Jazz band leader, solo artist, composer, conductor, freelance musician, recording session artist, jazz club organizer, teachers’ association president, Knight of Funk, and Revelstoke’s favorite music teacher, if this was a TV show, it would be called, “Everybody Loves Bob Rogers”.
An immensely popular local music icon whose rich talent and good nature has graced Revelstoke since 1993, Bob Rogers musical pedigree is as long as it is interesting, “I feel like a lot of things I’ve really just fallen into. It’s been kind of a funny path.”
Born in Vancouver and raised in a musical family, “My dad was a pianist, as was my mom (who still is). My dad was a professor in the music department at UBC and performed regularly in Vancouver, primarily chamber music and contemporary music. My mom did not perform but she taught private lessons for many years. As a kid I listened primarily to the music of the day. As I got older I really loved bands such as Chicago, Earth Wind and Fire and Tower of Power that featured lots of horns. I started getting into jazz in my late teens and then classical music in my early twenties.”
In 1980 Bob left Vancouver and his high school sweetheart and future wife Ramona behind to begin a two year stint in the commercial music program at Toronto’s Humber College. Returning to Vancouver with new skills in 1982, Bob found work immediately as a budding freelance musician.
“Back in the early 80’s, the Vancouver music industry was really good. There was quite a bit of work doing jingles for radio and TV and things like that.” In a seemingly typical twist of Bob’s fate, “I kind of lucked into a lot of work. Just after I arrived, this guy named Herb Besson who was the busiest commercial trombone player in Vancouver was moving to Toronto. On his way out he gave my name to the people he was working with. Since Herb was everybody’s first call trombone guy for studio recordings, jazz gigs, big band gigs, and corporate events, I picked up a lot of the work he was getting.”
