Excellence Award for musician extraordinaire Eddie Bullen

By RON FANFAIR
Renowned multi-talented artist Eddie Bullen has given a lot without getting much recognition. On September 7, the pianist/composer/producer got his due. He was the recipient of the second annual Jean Augustine Excellence Award at Harbourfront Centre.
“So many of us have been the beneficiaries of Eddie Bullen’s musical talent,” said Canada’s first Black woman Parliamentarian. “Very congenial, he has delivered over the years with a smile, even when we asked him to stop playing.
“He has propelled onto the musical stage many well-known artistes and is most worthy of this honour.”
The award was presented at the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival event, celebrating Augustine’s 87th birthday.
“This award will hold a prominent place in my studio because it means the world to me,” said Bullen whose early career was spent in pop and commercial music before transitioning to jazz 28 years ago. “It will be the first thing anyone will see when they walk in.”
He dedicated the honour to his late father, Ralph Bullen, who was a member of the Harmony Kings, one of Grenada’s top orchestras in the 1930s. Signed by Decca Records, the group was the background band for several of Trinidad & Tobago’s leading calypsonians.
The outfit included William Ted Lewis and Bing Mauricette – the grandfathers of successful Canadian artiste Glenn Lewis whose mother Cindy Lewis was a backup singer with Byron Lee & the Dragonaires and his father Glen Ricketts was a member of the funk bank Crack of Dawn with whom Bullen worked – and Sean ‘Subliminal’ Mauricette.
Grammy-nominated Lewis was signed to Epic Records and Mauricette is a beatboxer/motivational speaker.
Bullen spent a lot of time in his father’s music store in Grenada.
“That’s where my journey started,” he said. “Dad taught me to tune and repair pianos. We were the agents for the Hammond B-3 organs and Selmer saxophones and we sold musical instruments in Grenada and throughout the Caribbean. When my father was not busy with work, he had a ‘jam’ session in the store. Just watching how musicians enjoyed themselves and how they could call a song and have everyone join in gave me joy.”
The family patriarch’s plan was for his son to run the store.
“Unfortunately, he taught me some music,” said Bullen whose other influences include Herbie Hancock and the late Oscar Peterson, Jimmy Smith, Anthony ‘Chick’ Correa and Clive ‘Zanda’ Alexander. “I don’t know if that was a good thing for him because he was a bit disappointed when I decided to become a musician.
“He was one and he told me all the stories about being a musician. I thank him for that. When musicians came to my dad’s store and talked about their journeys and travels and then I heard them play, I said one day I wanted to be just like them.”
He formed the Jazz Connections and held his first concert at the Grenada Boys’ Secondary School auditorium.
“We sold about 15 tickets because people didn’t want to hear jazz,” Bullen said. “However, there was a cinema (Regal) at the bottom of the hill that was showing a Bruce Lee movie. When it ended and the patrons came out into the street, they heard the music and bought tickets to come to my show. People were hanging from the rafters. We sold out.”
Elizabeth Bullen, who passed away in 2012, supported her son’s music career.
“She bought the air ticket for me to come to Canada and she allowed me to practice in our apartment,” he said. “The neighbours were always knocking on the floor or hitting the walls because it was a bit loud.”
His mother came to Canada in the 1970s to assist her late daughter, Leslie-Ann Smith, who suffered from sickle cell anemia.
“At first, she was worried because I was trying everything and going on the road with people she did not know,” said Bullen who migrated as a teenager in January 1981. “I was just embracing everything because this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in North America pursuing a music career.”
Starting with ‘Nocturnal Affair’ released in 1996, he has produced over 250 albums for many artistes.
“I thank all of them for entrusting me with bringing their compositions and songs to life,” said Bullen. “In my studio, I have several of the albums on the wall and each album has a story.”
One of them stands out.
While at a funeral, Bullen heard some ladies singing and encouraged them to do an album.
