Laurie Bower

ARTICLE CONTENTS:  |  Links to Other Sites

Bower, Laurie
Laurie (Lawrence Wayne) Bower. Arranger, singer, trombonist, b Kirkland Lake, Ont, 31 Aug 1933; B MUS ED (Toronto) 1957. He studied at the University of Toronto with Charles Peaker (choral technique), Robert Rosevear (music education), and Harry Stevenson (trombone), and played in the dance bands of Benny Louis, Ozzie Williams, and Mart Kenney before pursuing a dual career in Toronto studios as a trombonist and as a singer and choral arranger.

In 1969, after singing with several CBC vocal groups, he formed the Laurie Bower Singers, who have recorded many jingles, and performed in concert and on TV accompanying other performers. Original members with Bower were Tommy Ambrose, Kathy Collier, Vern Kennedy, and Patty Van Evera. In time, they were succeeded by Cal Dodd, Bill Misener, Colina Phillips, Judy Tate, and Stephanie Taylor. Misener aside, this lineup remained constant in 1990. By then the singers had made 12 LPs of pop songs (arranged by Bower) for the CTL. Five were issued commercially: three under the title The Laurie Bower Singers (1969, RCA CTLS-1114; 1973, RCA KXL-10020; 1974, U Artists 391G) and the others as Got a Feelin' for Love (1976, U Artists 640G) and You (1979, New Ventures NV-5006). Three of the group's LPs were issued in the USA under the Excelsior label.

In 1981 Bower was a founder of the Spitfire Band, serving as its vocal arranger and as one of its trombonists. He also began playing during the 1980s with big bands or orchestras led by Peter Appleyard, Guido Basso, and Jim Galloway, and with Al Lawrie's Jazz Corporation.


Links to Other Sites
Canadian Music Centre
Search the extensive CMC website for Canadian composer biographies and interviews, music scores, online newsletters, audio clips, podcasts, and more. Check out "CentreStreams" to listen to online archived recordings featuring outstanding Canadian composers.

0
0
Absolutely free, with over 40,000 articles in French and English, The Canadian Encyclopedia is the ultimate online resource for all things Canadian, from history, sports, arts, science, technology, and much, much more. Get started at www.TheCanadianEncyclopedia.com
Feature Articles
Elections of 1979 and 1980

Calling elections is like Goldilocks visiting the three bears – which political stew will turn out to be too soon, too late, or just right...?

INSIDE TCE

Gallery
Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Interactive Resources
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
Canucklehead
The ultimate test of your knowledge of Canada, trivial and otherwise. You can choose from more than 60 dynamic quizzes with visual or text clues. Your scores depend on the speed with which you answer and the number of clues you need. Results are sent to you by email and high scores are posted on the site.
Timeline
This unique resource includes more than 6000 events from Canadian and world history. It can be searched by era, subject, keyword or date. To find out what happened on your birthday, select the month and day of your birth.
100 Greatest Events
This selection of the 100 "greatest" events in Canadian history was made by editor in chief James H. Marsh to draw attention to events that have left an indelible memory in the minds of later generations.