Humber College has established a scholarship in memory of Denny Christianson, a passionate musician and educator who was the founding program co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Music degree at Humber
Christianson changed the horn culture here in Montreal, says producer Ian Terry.
Author of the article: Brendan Kelly • Montreal Gazette
Publishing date: Feb 17, 2021 • February 17, 2021 • 3 minute read • Denny Christianson at home in 1997. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette files
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Article content
Denny Christianson ended up in Montreal because of Diane Dufresne. Well, actually because of the legendary pop diva Dufresne and her producer at the time Ian Terry.
Dufresne and Terry were in Los Angeles in the summer of 1979 recording her classic album Strip-tease, with some of the city’s top session players, including keyboardist Tom Canning and drummer Jim Keltner. When Terry asked who he should get to do the horn arrangements, Canning and Keltner suggested he call up Chris
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.