Skip to content

Jazz trio seeks a new home for Friday night gig

For almost a year, Rob Bailey, Teun Schut, and Buff Allen knew what they’d be up to on Friday nights: playing their favourite tunes at Doc Morgan’s Pub.
TRIO
From left: Buff Allen, Rob Bailey and Tuen Schut.

For almost a year, Rob Bailey, Teun Schut, and Buff Allen knew what they’d be up to on Friday nights: playing their favourite tunes at Doc Morgan’s Pub. They were joined by a handful of dedicated regulars, plus, a handful of other musicians from both on and off-island, who joined them in their music-making. However, in September Howe Sound Breweries, the company that re-opened Doc’s in the spring of 2013, announced that they were closing the pub for the winter bringing Friday night jazz on Bowen to an end.
“I’m really sad,” says guitarist Teun Schut. “I felt like towards the end of this run, the crew of regulars who came out to support us seemed to be growing.”
Bass player Rob Bailey says that he feels that the management of Doc’s took a chance by staying open all last winter, and keeping Friday night jazz running.
“It is the best venue on the island,” says Bailey. “And I’m really going to miss the social aspect of our Friday nights. It was so great to chat, between sets, with the people who took time out to come and see us. Also, it was just so great to have the opportunity to play with so many people who I consider to be brilliant musicians.”
Among those musicians who played alongside the trio (and sometimes in their place) included locals Steven Fisk, John Stiver, Mary Kastle, Sue Schloegel, Matt Van Dyke and Chad Ruloff.
Ruloff, a student of Schut’s, is not actually old enough to enter a bar, but with management’s permission and his parents in the audience, he was allowed to play one Friday night.
Drummer Buff Allen says that R uloff was not the only minor to join them on stage at Doc’s.
“One day I got a call from a woman I know who had rented a place on the Island, and she has two sons in high school,” says Allen. “I knew for sure that the older one, a trumpet player, was a really good musician because I’d seen him play in the A band at Capliano College. Anyhow, both of those boys played with us one night, and they knew every song and played them perfectly.”
Schut also recalls a young man in his early twenties, who stepped on stage one night from out of the audience.
“I was watching him and you could tell he was just listening to the music so intently, you know, most people are talking but he was just sitting there listening and had a little trumpet case between his knees and I motioned to him to come up with us and he did. In fact, he came back to Doc’s to play with us a few times.”
Bailey says that he feels it is the responsibility of older jazz musicians to offer a place on stage for younger musicians.
“There is no school that can teach what you gain from actually playing live,” he says. Bailey adds that the ever-changing dynamic of the band is what jazz is all about. “When random people show up, sometimes it can be really terrible. Other times, life long friendships are formed.”
Members of the trio say that they are looking into possible alternative venues for the winter, and have their fingers crossed that Doc’s will re-open in the spring and re-instate Friday night jazz.