Smooth jazz coming out of Fort William

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY – Fort William’s Robin Ranger is planning to release his third jazz album in late April.

“I’m really pleased with the way it came out — the musicianship on it is spectacular and I’m really proud of the composition,” says Ranger, who began playing jazz music about 15 years ago. “My first vocal record was about longing, it was about wishing for something or holding a place in your heart for something whereas this record, that is coming out soon, it’s a really active voice. They’re all love songs but it’s almost like I’m singing to someone.”

Ranger says his first vocal record, Robin Ranger – The View From Seventh Sky, “did really well” when it was released in 2012.

“It was on campus radio jazz charts for seven months straight,” Ranger says. “It got tons of airplay all over Sirius Radio, CBC across Canada and campus radio across Canada.”

Ranger also released an instrumental jazz album, The Robin Ranger Quartet – On the Shortest Day of the Year, in 2004. Although he first began writing music when he took up the guitar in his late teens, he didn’t begin writing jazz music until his late 20s when he was introduced to jazz by a busker in Toronto.

“He was playing a jazz chord,” Ranger says. “I’d never heard a chord like that in my life and I just started to play all these sorts of chords, these jazz chords. I didn’t really know much about jazz; I just started playing that kind of guitar.”

Ranger says he didn’t realize he was playing jazz until a friend told him his music sounded like jazz.

“So I embarked on a long journey of getting into jazz and different jazz musicians and different jazz styles,” Ranger says. “I really started to wrap my head around these different jazz-style voices and over the past 15-odd years it has deepened and I have really delved into the world of jazz, connecting with other jazz musicians and doing a lot of improvised musical styles.”

Ranger now plays about 70 gigs a year, including dinners, functions and supper clubs.

“My music is pretty relaxed,” Ranger says. “It’s not very intense, it’s not very loud, and it’s something that can fill your house with ambience without having to take over. It’s a show that really applies well to a dining environment.”

Ranger says his music is getting more popular with audiences in the Thunder Bay area, including the Aboriginal community.

“I’ve had a lot of people tell me that ‘I really love your music,’” Ranger says. “‘I really loved eating in a restaurant where you were playing, but I never thought I would like jazz. But I like your music.’ So I know my music is introducing jazz to a lot of different audiences that it probably wouldn’t have reached before.”

Ranger plays the upright bass, jazz guitar and is learning how to play the pocket trumpet.

“There’s a lot of types of jazz, from big band to dixieland to free jazz,” Ranger says. “A lot of it seems to people to be a little bit more esoteric or far out or hard to get into, but I think the music I write is pretty accessible. They’re mostly love songs and pretty relaxed.”

Ranger is currently planning to do a jazz festival tour in 2016.

“I anticipate going on the road for a couple of weeks, which means that I’ll have to bring players with me,” Ranger says. “I’d like to play The Rex (Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar) in Toronto and I would like to play some jazz festivals — I’ll just have to see which ones appreciate what I am doing.”