“I told them they sounded good and invited them to my studio,” he said. “After the recording, they said they wanted about 50 copies to give to family and friends. When I told them that the cost of 50 and 500 would be the same, they went for it after some deliberation. Three days after getting the copies, they called, saying they needed another 500. I think they sold about 5,000 CDs.”
Suggesting they do an album, the alumni group agreed.
In 2004, the St. Joseph’s Convent St. George’s Alumni choir – led by Mary Fletcher – released ‘Sounds of Friendship’.
A year ago, Roy Cape was presented with the inaugural Jean Augustine Excellence Award.
He died on September 5 in Trinidad at age 82.
The veteran bandleader and saxophonist was one of Bullen’s music idols.
“I have worked in the calypso and soca fields for many years and Roy Cape was a backdrop for many of the things I have done,” he said. “When he was in Toronto for the event last year, it was the first time I got an opportunity to sit with him and talk in-depth. That was such a great opportunity.”
A few days after arriving in Toronto, Bullen was invited by Grenadian-born pianist Kingsley Etienne to a rehearsal at La Rotonda in the Dufferin St. and Eglinton Ave. W. area to meet a few musicians.
The group included former Harps leader/arranger Lester Boyke, two-time Juno Award nominee Demo Cates and Liberty Silver who was the first Black woman to receive a Juno Award.
“I was introduced to everybody and, for some reason, Liberty and I hit it off,” recalled Bullen. “We are around the same age while the other guys were older. When I told her I was a songwriter and she said she was a lyricist, we got together and started writing songs. Eventually, she got a record deal and I was one of the musicians/songwriters/co-producers on a project she was doing.”
He collaborated on her 1985 single, ‘Lost Somewhere Inside Your Love’, which won a Juno Award in the Best R&B Soul Recording category.
“It was really rewarding hearing the song play on the radio many times,” said Bullen who was part of the duo, The Ed-Ian (Wiltshire) Cartel, which released a string of soca-soul tracks in the 1990s.
When two people with the same interests meet, good things happen sometimes. At a rehearsal in the Eglinton Ave. W. and Caledonia Ave. neighbourhood, Silver introduced Bullen to Washington Savage, the Harry Jerome Awards Musical Director for eight years.
The pianist/composer/ arranger, whose musical career spanned nearly 25 years, died of heart complications in May 2009 at age 46.
“When Liberty told Washington I was a keyboard player, rehearsals ended,” he said. “We sat and compared notes for the rest of that evening. I and Washington stuck together like two peas in a pod.”
Savage founded two bands – BLAXAM and Age of Reason – of which Bullen was a member.
He said Savage, who was a member of Molly Johnson’s rock band, The Infields, and the Jeff Healey Band that won Juno Awards in 1991 and 1992 respectively, was an artistic genius.
“Washington came from a gospel/jazz background in the United States and was just an amazing keyboard player,” said Bullen who performed and produced Sway’s Juno-nominated ‘Hands Up’, which was the theme music for Club Med’s successful TV commercial. “He was very meticulous and would labour over lyrics and the sound he was looking for. We rehearsed daily for hours and hours where The Docks nightclub is on Polson St. We got hooked up with Eric Mercury (the Canadian singer/songwriter who died in 2022) and the late Brenda Dash (she was a leader in the 1969 George Williams University occupation in Montreal and the manager for American singers Regina Belle and Brenda Russell).
“We signed a management deal with Brenda (Dash) and got a lot of interest from major companies, including Warner Brothers. Washington also played with a lot of great artistes in this city, including Salome Bey and Jeff Healey. He had a residency at Sassafraz (a restaurant on Cumberland St.) where he performed on weekends and people went there just to meet him and hang out with him.”
Artists were hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unable to do live performances and appearances, they had to pivot to earn a living.
Before the pandemic, Bullen made some home adjustments to accommodate video productions.
That was a great move.
“That is my youngest son’s specialty for the last five years,” the Thunder Dome Sounds record label owner said. “The industry was heading in that direction and I was trying to see how I could set up my basement to handle something like that.
