Cy McLean was a Canadian pianist and band leader, whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1970s. He is particularly notable as having led Canada's only full-scale black orchestra in the 1940s. His success as a Canadian black musician is considered to have been very influential on the success of later Canadian black musicians.

History

Cy McLean was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and relocated to Toronto. He formed his first band as of 1937. He was a pianist, who supported himself as a musician through working as a messenger at the Toronto head office of Bell Canada

Bell Canada

Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...

. He became known as the leader of Toronto's first black dance band and, as of the 1940s, led Canada's only full-scale black orchestra. McLean is credited with training many Canadian jazz musicians of his time. He and his band developed their music career through playing at non-union establishments, due to being unable to join the local musicians union. The band became quite popular, and during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 was sponsored by Lifebouy Soap

Lifebuoy (soap)

Lifebuoy is a brand of soap containing phenol marketed originally by Lever Brothers in England in 1895.-History:Although Lifebuoy is no longer produced in the US and UK, it is still being mass produced by Unilever in Cyprus for the UK, EU, US and Brazil markets, as well as in Trinidad and Tobago...

 to tour southwestern Ontario. McLean and his band played in areas of Ontario where a black person had not been seen before. He and his band were sometimes barred from restaurants, in addition to being initially denied union membership. Despite these events, McLean chose to perform exclusively in Canada, stating that "people (in Canada) aren't like they are in the United States. I've never wanted to go down there, for that reason."

In 1947, Cy McLean's band was the first to open Toronto's famed Colonial Tavern

Colonial Tavern

The Colonial Tavern was one of the most famous jazz venues in Canada from the 1950s till its closure in the late 1970s. It was located at 201 -203 Yonge Street in Toronto where a historic plaque remembered this key jazz venue. The Colonial Tavern was owned and managed by brothers-in-law Mike G...

. This was considered to be a groundbreaking engagement, since black musicians had heretofore not been allowed to perform at any of the clubs on Toronto's Yonge Street

Yonge Street

Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...

, which was at the time the central focus of live music in Toronto.

McLean was a significant influence on other musicians, both generally and among black musicians facing colour barriers, such as drummer Archie Alleyne.

In his later career, McLean was performing five nights a week at Toronto's Warwick Hotel, prior to dance bands being replaced by other entertainment.

McLean was the great uncle of Canadian drummer Mark McLean.