Bruce McGillivray

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Position: 1st Trombone

Occupation: retired (formerly Executive Director, Royal Alberta Museum)

Trombone: King 3B; Conn Constellation

Groups: Ritchie Trombone Choir; Sixfeetup (www.sixfeetup.ca); past/part-time member of Gateway Big Band, St. Albert Jazz Band, Mission Hill Brass, Scottsdale Community College Trombone Choir, Southwest Bones

Teachers: mostly self taught; advice and clinics from Eugene Watts, Alistair Kay, Ralph Sauer, Bill Hewitt

Influences: have to be James Pankow, (bone player, writer and arranger for Chicago); Wayne Henderson (Crusaders/Jazz Crusaders) and Russ Little (Lighthouse). I like what Trombone Shorty has done for the image of bone players.

Bio: I started playing trombone in Grade 9 (first year of high school in Ontario). My motivation was making the senior band in a year so that I could be part of the band's European tour in 1969. Made it! At the end of high school I was part of the horn section of a band called "Tree" that performed in the Ottawa area playing jazz/rock songs from bands like Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears and Lighthouse. An errant hockey puck ended my high school trombone career and I focused on science and museums for the next 25 or so years. I started playing trombone again in St. Albert in the late '90s and am back now playing and singing with Sixfeetup. Retirement in 2009 allowed music, sports and grandkids to be priorities.

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