Bobby Edwards first picked up a guitar at the age of five and learned the basics jamming with his father, a violinist. By 12, having already surpassed a number of would-be guitar teachers, he began to study with Tony Bradan, and as a teenager he played in Trump Davidson's orchestra and on the CBC-TV shows "Music Hop," "Front Page Challenge" and "The Friendly Giant." Moving into studio and session work, he often played with Ed Bickert, worked on several CFTO-TV shows, scored a number of feature-length films, and acted as musical director of the Juno and ACTRA Awards. Throughout the '80s Edwards was often working on eight shows a week, but by the end of the decade synthesizers began to replace live musicians within the TV industry and he moved into accompanying blockbuster musicals such as Les Miserables, Jolson, Chicago and The Patsy Cline Show. Nowadays Edwards splits his time between teaching, playing live theatre shows all over North America and recording; he has an album coming out next year.

Fat City Suite In E Major, a CTL album Sipreano was kind enough to sell me, was recorded at Manta Sound in Toronto by producer/arrangers Edwards and Jerry Toth. Edwards is accompanied by an impressive assemblage of Canadian musical talent: Ed Bickert, Jim Pirie and Art Devilliers (who also played on the Bonfield-Dickson LP) on lead guitar, Hank Monis, Terry Bush and Brian Russell on rhythm guitar, Bob Price on bass, Peter Appleyard on vibes and percussion, Pete Magadini on drums, and Jack Zaza on flute, oboe, accordion, mandolin, harmonica and spoons. The LP veers between jazz, classical, pop and rock, sometimes all within the same song. "Fat City Suite In E Major" (by Jerry Toth) is one of the more classical-sounding numbers, while "Tonight" is a classy, fairly straightforward take on a Leonard Bernstein number from West Side Story with particularly nice work by Appleyard on vibes. "Samba de Fuzz" (by Edwards) is a more rock-oriented number, with wakka-chikka guitar that makes it sound like a track from a blacksploitation flick. And the gentle ballad "If" is a cover of a Bread tune.

Fat City Suite In E Major
Tonight
Samba De Fuzz
If