Lenny Breau on Bass with Quintet Live in Edmonton 1961/ Excerpt from Interview with Don Thompson
In 1960, Lenny Breau began studying and performing jazz with his friend and mentor, Bob Erlendson. Bob bought a Hofner electric bass for Lenny to use on their early gigs at Winnipeg's first jazz club, The Stage Door, because he felt that Lenny would benefit from learning the harmonic underpinnings of their material on the four-string instrument.
But Lenny quickly went beyond simply outlining the chord sequences of the songs in their repertoire on bass. He developed a virtuosic command of the instrument and often played complex solos in performance. His prowess on the instrument was well-known in the Prairie jazz community and in January 1961, his friend--drummer Terry Hawkeye--hired him to play bass with a quintet for a two week booking at the legendary Yardbird Suite jazz club in Edmonton, Alberta.
Lenny took the gig with the quintet, which consisted of Terry Hawkeye, Mike Downes on trumpet, Ken Cheney on piano and Dale Hillary on sax. (Hilary and Downes had both recently left Philly Jo Jone's band to return to their native Canada)
The gig ran from January 15th to January 29th, 1961 and a few days into the booking, CKUA Radio from the University of Alberta, taped two songs from the quintet's performance: "Spontaneous Combustion' and Blue 'n Boogie'. On the former, Lenny took a remarkable solo that brought down the house. This recording appears to be the only known recording featuring Lenny Breau on bass.
Lenny's friend and sometimes band mate, bassist Don Thompson was deeply impressed with Lenny's ability on the four string bass and praised Lenny in an interview with Ron Forbes-Roberts in 2000. An excerpt of that interview is heard prior to the live recording.
1. Interview with Don Thompson
2. CKUA Announcement 02:00
3 Spontaneous Combustion 02:40
4 Blue n' Boogie 12:00