{"id":24442,"date":"2025-07-26T01:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24442\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T01:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:58:08","slug":"norman-marshall-villeneuve-was-one-of-canadas-greatest-bebop-drummers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24442\/","title":{"rendered":"Norman Marshall Villeneuve was one of Canada\u2019s greatest bebop drummers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The self-taught drummer modeled his exciting hard-driving style after Art Blakely, Elvin Jones and Max Roach.Marie Byers\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Montreal, Norman Marshall Villeneuve was taught to tap dance by his older brother. As a preteen he studied piano with the great instructor Daisy Peterson-Sweeney, sister of Oscar Peterson. Another legendary jazz pianist, Oliver Jones, was a cousin who, like Mr. Peterson, lived nearby.<\/p>\n

The tutoring in the other disciplines notwithstanding, he instead became one of Canada\u2019s greatest bebop drummers. <\/p>\n

Mr. Villeneuve, a masterclass in motion who brought an exuberant manner, a deft, quick touch and an impressive rhythmic ambidexterity to his craft, died July 9, at Montreal\u2019s Lachine Hospital. He was 87 and had suffered a stroke. <\/p>\n

The self-taught timekeeper modeled his exciting hard-driving style upon the likes of U.S. icons Elvin Jones, Max Roach and, most significantly, Art Blakey.<\/p>\n

Mr. Blakey, beyond his polyrhythmic expertise, was important as a bandleader and a mentoring talent scout. Mr. Villeneuve took that role to heart, calling his own band Norman Marshall Villeneuve\u2019s Jazz Message, in honour of Mr. Blakey\u2019s Jazz Messengers.<\/p>\n

Mr. Villeneuve was something of a one-man finishing school for the young musicians who passed through the ranks of his band. On a more formal level, he created the Norman Marshall Villeneuve Scholarship, first at Toronto\u2019s Humber College and, after he returned to Montreal, with Concordia University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never went to a music school or learned how to read music properly, which held me back from doing studio and big band work,\u201d Mr. Villeneuve said in 2018. \u201cI respect these youngsters and want to help if I can, so they don\u2019t have to go through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a live performer, Mr. Villeneuve was a consummate entertainer and a musical catalyst. \u201cThe harder he plays, the better the band sounds,\u201d former Globe and Mail jazz critic Mark Milley wrote in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was having a good night, he lifted everybody up,\u201d said pianist David Restivo, a one-time member of Mr. Villeneuve\u2019s band. \u201cTo match his intensity, you brought your A-game \u2212 everybody did.\u201d<\/p>\n

He grew up in Montreal\u2019s Saint-Henri neighbourhood, which was near the Little Burgundy community referred to as the \u201cHarlem of the North\u201d and considered one of the jazz meccas of North America. His foster brother Charles Griffith gave him his first set of drums at age 14, around the time when he began to study the technique of Mr. Blakey. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe could swing you into bad health,\u201d Mr. Villeneuve said of the bebop pioneer in an interview with The Globe in 1994. \u201cPut anybody on the bandstand with him and he\u2019d make them work. That\u2019s the thing that first caught my ear when I started listening to him in 1952-53. That\u2019s the way I learned how to play \u2013 by listening to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

He landed his first full-time gig at 17, playing six nights a week in a Montreal restaurant and touring the Quebec countryside. In 1955, his acclaimed pianist cousin Mr. Jones invited him to perform on a CBC radio broadcast series.<\/p>\n

The clubs Mr. Villeneuve played represent a vibrant bygone era of the city\u2019s jazz history: Biddles, Caf\u00e9 La Boheme, the after-hours Black Bottom and, most importantly, Rockhead\u2019s Paradise. <\/p>\n

The nightclub founded by Jamaican entrepreneur and former railway porter Rufus Rockhead helped launch the careers of Mr. Peterson, Mr. Jones, Billy Georgette and others. Ella Fitzgerald made her first Montreal appearance there in 1943. Famous patrons included Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, humourist Stephen Leacock, prizefighter Joe Louis and the entire Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.<\/p>\n

In the early 1960s, Mr. Villeneuve joined the house band at Rockhead\u2019s Paradise, keeping time for the likes of bandleader-trumpeter Allan Wellman, bass player Nick Aldrich and pianist Linton Garner. Though charming, Mr. Rockhead was a hard-headed employer.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery second Sunday at 12 o\u2019clock you had to be upstairs at the Rockhead\u2019s on the bandstand,\u201d Mr. Villeneuve said in 2022. \u201cDon\u2019t come late or you\u2019d have to buy somebody something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opportunity knocked in 4\/4 time in 1967 when none other than Duke Ellington invited Mr. Villeneuve to try out for his band in Boston. He passed the audition. \u201cIt felt good,\u201d he later told the Montreal Gazette. \u201cI wasn\u2019t scared or nervous. I just played the way I felt the music.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he couldn\u2019t secure a U.S. work permit. The prized gig went to another drummer; Mr. Villeneuve would keep the formal job offer from Mr. Ellington displayed prominently on his apartment wall for years after.<\/p>\n

