This one is going to need an apology before you listen to it.
On this edition of the Scene In the Wild Podcask I sat down with Alberta bepop sax legend PJ Perry in the Wild Rose Taproom on a Friday afternoon.
It was such a great chat, an unexpectedly light, loose and lively conversation — with actual jokes told by the Edmonton-based musician — that there may be a whole lot of annoying laughter filling your ears from the chucklehead who was sitting across from him.
For that, I’m sorry.
But not for what we managed to capture with our hour-long conversation with the 76-year-old Perry. He was a delight — open, engaging, funny, a great storyteller with great stories to tell.
Some of what we touched on included: his thoughts on the classic album Charlie Parker with Strings, which he was in town to perform; his childhood learning under the tutelage of his famous father Paul Guloien; gigging every summer in Sylvan Lake at a very young age; meeting and playing with such jazz biggies as Dizzy Gillespie; his self-doubt over his musicianship; the dark side of being a musician; and his friendship Tommy Banks, who passed away just over a week before we spoke.
As always, thanks very much to Lorrie Matheson for producing Scene In the Wild at his Arch Audio Studio, to Wild Rose for sponsoring it and hosting the interview in their Taproom, and to Perry for sitting down and sharing a little bit of his life with us.
If you like it, please feel free to head to iTunes and download the rest of the episodes for free, perhaps even subscribe to the Podcask and get updates whenever we post a new one.
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Cheers.
