 Born,
St. James, Barbados, 1934, Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke came to Canada
as a student and stayed. A graduate of Trinity College, University of Toronto,
Austin is an internationally respected novelist who also has taught at
Yale University, Brandeis University, Williams College, Duke University,
and University of Texas, Austin. He has been Writer-in-Residence at Concordia
University, Montreal, University of Western Ontario, and University of
Guelph. A prolific writer winning many awards, some of his best-known works
include: The Survivors of the Crossing (1964); Among Thistles and Thorns
(1965); and a trilogy, recreating the experiences of Barbadians living
in Toronto, The Meeting Point (1967), Storm of Fortune (1973), and The
Bigger Light (1974). His two most recent works are Pigtails ’n Breadfruit:
The Rituals of Slave Food, A Barbadian Memoir, and The Question, both published,
1999. Appointed Member, Order of Canada, 1998, Austin Clarke, as viewed
here in the early 1980s, received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree
from Brock University, 1998, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement
Award, 1999, and, for lifetime achievement, the W.O. Mitchell Literary
Prize, 1999. [Photo, courtesy Austin Clarke] |
It
is not well known that the roots of Oliver Jones are traced to Barbados.
Born, 1934, Montreal, Quebec, and growing up in Montreal’s poor St. Henri
district, like Oscar Peterson who lived in the same neighbourhood, Jones
was a child prodigy who at three years could repeat songs on the piano
he had just heard on the radio. When he was eight years, he was taking
lessons from Oscar Peterson’s sister Daisey. But instead of following in
the footsteps of Peterson’s soaring international fame, Oliver Jones, out
of Puerto Rico, led a quartet backing Jamaican pop singer Kenny Hamilton,
1963-1980. Tired of the electric keyboard and playing top-40 material,
Oliver returned to Montreal, 1980, to play jazz at Montreal’s newest jazzroom,
a place called Biddle’s. Three releases later, 1986, Oliver Jones started
a nine-year trek travelling 350,000 miles a year, while working internationally,
doing on average 130 concerts a year. By 1995, he decided that semi-retirement
was in the best interest of personal health. Since his first public appearance
some 60 years ago, Jones has stacked up 15 recordings, all with Just in
Time Records Inc., an Order of Canada (1994), three Felix Awards, one Juno
Award, the Oscar Peterson and Martin Luther King Jr. Awards, honorary doctorates,
tours on five continents, appearances at most major festivals and the international
respect of audiences, critics, and musicians. Not bad for someone who never
had a jazz lesson in his life. [Photo, courtesy Just in Time Records Inc.]