In 1974, he moved to Toronto, where he was a fixture on the local jazz scene and a father-figure to younger players at rooms such as Bourbon Street, The Montreal Bistro, Top o\u2019 the Senator, the Pilot and the Rex Hotel Jazz & Blues Bar. <\/p>\n

Critiquing an appearance by a quintet led by Mr. Villeneuve in 1995, The Globe\u2019s Mr. Miller praised the drummer: \u201cHis cymbal rides were resolute and his snare-drum strokes ricocheted like gunshots on the floor around a soloist\u2019s feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of a 72-year career, Mr. Villeneuve mostly performed in the country\u2019s two largest cities. He did tour internationally with his cousin Mr. Jones however, once living in Puerto Rico for nearly a year during an extended arrangement at the Carioca Lounge of the Americana Hotel in San Juan. <\/p>\n

His death leaves a mentorial void in the insular Canadian jazz community. Informal apprenticeships historically were vital to the jazz ecosystem, well before bebop was taught in postsecondary institutions. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the benefit of that with Norm and others,\u201d said pianist Mr. Restivo, also an instructor at British Columbia\u2019s Selkirk College. \u201cIt\u2019s up to us now, we have the responsibility. Otherwise it dies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was born in the Montreal borough of Verdun on May 29, 1938, when swing orchestras led by Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw ruled the charts and singers such as Bing Crosby and Ms. Fitzgerald (A-Tisket, A-Tasket) were the pop stars of the day. Mr. Villeneuve came of age during the jazz revolution that brought bebop: The birth of cool.<\/p>\n

Mr. Villeneuve was a mixed-race child \u2212 his white mother\u2019s maiden name was Marshall \u2212 brought up from the age of seven in a loving Black foster family led by Alonso and Josephine Griffith. He learned both piano and religion at Union United Church, believed to be Canada\u2019s oldest Black congregation.<\/p>\n

For the first two decades of his career the drummer played in R&B bands, rock \u2018n\u2019 roll groups and in strip clubs, as jazz gigs alone wouldn\u2019t pay the bills. Rock music, he would say later, \u201cdidn\u2019t appeal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the late 1960s, he had a 37-month job (six nights a week, 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.) with guitarist Nelson Symonds and bassist Charlie Biddle at Caf\u00e9 La Boh\u00e8me. Mr. Symonds attracted locals, tourists and some big names. In his 2017 interview with the Montreal Gazette, Mr. Villeneuve recalled the visit of a young Motown phenom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was here, and guess who was sitting there?\u201d Mr. Villeneuve said, pointing to a stool a few feet away. \u201cStevie Wonder. Apparently he heard about this fabulous guitar player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in his career, in Toronto, the drummer worked as a maintenance man at a senior citizen\u2019s home for a steady pay cheque, accepting jazz gigs as they came. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not doing this because I\u2019m thinking I can make a whole lot of money,\u201d he told The Globe, speaking about forming his namesake band. \u201cI\u2019m doing this because I love to play.\u201d <\/p>\n

Drummer Ted Warren was using a rented Ludwig drum kit one night at George\u2019s Jazz Room in Toronto when he met Mr. Villeneuve in the 1990s. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time I played there, and he asked me if the drums were Ludwig, even though he was sitting in a spot in the room where he couldn\u2019t see me,\u201d Mr. Warren said. \u201cIt was very unusual. Strange, almost.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Mr. Villeneuve wasn\u2019t at the drum kit himself, he was watching others. Mr. Restivo remembers Mr. Villeneuve soaking in one his drum heroes in Toronto in 1991. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can still see him sitting directly under Elvin Jones\u2019s ride cymbal at the Bermuda Onion club, eyes closed, lost in a reverie of groove and sound and flow.\u201d<\/p>\n

He returned to Montreal in 2013. His last gig was a weekly Friday night appearance at the House of Jazz in 2020 that came to an end because of COVID-19. <\/p>\n

Mr. Villeneuve\u2019s 2017 album Montreal Sessions compiled live recordings from Rockhead\u2019s Paradise and the Black Bottom. The material dating back to 1963 featured Mr. Symonds, Mr. Wellman, Mr. Biddle and others. <\/p>\n

Mr. Villeneuve is survived by his wife, Louise Villeneuve, and brother, Irvin Griffith. His children from previous marriages are Deborah Villeneuve, Norman Villeneuve Jr., Niles Villeneuve and the predeceased Tiffany Lovey. <\/p>\n

You can find more obituaries from The Globe and Mail here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To submit a memory about someone we have recently profiled on the Obituaries page, e-mail us at obit@globeandmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The self-taught drummer modeled his exciting hard-driving style after Art Blakely, Elvin Jones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-24442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}