Popular Glebop Jazz Trio Summer Performances are Back in the Glebe
The Glebop Jazz Trio (from left: Cory Parsons, Bert Waslander and John Haysom) will be performing on front lawns, porches and patios in the Glebe this summer, for charity. Get on the email list to find out when and where.
By Louise Rachlis, with Christiane Fitzpatrick
This summer, the Glebop Jazz Trio & Friends will once again be performing on various front lawns, porches and patios in the Glebe and elsewhere in return for donations to various charities, mainly the Ottawa Food Bank. And they’ve raised as much as $4,000 in a single summer.
John Haysom is an 82-year-old retired engineer who has been playing the trumpet since he was an eight-year-old schoolboy in Toronto.
A resident of Ottawa since 1972, who has lived on Second Avenue since 1987, he has been a member of Glebop – initially a quintet but now a trio – for more than 21 years.
The trio describe their music as “generally mellow, accessible jazz consisting of popular standards, jazz standards and originals.”
The members are Bert Waslander on piano, Cory Parsons on bass, and Haysom on trumpet, flugel horn, valve trombone and more. Glebop’s original bass player, Howard Tweddle, passed away from COVID 19 in 2020.
The name was chosen because Haysom and Waslander live in the Glebe and sometimes play bebop – hence the Glebop Jazz Trio.
After decades of performances, Glebop is a fixture on both the Glebe and the wider Ottawa music scenes. Their 16 years of regular Sunday evening performances at the Arrow and Loon Pub in the Fifth Avenue Court ended when Fifth Avenue Court was torn down in 2019. They’re now just finishing their fifth year of performances at the Glebe Central Pub on Bank Street. They perform from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month, except July and August when they’re performing outdoors. June 5 was their last performance at Glebe Central Pub until September.
Each month’s performance features one of the National Capital Region’s leading jazz singers or an up-and-coming singer. They rehearse briefly with each singer to work out beginnings and endings of each song and to ensure they are playing the song in the range preferred by the singer. “In order to avoid sounding like an opera singer, it is necessary for a jazz singer to sing each song in a key that accommodates their normal range,” says Haysom, who has a two-foot-long shelf in his basement filled with three-ring binders of music charts that he calls his “binders of crazy singer keys.”
Although they perform most frequently as a trio, they add drums, a vocalist and/or additional horns, depending on the demands of the occasion. They’ll use all these formats at this summer’s outdoor performances.
Glebop has appeared several times at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival and perform frequently at weddings, corporate and private receptions and parties. The list of those who have appeared with Glebop includes Brian Browne, Mike Rud, Garry Elliott, Sol Gunner, Karen Oxorn, Betty Ann Bryanton, Peter Hum, Dominique Forest, Nicole Ratte, Norbert Boyce, Charlie Gordon, Don Johnson, Denis Ouellet, Dave Ward, Chris Fagan, Lu Frattaroli, Steve Berndt and John’s partner Helen Glover.
Visit Glebop’s website glebop.weebly.com to hear and see examples of their performances.
You might also want to get on Glebop’s performance email list. Just send an email to john.haysom@gmail.com with your name and email address and you’ll be in the loop for notices of upcoming Glebop performances. Emails announcing dates and locations are usually sent out about a week ahead.
So, if you’re looking for a relaxing outdoor summer evening activity, get on the Glebop email list and then bring your own folding chair and enjoy the music for a pleasant hour or two. And remember to bring a few dollars for the charity collection box.
Louise Rachlis is a Glebe writer and painter who has had her paintings on the cover of the Glebe Report. Christiane Fitzpatrick is a neighbour of a member of the Glebop Jazz Trio.
