Jason Sniderman is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

musician and businessman. He was one of the chief executives of

Sam the Record Man Sam the Record Man was a Canadian record store chain that, at one time, was Canada's largest music recording retailer. In 1982, its ads proclaimed that it had "140 locations, coast to coast". Its iconic flagship store was located at 259 Yonge S ...

, He also played keyboards on a number of rock music albums, performed with the band

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

, and later released several albums under the name Ensign Broderick. He is also the father of Canadian musician Cos Sylvan.

Early life

Sniderman grew up in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, the son of businessman

Sam Sniderman Sam Sniderman, (June 15, 1920 – September 23, 2012) was a Canadian businessman best known as the founder of the Canadian record shop chain Sam the Record Man. Sniderman was also a major promoter of Canadian music including involvement in pushi ...

. He was involved in the music industry from childhood through the family record store.

Music career

Sniderman was a keyboard player in the new wave band

, joining towards the end of their run in 1983, in time for the recording and release of their final album, ''

Falling Falling or fallin' may refer to: *Falling (physics), movement due to gravity *Falling (accident) *Falling (execution) *Falling (sensation) People * Christine Falling (born 1963), American serial killer who murdered six children Books * ''Fall ...

''. He has appeared as a guest musician on albums by other Canadian artists, including contributing

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman (; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of a num ...

's album ''Any Road'',

Chalk Circle ''The Chalk Circle'' (sometimes translated ''The Circle of Chalk''), by Li Qianfu, is a Yuan dynasty (1259–1368) China, Chinese classical zaju verse play and gong'an fiction, gong'an Chinese crime fiction, crime drama, in four acts with a prol ...

's recording of

20th Century Boy "20th Century Boy" is a song by T. Rex, written by Marc Bolan, released as a stand-alone single on 2 March 1973. It entered in the UK Singles Chart at number 3, on 10 March 1973 and peaked three weeks in a row at that position. It stayed a ...

, and recordings produced by fellow Blue Peter member

Chris Wardman Chris Wardman is a Canadian music producer, musician and songwriter. Wardman was a founding member of Blue Peter, and was their lead guitarist and main contributing songwriter. Wardman was also a member of Breeding Ground in the late 1980s. Wardma ...

. He played keyboards on the albums '' Presto'' and ''

Clockwork Angels ''Clockwork Angels'' is the nineteenth and final studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on June 12, 2012, on Roadrunner Records. During the band's year-and-a-half break following its Snakes & Arrows Tour, the group decided to write a ...

'' by

Rush Rush(es) may refer to: Places United States * Rush, Colorado * Rush, Kentucky * Rush, New York * Rush City, Minnesota * Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois * Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream * Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...

and '' Don't Cry Too Hard'' by

Leslie Spit Treeo Leslie Spit Treeo were a Canadian folk-rock band in the 1980s and 1990s. The band took its name from the Leslie Street Spit area of Toronto Harbour."Leslie Spit Treeo still true to street-busking roots". ''Toronto Star'', May 11, 1990. History T ...

, and played

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

on ''6 Blocks'' by

Meryn Cadell Meryn Cadell is an American-Canadian writer and performance artist. He is an assistant professor of song lyrics and libretto writing in the Creative Writing Program at University of British Columbia. Cadell is a transgender man who transitioned ...

. Sniderman is an Advisory Board Member of the

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (''Panthéon des Auteurs et Compositeurs canadiens'') is a Canadian non-profit organization, founded in 1998 by Frank Davies, that inducts Canadians into their ''Hall of Fame'' within three different categori ...

and plays shows with Blue Peter a few times a year. In March 2018, Sniderman released the album ''Feast of Panthers'' under the pseudonym Ensign Broderick, a musical alter ego he had first created in childhood. By November, Sniderman had released three more albums of music recorded decades earlier, and one album of new material, ''Bloodcrush''. "Ensign Broderick BloodCrush"
''Exclaim!'', By Paul Blinov, Nov 08, 2018

Sam the Record Man

Sniderman's father, Sam Sniderman, started selling records in his brother's radio store in the 1930s. His company grew into a national

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

, with a

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

store on

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial Hi ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. In the 1980s and 1990s the chain was operated by Roblan Distributors, with Jason Sniderman as Vice President. Sam retired in 2000, and the majority of the chain was closed in 2001 after filing for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. Jason Sniderman and his brother Bobby saved the store's iconic neon signs, and re-opened the Yonge St. location in 2002. An attempt at building the Sam's brand with online sales was not enough, however, with the rise of

mp3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

downloads In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

and competition from chains such as

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

down the street, Sam's was forced to close in 2007.

References

External links

BluePeterBand.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sniderman, Jason Businesspeople from Toronto Canadian music industry executives Canadian new wave musicians Canadian rock keyboardists Jewish Canadian musicians Living people Musicians from Toronto Year of birth missing (living people)