Album Notes

DT was a large and generous influence on two coast-to-coast generations of jazz players despite a sparse discography that belied his legend and status.

Out of a life’s work including the Will Mastin Trio, the Lionel Hampton band, Charlie Mingus, his own quintets and large ensembles, and countless performances with other members of the US and Canadian jazzistocracy, there was little ever available except for an early single, some recordings with the Pat Riccio big band in Ottawa, sessions with Tommy Ambrose and with Norman Symonds, pop-song arrangements for John Allan Cameron and Gordon Lightfoot, and his contributions as long-time M.D. for Anne Murray projects. All we have even from his good-time relationship with players like Jimmy McGriff is the patchy “Bluesprint” of 1983

“C’Est Si Bon” sets the record a little straighter.

Recorded privately over a couple of evenings in 1989, at a time when Don’s earlier bebop-based style had flowered into a simpler melodic and full-toned post-Turrentine approach, the CD manages to capture what we all loved about him