Tony Flaim (April 20, 1948 – March 10, 2000) was among the early professional
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
singers in Canada, most notable as the lead singer for the
Downchild Blues Band
The Downchild Blues Band is a Canadian blues band, described by one reviewer as "the premier blues band in Canada". The band is still commonly known as the Downchild Blues Band, though the actual band name was shortened to "Downchild" in the ea ...
on six of that band's albums. Flaim was associated with Downchild for extended periods over fifteen years.
Biography
Tony Flaim first came to prominence as a blues singer when he succeeded
Richard "Hock" Walsh
Richard "Hock" Walsh (December 19, 1948 – December 31, 1999) was one of the first professional blues singers in Canada. He is particularly notable as the co-founder of the Downchild Blues Band and was the original singer of that band's best- ...
as the lead singer the Downchild Blues Band in 1974. Hock Walsh had been fired by his brother and Downchild band co-founder Donnie, prior to work commencing on the band's third album, ''Dancin. Hock rejoined the band in 1977, at which time Flaim joined the Cameo Blues Band, the legendary
house band
A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment.
It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...
at the Cameo Lounge of Toronto's Hotel Isabella. Flaim succeeded Hock Walsh as the lead singer of the Cameo Blues Band, in the same manner as he had succeeded Hock Walsh as the lead singer of Downchild. When Hock Walsh quit Downchild in 1978, Flaim again was his replacement. In 1982, Flaim was replaced by John Witmer, best known to that point as the lead singer of seminal Canadian blues band
Whiskey Howl
Whiskey Howl was a Toronto-based Canadian blues band, most popular between 1969 and 1972. The band is notable as being one of the early Canadian bands promoting and developing blues music in Canada.Tony Flaim 1948 – 2000 ; www.canadian blues.ca. He also was the original lead singer for Fathead, a multi award-winning, Toronto-based blues and rhythm and blues band. In 1986, Flaim succeeded Witmer in Downchild until 1989, when Hock Walsh rejoined and was fired from Downchild for a final time.
Flaim died of a heart attack, on March 10, 2000, at the age of 51, less than three months after Hock Walsh and barely a month after appearing at a tribute concert in memory of Hock Walsh. At the time of his death, he was scheduled to contribute vocals to a forthcoming album by Dave "Big Daddy G" Glover, with whom Hock Walsh had made his last recordings. One of the demo tracks Flaim completed with Glover was included on the Big Daddy G ''Topless'' album (2000), which also included the tribute song, "Blues for T.F."
:''One of my earliest memories of Tony Flaim is him phoning me at midnight and exhorting me to go down to Grossman's to see the
Downchild Blues Band
The Downchild Blues Band is a Canadian blues band, described by one reviewer as "the premier blues band in Canada". The band is still commonly known as the Downchild Blues Band, though the actual band name was shortened to "Downchild" in the ea ...
. This would have been about 1969. ...I was in a band with Tony, while we were still teenagers living in
Downsview
Downsview is a neighbourhood in the north end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the district of North York. The area takes its name from the Downs View farm established around 1842 near the present-day intersection of Keele Street and Wilso ...
, and while I was discovering the blues Tony knew about and turned me on to: people like Bobby Blue Bland,
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''Roll ...
... guys I had never heard of.
:''His encouragement and support for me personally is very close to my heart. He was so much larger than life . He loved these blues. Strike that – he loved music... from Bobby Bland to
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...
to
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles. George disbanded the group because of creative differences shortly before his death in 1979. Surviving ...
to
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...
.''
:''The last time I saw Tony, he was singing at the memorial/wake for Hock Walsh. ...When Tony got up to play, I was drawn toward the stage where he was singing with a couple of horn players in the Kansas City tradition of
Big Joe Turner
Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American singer from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." His greatest fame was due to ...
. I turned to my friend and said, "this is as good as it gets".''
:''...I will always remember him with joy and I will miss him for a very long time.''
::
Michael Pickett Michael Pickett may refer to:
* Michael Pickett (musician)
* Michael Pickett (swimmer)
{{hndis, Pickett, Michael ...
, Remembering Tony Flaim, April 2000; www.torontobluessociety.com.
Flaim was remembered by way of a benefit memorial concert at Toronto's
Horseshoe Tavern
The Horseshoe Tavern (known as ''The Horseshoe'', ''The 'Shoe'', The 'Toronto Tavern' and The 'Triple T' to Toronto locals) is a concert venue at 370 Queen Street West (northeast corner of Queen at Spadina) in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and ...
, on May 7, 2000. Playing in his honour were such acts as Downchild, Fathead, Big Daddy G, the Cameo Blues Band and The Dukes—the bands with which Tony Flaim had been associated during a career of over twenty-five years—plus
Michael Pickett Michael Pickett may refer to:
* Michael Pickett (musician)
* Michael Pickett (swimmer)
{{hndis, Pickett, Michael ...
, who publicly acknowledged Flaim's encouragement of and influence on Pickett's own career. Proceeds from the concert were to provide educational support to Tony Flaim's son.The proceeds from the memorial concert for Hock Walsh, at which Tony Flaim appeared, were for an identical purpose: to provide educational support for Hock Walsh's son.
Attic
An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...
Spencer Davis
Spencer Davis (born Spencer David Nelson Davies; 17 July 193919 October 2020) was a Welsh singer and musician. He founded The Spencer Davis Group, a band that had several hits in the 1960s including "Keep On Running", "Gimme Some Lovin'", and ...
) (Attic)
* 1987 ''It's Been So Long'' ( Stony Plain/ BMG)