Here are a few rare video of
Nelson at his gig in Montreal. Nelson was an influence and inspiration to many guitarists, including greats like Wes and George.
sitting in with legendary
Nelson Symonds
Somewhere between 1996 and 1997, my friend
Normand Guilbeault (bass player here) told me about his gig with great guitarist Nelson Symonds. He told Nelson about me and
I got an invite to come and jam one song. As it turns out I jammed all evening. It was a wonderful experience. For most of
his career, Nelson never got the full recognition he deserved and I am pleased to highlight him here. I don't know the
drummer's name but will add it if and when I find out. He is well deserving of credit. Likewise for the person who recorded
this and gave me a copy. He is a great person and talented guitarist.
Dr.Tony Gallo
Nelson Symonds/Dave Turner
There Will
Never Be Another You
Nelson
Symonds/Dave Turner
You Stepped Out Of A Dream
Nelson (Frederick) Symonds. Guitarist, b
Halifax 24 Sep l933. He began playing the banjo at 9 and the guitar at ll, performing first for dances in Halifax with his
cousins Ivan and Leo Symonds (both guitarists), then l95l-5 in Sudbury, Ont, and 1955-8 on tour with carnivals in Canada and
the USA. Settling in Montreal in l958 and devoting himself to jazz, he performed in various local clubs (eg, the Black Bottom
intermittently l963-8, Café La Bohème l968-7l, Rockhead's Paradise 1977-80) and (in a duo 1971-7 with the
bassist Charles Biddle) in several Laurentian resort communities. During the 1960s he accompanied such US jazzmen as Art Farmer,
Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, and Jackie McLean, in club or concert appearances (eg, at Expo 67) in Montreal.
For many years a legendary figure in Canadian jazz, Symonds emerged before a wider
public during the 1980s as a regular performer in a variety of settings at the FIJM - eg, with his own groups (usually including
the pianist Jean Beaudet), as a member in 1985 of the 'Montreal All-Stars' and as a guest in 1988 of the Vic Vogel
big band. In 1985 he began to make occasional trips to Toronto, working in clubs there with the tenor saxophonist Dougie Richardson
and others. He made his belated record debut in 1990 as a member of the Bernard Primeau Jazz Ensemble on the CD Reunion (Amplitude
JACD-4019). One of the most original of Canadian jazzmen, Symonds plays in an essentially linear style in the tradition of
Charlie Christian and of Christian's later, bebop-based disciples, but employs a charged, staccato attack and angular,
headlong phrasing. He has been heard on various CBC radio jazz series and was seen in the documentary film Nelson Symonds
Jazz Guitarist (Mary Ellen Davis, 1984).
His cousin Ivan (Sterling)
Symonds (b Halifax l7 May l933, d Montreal 16 Mar 1991), whose style was more basic, moved to Montreal in l960. Though an
auto mechanic by vocation, he worked at Rockhead's Paradise 1971-7 and operated his own club, the Jazzbar C + Jon Ontario
Street, 1978-84.
