One of Ottawa’s longest running DJs, Trevor Walker, made the front page of the Ottawa XPress today and boy, does he deserve it!

He’s been blending beats in Ottawa’s top nightspots since the late ’80s, witnessing the birth of new wave, acid jazz, Hip-Hop, House and Techno from the disc jockey’s pulpit.

His credentials are rock solid; he can hardly remember the details.

“The timeline messes me up, it’s really hard to remember exactly when everything happened,” says the 38-year-old Walker, chuckling. “It’s kind of a blur for me.”

From his involvement in Canada’s premier breakdance crew (Canadian Floor Masters) during the early ’80s to his current residency at Ottawa’s much-vaunted Mercury Lounge, Walker has had a remarkably long tenure at the heart of the local music scene. As a teenage b-boy (known as Tricky T) he wore red and white tights while performing as one of the original Canadian Floor Masters. Founded and mentored by Steve Leafloor (a.k.a. Buddha), the Floor Masters were no flash in the pan: This crew continues to perform throughout North America, while founder Leafloor uses hip-hop as a pivot point for helping youth at risk, especially in Inuit communities across the North.

Even in the early days the Floor Masters were unique. They once opened for James Brown and, on another occasion, were scrutinized by KGB bodyguards during a private performance for Russia’s Kirov Ballet at the National Arts Centre. “The Russian ballet was really crazy. I wasn’t that aware of it but those [KGB] dudes were hanging out all around us. But James Brown was much larger than life,” recalls Walker. “He had a huge head and looked like a lion in a way. A short guy with a really big head.”

After meeting drinking age requirements during the infamous Hull nightclubbing scene of the late ’80s, Walker began to attend venues that were willing to experiment with their playlists. Clubs like Zinc and Chez Henri were touchpoints. “I loved Zinc,” says Walker, “it was the only place to go and hear underground music. It was the first place to play The Smiths, The Cure, new wave, House and Hip-Hop music, for example. It was a pretty groundbreaking club in a lot of ways.

“At the time, there was nowhere to get that kind of music. You could hear it on a CKCU radio show by Elorius Kane, but that was the only place. I began to collect what I could and got a break one night when the DJ was too trashed to play.”

From 1988 onwards, Walker began to quickly build a list of steady gigs. As hip-hop and various forms of electronic music began to develop into the ’90s, Walker found himself at the vanguard of a blossoming movement. “Hip-hop was the same tempo as house or disco at that time,” he adds. “It was fresh, groundbreaking, revolutionary music.”

“The music was always the draw. Kids nowadays don’t know the whole story. If kids understood, for example, how house music and techno is part of hip-hop, there would be so much more cohesion,” he stresses.

A long list of club residencies followed Walker’s first gigs. Names like Off Limits, Channel Zero, The White Room, The Well and Atomic stand out in time, figuring prominently in Walker’s recollection.

“But it was The Well that was the really cool gig for a long time,” Walker indicates. “For me, the spirit of Zinc came back. It started off as live and organic music with funk, Afrobeat and acid jazz – it was crazy. It was probably some of the most brilliant years DJing. We used to get a really diverse crowd, in age and background. That’s what the Mercury has now.”

Walker’s residency at the Mercury Lounge continues to the present day. One of the few clubs left operating in a truly “old-school” manner, Mercury Lounge remains one of Ottawa’s most popular clubs, packing its loft-style space with crowds seeking soulful dance music.

“I think it’s great. If anything, things have gotten better over the years. As the Internet has grown and people have more access to music, people are more knowledgeable and it shows. I think the young generation these days knows more about underground music than ever before.”

As a testament to his continuing popularity, Walker has been booked to play one of Ottawa’s hottest events: Timekode. Set in an Eritrean café on west Somerset and scheduled for the last Friday of each month, Timekode is dedicated to soulful music of every type. Alex Mattar (a.k.a. DJ Zattar) is one of the founders.

“Way before I had the vision for Timekode, I remember going to The Well in ‘96/97,” recalls Mattar. “I just remember entering this place, seeing all this red light and hearing some incredible Brazilian rhythms. Turns out that it was Trevor playing. I was just a teenager but it felt like having my eyes opened to a different world almost. He’s been a big inspiration for Timekode and the mentality of playing records that are not limited to one style.”

