Phil Nimmons — the clarinetist, composer and educator known as the "Dean of Canadian jazz" — has died. He was 100.
A statement released by Nimmons's family yesterday (April 10) confirmed that the winner of the 1977 inaugural JUNO award for musical excellence in jazz for The Atlantic Suite died at his Toronto home on April 5, writing, "As Phil would say, he has 'gone to the land of 2 'n' 4'" [via CBC].
Born in Kamloops and raised in Vancouver, Nimmons studied at UBC ahead of attending Julliard School of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto — where he met his wife, Noreen Liëse Spencer Nimmons. With the likes of R. Murray Schafer, John Weinzweig, John Beckwith, Norma Beecroft and Harry Freedman, the pair became part of a community of musicians working to preserve and promote Canadian jazz.
Nimmons was a founding member of the Canadian League of Composers, with over 400 original compositions (for his ensembles, film, TV and radio) and several arrangements of classical works to his name. He also helped launch multiple music education programs at institutions across the country, including the University of Toronto, Western University, the University of New Brunswick and the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts, as starting the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto in the 1960s alongside Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown.
Over his illustrious career influencing generations of musicians and music educators, Nimmons was awarded with many accolades: he received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime artistic achievement in 2002, the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario in 1994, and a Downbeat Achievement Award for jazz education in 2006, in addition to the Jazz Report and National Jazz Award for clarinettist of the year for 13 consecutive years (from 1995 to 2008).
The Canadian Music Centre has launched the Phil Nimmons Legacy Fund to honour his life and support the continued fostering of the next generation of musicians.
