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Thomas Benjamin Banks, "Tommy," pianist, actor (b at Calgary 17 Dec 1936). He began his career at the age of 14 in Edmonton jazz concerts with saxophonist Don Thompson and has since taken a wide range of jazz, pop, studio and symphony orchestra assignments as pianist, arranger, music director and conductor. He was host for the Tommy Banks Show seen 1968-74 and 1980-83 on CBC-TV from Edmonton, and co-ordinator of televised "pops" concerts with the Edmonton, Montréal and Hamilton symphony orchestras during the 1970s. He has continued since to conduct "pops" concerts with orchestras throughout Canada.
Tommy Banks also served as music director for ceremonies at the Commonwealth Games (1978), Expo 86 and the Winter Olympics (1988). His compositions include musical fantasies (eg, The Gift of the Magi), radio scores and jingles. A recording by Banks's big band with Big MILLER, Jazz Canada Montreux 1978, from the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, won a Juno award in 1979; Banks can also be heard playing solo piano on the CD Yes Indeed! (1995). A Banks jazz quintet toured the Far East in 1983, becoming the first foreign jazz group to perform in the People's Republic of China. Banks became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1991 and was appointed to the Senate in 2000.
 Banks, TommyJazz musician Tommy Banks (photo by Ed Ellis).
Links to Other Sites
Senator Tommy Banks
The "Parliament of Canada" information page for Senator Tommy Banks.
Hon. Tommy Banks, O.C., Senator
This biography of Senator Tommy Banks is from the Liberal Party of Canada.
Big Miller
A feature profile of jazz musician Clarence Horatius “Big” Miller. From the “Albertans: Who do they think they are?” website.
CBC Concerts on Demand
From country to calypso and the classics, the “Concerts on Demand” website offers hundreds of online recordings of outstanding concerts originally broadcast on CBC Radio 2. Search this site to find and listen to recordings of your favourite musician, group, or music genre.
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Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
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.
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.
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.
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