//About Phil Dwyer

"I've been a working professional musician for fifty years.  I've played with a lot of the worlds greatest musicians and I can honestly say I've never known a better musician than Phil Dwyer.  He's a saxophonist, pianist, composer, arranger, producer and teacher and he does all these things at the highest possible level.  He is a constant inspiration to everyone who knows him".
- Don Thompson

Multi-instrumentalist and composer/arranger Phil Dwyer burst on the jazz scene in Canada, and internationally in his late teens and by his early 20s was, to quote Globe & Mail journalist Mark Miller, “startling jazz audiences with his unprecedented command of both tenor saxophone and piano” and with his “extraordinarily authoritative playing....set the country on it’s ear”. Originally from Canada’s West Coast, Dwyer had sought out the action and excitement of New York City when he was just 17, moving there in 1983 to study with Steve Grossman and David Liebman and while there had the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the true jazz legends who were still on the scene at that time. Another important element in his musical development was the renowned summer jazz workshop at the Banff Centre for the Arts, which Dwyer attended in the early 80s. Under artistic director Dave Holland the Banff program drew the best and brightest young players from all over the world to meet and interact with an amazing faculty including Liebman, Lee Konitz, John Abercrombie, Steve Coleman, Julian Priester, and two musicians who would continue to play an important part in Dwyer’s life for the next quarter century, Don Thompson and Kenny Wheeler.

His full time music career started in the summer 1985 at age 19, as a member of Hugh Fraser’s award winning quintet, and the big band VEJI from 1985-90, and also with the David Friesen Trio from ’87-90, in addition to much freelance work on the Vancouver scene. The Friesen trio (w/drummer Alan Jones) group went on to record the album Other Times, Other Places with guests Airto, Flora Purim, and Denny Zeitlin. With the Fraser quintet Dwyer won the Concours de Jazz Alcan at the 1987 Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, the 1988 Juno Award for best jazz album, and appeared across Canada, the New York Blue Note, at the Paris Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scott’s in London, and elsewhere in Europe and the U.K.

From 1989-2004 Dwyer lived in Toronto, where he was a key fixture in the major jazz clubs and recording studios. Tom Harrell, Red Rodney, Renee Rosnes, Ingrid Jensen, Marcus Belgrave and, several times, Kenny Wheeler all called upon him to join them on their Toronto visits and as well Dwyer led his own various groups, and co-led bands with bassist Dave Young and pianist/organist Doug Riley. Bassist Young, well known for his long tenure with Oscar Peterson had this to say about working with Dwyer.....”Phil Dwyer, in my estimation, is one of the great tenor players of jazz. We worked together in several groups while Phil lived in Toronto and he always brought fantastic energy and creativity to the musical setting we were involved in. He is a complete musician - a pianist and composer/arranger as well as a reed player. It would be difficult to over estimate the natural talent and commitment of this artist." He often appeared with groups led by multi-instrumentalist Don Thompson, notably with a quartet featuring bassist Jim Vivian and acclaimed drummer Terry Clarke. While keeping a busy schedule on the Toronto scene Phil also found time to travel and perform across North America, Europe, South America, and Asia, including a 3 month tour with pop music icon Gino Vannelli.

In addition to his success as a performer, both on saxophone and piano, by the early 90s Dwyer began developing his craft as a composer and arranger, studying composition with the eminent Michael Colgrass, and picking up his arranging skills looking over the shoulders of some the great Toronto writers like Doug Riley, Rick Wilkins, and Jimmy Dale. His compositions have been commissioned and recorded by the Gryphon Trio, Roberto Occhipinti, CBC Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Hard Rubber Orchestra, the Art Of Time Ensemble, Duke Trio, and notably in Nov 2010, with the premiere of the major work Changing Seasons, violin star Mark Fewer. His arrangements have been heard on recordings by Guido Basso, Sophie Milman, Molly Johnson, Michael Kaeshammer, Quartetto Gelato, Patricia O’Callahan, and Dione Taylor, among others.

With recording credits including well over 100 commercial releases and hundreds more radio, television, and film sessions, Dwyer is one of the most recorded musicians in Canada. The Juno Awards represent the best in Canadian recordings annually and Phil has been featured as a player, writer, or producer on 7 recordings which have received a Juno Award, and has been a part of another 15 that received nominations. He has also been named best arranger and best saxophonist at the National Jazz Awards on multiple occasions. Early in his career he was awarded the “best soloist” prize at the BBC Big Band competition in Great Britain. He was also awarded the KM Hunter prize in 2001, and has been the recipient of several major grants from the Canada Council.

Phil was active in the commercial recording scene in Toronto from 1990-2004, recording hundreds of tracks for major advertising campaigns, as well as TV themes, movie soundtracks, and album sessions. He also wrote music for clients such as Royal Bank, GM, Ford, Nissan, and TD Bank. He played on major awards shows such as the Junos, Genies, Geminis, NHL Awards, CBC Canada Day Gala, and others. He was the musical director for the World Leaders Tribute To Bernardo Bertolucci (performing his own music, and supporting Gato Barbieri), as well as for a 3 hour live-to-air broadcast from the House Of Blues, in post-Katrina New Orleans. Coincidentally this show took place at the same time that the David Simon HBO show “Treme” was set, and involved some of the same musicians, notably trumpeter Kermit Ruffins.

Dwyer has also been active as an educator since 1989 when, at age 23, he joined the faculty at York University in Toronto, where he remained for 12 years. He has also appeared as a guest lecturer/clinician at University Of Toronto, Humber College, University Of Manitoba, McGill University, Clackamas Community College, Arizona State University, Royal Academy of Music (London) countless high schools across North America, and at some of the leading academies in Denmark. He has also been a visiting faculty member at the prestigious Banff Centre in 2009/10/11. For several years he ran the Phil Dwyer Academy Of Musical And Culinary Arts on Vancouver Island, where he has lived since 2004.