, Sonny Stitt, John Handy, Zoot Sims, Mark Murphy, Anita O'Day, Nat Adderley, Al Cohn, Pepper Adams, Joe Williams, Art Farmer and many others. He also played a number of albums with Big Miller, as well as The New Orleans Connection, Cheryl Fisher and PJ Perry. With his big band he joined in 1978 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1983 he went with his quintet as the first jazz band since 1949 in the People's Republic of China on tour.

As a conductor, he conducted symphony orchestra in North America and Europe. He released several albums on Century II Records. Between 1989 and 1995 he was a member of the Canada Council for the Arts. He is also a member of the American National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to.

In 2000, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson him appointed on the recommendation of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as a member of the Canadian Senate. As a member of the Liberal Party of Canada Banks from 2002 to 2009, the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee of the Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources. Age-related, he retired with 75 years in the Senate on 17 December 2011.

Prizes and awards

Banks received as a musician numerous awards, including the Juno Award, the Gemini Award and the Grand Prix du Disques Canada and several ARIA Awards. He is a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence and officer of the Order of Canada. He was also honored with an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta.