Posts with the fetured tag

Barris Beat

Cannot curl up with a Kobo

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Reading the Cosmos community newspaper with my grandson - initiating his contact with hard copy early.
Reading the Cosmos community newspaper with my grandson – initiating his contact with hard copy early.

They always surprise me with their unique requests. Last weekend, as I was writing a magazine article, one of my grandsons walked around my office pointing at books and papers and photographs while asking, “What’s this?” or “What’s that?” It went on for 20 minutes. It was great fun. But I think my favourite request was when another grandson looked at me with drooping eyelids, a big yawn and a special request on his lips.

“Would you read me a bedtime story, please?” he asked. Then, there was a short pause as I waited for the supplementary, “Can I hold the book?” (more…)

Barris Beat

Acknowledging musical gifts

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
The Town Tavern (at Queen and Yonge streets) was Archie Alleyne's home club from the mid-1950s until 1970.
The Town Tavern (at Queen and Yonge streets) was Archie Alleyne's home club from the mid-1950s until 1970.

The star attraction was not in the house that night. While many others were present – the luminaries of the Canadian jazz scene – perhaps the country’s best studio and jazz concert drummer of the day was absent. In fact, it was because he was absent, that all the stars came out. It was 45 years ago that Toronto-born drummer Archie Alleyne suffered serious injuries in a car accident. He was not able to work … at either of his jobs.

“I didn’t have a car, so I had to carry my drum kit on streetcars and the subway,” he told my father, Alex Barris, back then. “I’d play from nine at night to one a.m., get home with my drums by three a.m. and be up four hours later to go to my day job.”

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