Jazz Works

In the 21st century, it is widely understood that, to make a living in jazz, Canadian musicians must either take a day job or seek out commercial opportunities in the United States. But it wasn’t always so. Until 1980, Toronto was home to a thriving music industry, driven in large part by a vibrant advertising and film music business. Indeed, far from leaving Canada for greener pastures to the south, musicians (including some Americans) were moving to Toronto. As U.S.-born musician Tom Szczesniak noted, “The streets were paved with gold.” This story complicates broadly accepted jazz discourses in a number of ways. Since it is based in Toronto rather than canonical U.S. jazz centers, it asks readers to re-examine common assumptions about North American jazz geography. As it reveals the relationship between jingles and jazz to be essentially symbiotic (at least for a time), it forces readers to rethink the presumed antagonism between jazz and commerce. Finally, as the story moves into the 1980s, it offers a vivid glimpse into the profoundly deleterious impact of neoliberal business practices and government regulations on social networks among musicians (including the union), and the musical work that sustains them.