“One of the things I was very worried about was people coming into the studio. However, some of the software manufacturers made it possible to do recordings virtually. I have the major software and someone like a vocalist can download a free app at their end. Once they have a microphone and HD converter, they can plug it into their computer, find a quiet place and sing. I can record that in my studio as if they were standing next to me.
“I did that with people all over the United States, Canada and Bolivia.
“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going and you just have to figure out a way to survive.”
As the pandemic unfolded, Bullen was ready to supply festivals with content for their virtual shows.
Some of his clients included the Beaches International Jazz Festival, the CNE Bandshell and a few in Montreal in 2020 and 2021.
“That part of it was good because a lot of these festivals get funding, so they had to spend the money,” said the former Musical Director for the Golden Soul Classics Show and Toronto’s Uptown Jazz Festival.
However, nothing beats performing live in front of an audience and Bullen – like most artistes – missed that.
“That was challenging,” he said. “In 2019, I did a one-month tour in China with my two sons, visiting 15 cities and performing in stunning theatres. That was my third tour there and there was one planned for 2021. I also had several shows lined up for the summer and fall of 2020 that had to be cancelled in addition to festivals and corporate gigs that were booked.”
Nothing gives Bullen more joy than ‘jamming’ with his sons Quincy and Tre-Michael.
Quincy, 30, is an accomplished pianist, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer while his 26-year-old brother is a percussionist and lighting technician.
“I am a proud daddy and sometimes I look at them and have a smile that stays with me for a long time,” he said. “My dad did that to me and I decided it should be a family legacy. I ensured that my sons had some musical ability and appreciation.
“When they were young, I made sure they took piano and acting lessons and did everything in the arts so they could do it from all angles. It is wonderful that I could be with them, jamming together and performing for people.”
Bullen and his older son have been performing as a duo for 13 years, delighting audiences with their mastery of popular jazz piano standards.
“Our concerts are a unique blend of traditional jazz and modern improvisation and we bring our personal touch to each performance,” he said.
Performing with three-time Grammy Award singer/songwriter Dee Dee Bridgewater and meeting the late Harry Belafonte rank among his music career highlights.
“I worked on a project with Harry and when he learned I was from Grenada, he addressed me as ‘This Island Boy’,” recounted Bullen, a featured mainstage performer at the 2011 Jazz Artists on the Greens festival in Trinidad. “He told me the movie ‘Island in the Sun’ was not supposed to be as successful as it became because the director was off drinking and having a good time and didn’t care a ‘s…’ about him. He said that was the movie that launched his acting career.”
Retired Citizenship Court Judge Pamela Appelt is a big fan of Bullen.
“Over the decades I have known Eddie, he has always found ways to lend his support to initiatives that were beneficial to the community,” she said. “He is a Grenadian Canadian treasure who continues to share his talents with the younger generation.”
In 2015, Bullen’s first wife, hair salon owner and former Grenada Carnival Queen Joan Des Vignes-Bullen, passed away.
They married in 1989 after meeting at a party in Toronto.
“We were always very supportive of one another,” Bullen said. “When we had Quincy, she knew I wanted him to get a good musical upbringing and supported that. She did his hair and got his clothes together to ensure he was presentable on stage. When he did his first show with The Quintessential Boys, she rented a limousine for the group to go to the gig. We were both on the same page regarding our sons.”
In June 2023, Bullen and two-time Juno Award nominee Belinda Brady, who migrated from Jamaica in 1993, tied the nuptial knot.
She paid tribute to her husband in song – The Impossible Dream – that he arranged and produced.
“I just thought this piece would be very fitting for this occasion,” said Brady whose father, Carl Brady, was a founding member of Byron Lee & the Dragonaires.
The awards ceremony was preceded by the screening of ‘Iconography: Mungal Patasar’ which is part of the 19th annual CaribbeanTales Film Festival.
Augustine presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Patasar, an eminent sitarist and musical fusionist.
He and pannist Harold Headley were in Toronto for a special performance.