By Adam Feibel
Humber College
Denny Christianson, the jazz musician and educator who appeared on more than 250 albums and inspired generations of Canadian jazz students along the way through his work at Humber College, has died at the age of 78.
Rising to prominence as the leader of the 18-piece Denny Christianson Big Band in Montreal in 1981, Christianson was a widely acclaimed trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, composer, conductor and bandleader with a career that lasted several decades.
In 2001, Christianson became the director of music studies at Humber College in Toronto, where he made a lasting impression on the past, present and future of jazz in Canada. He retired in 2018.