1:00 / Gerry Teahan at piano, get drinks / 30
1:30 / Opening comments, & Gerry Teahan at piano / 30
2:00 / Suncoast Concert Band performs / 30
2:30 / Lady Bugs perform / 15
2:45 / Trudi Diening & Ken Dalgleish perform / 15
3:00 / Gerry Teahan – comments on Harry & visitor comments / 30-60
3:30 / WOW band arrangements with intro by Les Fowler /30
4:00 / Creek Big Band performs with intro by Blaine Dunaway / 30
4:30 / Harry’s Newmarket band DVD, if time permits / 75
Harry was born in Toronto on December 24, 1932, and passed away at Shorncliffe on August 22, 2007, of complications from prostate cancer.
Harry's parents had come to Canada in the early 30s and returned to England, living through the WWII blitz in London. Harry's father was a tuba and bass player and undoubtedly passed his interest in music to Harry. Harry discovered jazz while attending Camberwall College of Arts and Crafts. There he also developed his skill as a visual artist and painter. He was a late starter on trumpet, which he received from his father for his 18th birthday. He was self taught for the first couple of years. His first formal lesson was with Phil Parker's Brass Studio where he was immediately told that "he was doing it all wrong" and that he shouldn't play for at least a month before he came back. Thus began a personal battle to "get it right".
Harry played in London with the "trad" (traditional jazz) bands, the popular jazz form in England at that time. He formed his own band, the Bayou Jazz Band. The last three years in London, Harry played with the Bill LeSage Workshop Orchestra, while studying harmony and theory at Battersea Polytechnic and being converted to modern jazz.
On his return to Toronto in 1963, Harry studied trumpet with Don Johnson and his harmony and composition with Gordon Delamont. He continued to play in the Toronto area, for the most part, with jobbing bands--Eddie Graff, Art Wallan, Stanley St. John--as well as local jazz groups; and then hit the road for five years with show bands.
Harry decided to settle down with regular employment in the musical instrument industry after the birth of his second child. This he did until 2000, when he retired to the Sunshine Coast. He liked to support community music, saying "Music is integral to the community". Furthering this philosophy, he played with The Suncoast Concert Band, the Coast Symphony Orchestra and the Sunshine Coast Brass Quintet. He was best known for his work as leader and player in both the Bayou Dixieland Band and the Creek Big Band, where his warm personality and gift of repartee enhanced and complimented his musical skills.
Harry will be greatly missed by friends, old and new, and in particular, the musical community of the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto and Newmarket.
An account has been set up in the Sunshine Coast Credit Union, called the "Harry Busby Memorial" to cover the costs of the celebration. Any surplus will be donated to Shorncliffe, where Harry received such excellent care for the last few months of his life.
Click here to View--In Memory of Musicians of the Great Pacific Northwest
