ARTIST
Arntzen, Lloyd
"If you're going to play jazz, you oughta know what came before."September 19, 1927—
INSTRUMENTS Soprano Sax, Voice, Clarinet
VENUES CBC Vancouver | Hot Jazz Club, the
"The music that I call jazz does not come to people's mind when they hear the word 'jazz'. They don't think of that. What they think of is Gillespie, Parker, etc. — more contemporary music. So, in a way, when I say I'm a jazz musician or I'm in a jazz band, they almost always get the wrong idea."
-Lloyd Arntzen
Clarinetist, soprano saxophonist, vocalist, songwriter Lloyd Arntzen and his family moved to Vancouver in 1946 where Lloyd went to the University of British Columbia with plans to become an engineer. While in line to sign up for the UBC Jazz Society (a student-run club), he befriended a chap standing behind him named Ian. "We couldn't find another person in the whole of Vancouver who was the least bit interested in New Orleans Jazz," Lloyd recalls. The two of them would visit record stores around town, find out from the clerks if anyone had ordered Jelly Roll Morton records, then ask for the customers' phone numbers to see if they played any musical instruments.
"Bad Lake was just a bad lake. There was no town of Bad Lake."
-Lloyd Arntzen
Lloyd grew up in a musical family in Saskatchewan who lived near a "bad lake." Performing concerts since he was three years old, Arntzen played the violin at age six and taught himself to play the clarinet in his high school band. Grandfather of "three generations of Arntzen" (sons Tom Arntzen and Leif Arntzen and their respective sons Evan Arntzen and Miles Arntzen — all musicians, naturally), Lloyd was already shaping the Arntzen legacy in his household long before his now grown-up sons could walk and talk. "My livingroom was my rehearsal space. They went to sleep from the time they were babies hearing jazz being played. And they saw what a great joy it was for me to do it," he says.
"I always liked to call my music New Orleans jazz rather than Dixieland."
-Lloyd Arntzen
In 1958, Lloyd Arntzen formed The Jazz Band Society. Its purpose was to teach people how to play New Orleans jazz. "In New Orleans jazz, you get to do something they don't do in contemporary jazz, which is polyphonic music," Lloyd explains. His first regular group, St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a 5-piece band with clarinet, trumpet, banjo, drums, and trombone, played at the Hot Jazz Club opening in the early 70s as well as the memorial for the late Dizzy Gillespie in 1971.
-Lloyd Arntzen
Clarinetist, soprano saxophonist, vocalist, songwriter Lloyd Arntzen and his family moved to Vancouver in 1946 where Lloyd went to the University of British Columbia with plans to become an engineer. While in line to sign up for the UBC Jazz Society (a student-run club), he befriended a chap standing behind him named Ian. "We couldn't find another person in the whole of Vancouver who was the least bit interested in New Orleans Jazz," Lloyd recalls. The two of them would visit record stores around town, find out from the clerks if anyone had ordered Jelly Roll Morton records, then ask for the customers' phone numbers to see if they played any musical instruments.
"Bad Lake was just a bad lake. There was no town of Bad Lake."
-Lloyd Arntzen
Lloyd grew up in a musical family in Saskatchewan who lived near a "bad lake." Performing concerts since he was three years old, Arntzen played the violin at age six and taught himself to play the clarinet in his high school band. Grandfather of "three generations of Arntzen" (sons Tom Arntzen and Leif Arntzen and their respective sons Evan Arntzen and Miles Arntzen — all musicians, naturally), Lloyd was already shaping the Arntzen legacy in his household long before his now grown-up sons could walk and talk. "My livingroom was my rehearsal space. They went to sleep from the time they were babies hearing jazz being played. And they saw what a great joy it was for me to do it," he says.
"I always liked to call my music New Orleans jazz rather than Dixieland."
-Lloyd Arntzen
In 1958, Lloyd Arntzen formed The Jazz Band Society. Its purpose was to teach people how to play New Orleans jazz. "In New Orleans jazz, you get to do something they don't do in contemporary jazz, which is polyphonic music," Lloyd explains. His first regular group, St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a 5-piece band with clarinet, trumpet, banjo, drums, and trombone, played at the Hot Jazz Club opening in the early 70s as well as the memorial for the late Dizzy Gillespie in 1971.
PHOTO GALLERY
Click on thumbnail for larger image
VIDEO
"Louis Armstrong Meets Lloyd Arntzen" (1949)
Lloyd Arntzen meets Louis Armstrong story
Lloyd Arntzen - "the music that I call jazz"
BIBLIOGRAPHY
JazzStreet Vancouver Interview
Arntzen, Lloyd. Personal Interview with Alan Matheson. Vancouver, BC. 08 Nov 2005.
