The Carltones, featuring Carl Erickson and Don Clark are the featured performers at this year’s Creston Valley Blossom Festival opening ceremonies.
If you ask Carl Erickson how he became a lifelong musician he’ll tell you a story.
“My brother took me to see Ray Charles about age 12 and I have never been the same since,” he says. “My sister, Karen, and myself had a rock and roll band in high school we called the Royals, and before I knew what was what I was playing saxophone in a band called the Nocturnals.”
The Nocturnals recorded over 20 singles and are featured on the Live at the Grooveyard album, which has become a collector’s item. That album musically showcases all the R&B groups of that Vancouver-era who were booked by Jaguar Enterprises. Also the Nocturnals, pictured in gold jackets, appear on the cover of The History of Vancouver Rock and Roll.
“We were a show group, with our costume changes and dance steps — which after all these years I can say without reservation I hated, as beyond any talent I may have, I have never been much of a dancer, to say the least,” Erickson says.
There were quite a few years where Erickson did a lot of studio session recordings — of which there are many great memories.
“There are also good memories of touring with groups like the Buck Owens Revue, which I left in Pheonix, Ariz., somewhere around 1976, to Spade Nielson and the Gamblers, touring across Canada and the U.S.A. all the way to southeast Asia, and countless groups like the Elvis, Elvis, Elvis.”
Erickson spent about eight years in Calgary, part of which were spent playing saxophone with Ronnie King who had taken a leave of absence from the Stampeders of Sweet City Woman fame.
“I then returned to Vancouver and reunited with my old, late friend Muddy Fraser, a blues legend,” he says. “We recorded two albums, one in late 1980 and one about 1990. Throughout the ’90s, well, more unpaid recording sessions, but still most were great fun.”
Joining Erickson in the Carltones is Don Clark.
Don Clark has enjoyed a long career as one of Canada’s leading trumpet and flugelhorn players. As a player, arranger and composer on the West Coast since the early 1960s, he has been leader of the Donnie Clark Quartet, Donnie Clark Quintet and the Don Clark Ragtime Band, as well as a member of leading jazz ensembles such as the Bobby Hales Orchestra, the West Coast Jazz Orchestra, and a regular on CBC radio and television. He was a founding member of the legendary Vancouver all-star jazz sextet Pacific Salt, touring throughout North America and Europe in the 1970s.
The list of artists that Clark has performed and recorded with includes Bob Hales, Dave Robbins, Pacific Salt, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Lance Harrison, Fraser McPherson, Doug Parker, New Orleans Connection and the Chicago Six. His most recent CD release with the Donnie Clark Quintet, To Swing or not To Swing, features nine original compositions and classic jazz ballads.
Erickson and Clark are pleased to be working with special guests Rick Potyok on guitar, Ted Bryant, formerly of the Kings of Kitchener, on bass and Adam Koenig on drums. Their superior musicality and a little light-hearted banter help make for an extremely enjoyable evening.
The audience will also be participating in the ceremonies by choosing the recipient of a $500 performance bonus to be awarded to one of five local musicians chosen for the evening’s entertainment, as well as learning the identity of the citizen of the year.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for ages 12 and under, available at Black Bear Books and the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce. Doors open at 7 p.m. at the Prince Charles Theatre on May 16.
—BY JAN MacDONALD