Canadian guitarist Sonny Greenwich (above) is still with us. He has performed with musicians such as Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, John Handy and Sun Ra. So I was excited last week when I received the following from Matt LeGroulx in Montreal:
Hi Marc. First, thank you and Brigitte Berman for making her "Bix" documentary available to your readers. What a great film. Second, I just came across "It Ain't All Jazz," a documentary about guitarist Sonny Greenwich by his son, though it's equally about pianist Wray Downes and drummer Archie Alleyne, all Canadian jazz legends. Great performances and stories from all three.
They don't sugarcoat their experiences as Black men in North America. It's an essential watch for fans of Montreal jazz and Canadian music in general. Archie passed away in 2015, but Wray only left us last year. Canadian jazz sometimes may seem to begin and end with Oscar Peterson, but scratch the surface and there's so much depth.
Here's the documentary, It Ain't All Jazz...
