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Skip Beckwith (born Charles Frederick Pearson), bassist, musical director, arranger, composer, producer, born 1 October 1939 in Sydney, NS; died 31 July 2019 in Lunenberg, NS). He notably worked as the musical director of internationally-renowned Canadian singer Anne Murray from 1969 to 1975.
Education
In his teens in Halifax, Skip Beckwith studied piano at the Maritime Conservatory of Music (now the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts) and played string bass at a musician-run jazz club, 777 Barrington Street. Beckwith then moved to Boston where he studied string bass, arranging, and composition followed 1959-61 at the Berklee School of Music. His teachers included Ray Santisi, Arif Mardin, and Herb Pomeroy.
In 1962 Beckwith attended the Advanced School of Contemporary Music, Toronto, as a pupil of Ray Brown (bass), Oscar Peterson (piano), and Phil Nimmons (arranging and composition). Brown would remain a primary influence on Beckwith's steady, fundamental approach to jazz bass.
Career
Skip Beckwith worked 1962-5 in Ottawa nightclubs with the pianists Brian Browne and Charles Coleman, and others. The Browne trio (initially completed by the drummer Doug Johnston) relocated in 1965 to Toronto, where it took an extended residency at Castle George. Beckwith also worked in CBC and CTV studio bands for shows starring Bobby Curtola, Catherine McKinnon, and others, before serving 1969-75 as music director for Anne Murray.
Returning to Halifax in 1975, Beckwith was music director for Pepe's Upstairs Jazz Café, accompanying Ed Bickert, Buddy DeFranco, Milt Jackson, Oliver Jones, Barney Kessel, Sonny Stitt, and many others during their appearances there. Concurrently he was music director and/or a studio musician for CBC TV pop music shows 1975-87 starring John Allan Cameron, Denny Doherty, the Irish Rovers, Marg Osburne, and Ryan's Fancy. He produced or co-produced LPs by Dutch Mason, Bruce Murray, Reg Schwager, Joe Sealy, and others at this time.
Skip Beckwith appeared with Oliver Jones intermittently 1985-9, notably at the Newport Jazz Festival in Saratoga Springs, New York, and across Canada in 1986, in Havana in 1988, and with Symphony Nova Scotia in 1989.
In 1987 Beckwith began teaching at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and joined JazFX, a faculty sextet established the previous year by Gene Smith (trombone), Terry O'Mahoney (drums), and others. JazFX made the LP JazFX (Mark MJS-57627) in 1987 and toured Canada in the summer of 1989. With the saxophonist Don Palmer and the drummer Jerry Granelli, Beckwith established the trio Alive and Well in 1989, performing in the Maritimes on a club, concert hall and university circuit that Beckwith himself was instrumental in organizing.
Skip Beckwith’s discography also includes LPs by Browne (notably The Toronto Scene, 1965, RCA Victor PCS-1002; Listen People, 1966, RCA Victor PCS-1110; The Letter, 1970, Cap SKA-06305), Jones, and Sealy.
