TORONTO – Widely respected Canadian jazz musician Peter Appleyard, a master of the vibraphone who shared the stage with some of his genre’s most legendary performers, has died. He was 84.
Appleyard died Wednesday night at home of natural causes, confirmed his friend and manager John Cripton of Great World Artists.
Born in Lincolnshire on the east coast of England, Appleyard became a drummer during the Second World War before immigrating to Toronto in 1951.
He started his own band in 1956 and immediately began lining up commercial work with frequent television and radio appearances including hosting gigs on CBC-Radio’s Patti and Peter (alongside Patti Lewis) and the CBC-TV program Mallets and Brass with Guido Basso.
But his career took a pivotal turn in 1972 when a casual conversation with famed clarinetist Benny Goodman — the “King of Swing'” — turned into a head-turning position in Goodman’s sextet as well as globe-trotting tours for Appleyard.
Ultimately, Appleyard would share the stage with such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Mel Torme and Ella Fitzgerald.
WATCH PETER APPLEYARD LIVE AT KOERNER HALL:
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