“I’ve always been a dancer at heart. I know what makes me dance and that seems to translate to most people,” reveals Walker. “It’s kind of cool because I did the dance research first and then started playing the records. When you look back, it seems like the path was laid out ahead of time, but you don’t notice it until you look back.”

You can check Trevor Walker out at the following venues:

@ Timekode Eri Café (953 Somerset West) July 18

@ Mercury Lounge Ongoing Thursday and Saturday residencies

(This is part one of two videos, the second of which can be seen right here.)

It is, Pierre Chretien insists, still very much an Ottawa band.

But increasingly, The Souljazz Orchestra is bringing its infectious global sound around the globe.

Late last year, it was a string of sold-out shows in Europe. Last month, the sextet was wowing them in Brooklyn. Come July, it’s back overseas for club and festival dates in the U.K., France, Austria, Denmark and Hungary. Further shows in such exotic locales as Iceland are in the works. “To them,” Chretien muses with a laugh, “we’re exotic Canadians.”

Yet despite such globetrotting activities, Chretien and band will find time in their busy schedule to play three local dates over the next five weeks, beginning with a celebration of Souljazz at Barrymore’s on Saturday. (A more intimate show at Gatineau’s Le Petit Chicago is slated for June 21; a considerably less intimate performance will take place in Confederation Park on July 1.)

“We’re still an Ottawa band,” Chretien says. “I mean, we live here, these are our stomping grounds.

“We’re playing more and more all over the world, but we’re definitely an Ottawa band. Ottawa taught us to interact with crowds and to get them participating. Ottawa has been our training camp.”

Few bands have trained harder for the success now coming Souljazz’s way.

Five years’ worth of weekly local gigs saw the band graduate from residencies at the University of Ottawa’s Cafe Nostalgica to the Mercury Lounge to Babylon.

By the release of the band’s superb second album, Freedom No Go Die, the combo’s ensemble playing benefited from near-telepathic communication between members.

Moreover, what had begun as essentially an opportunity for U of O music students (Chretien continues to pursue masters studies in music composition) to play jazz has evolved into a multicultural band whose ability to craft original dance music in funk, Latin and afrobeat styles has rightly commanded international attention.

“We started out a little jazzy, a little more laid back, but after a while you want that crowd participation,” Chretien says of the evolution.

“We started exploring genres related to jazz, but not your intellectual, listening jazz. So afrobeat, Latin, funk … it was all kind of a natural progression.”

The group’s 2005 debut, Uprooted, captured Souljazz in the midst of that transition. But if Uprooted represented a band not yet fully formed, it was no less appealing for it. And within months of the CD’s independent release, ears well outside the 613 were perking up.

“We were just doing it for the fun of it,” keyboardist/songwriter/arranger/vocalist Chretien says.

“But when the album started getting airplay all over the world, we started figuring something was happening. Then we got a record deal and things really started to happen.”

The deal, through Toronto’s Do Right! Music, will see the band’s next, already completed album see international release following its Canadian arrival in September. On CD and vinyl. (The label has also reissued Freedom No Go Die on LP.)

Much touring will follow thanks to the group’s having recently been picked up internationally by The Agency Group.

“They do Pink Floyd and Dolly Parton and all those people,” Chretien says of the world’s largest booking agency. “That has helped a bit.”

A bit. But the bulk of the credit for the band’s success must go directly to the musicians — a not only talented, but also determined lot.

“The music side is important. You need to have your chops and to practise and all that,” Chretien notes.

“But you also need to take initiative and take care of the whole business aspect of it. I think it’s important to promote yourself and to get out there. It’s a lot of work, but a lot of musicians ignore that part of it and go unnoticed because of it.”

Want an album? You got it!

UPCOMING SHOW:

Saturday May 31st 21:30pm Souljazz Orchestra : w/ DJ Zattar Barrymore’s Music Hall, Ottawa, ON

(This article made possible by Souljazz Orchestra going global by Allan Wigney-Sun Media)