Gaye Delorme
Encyclopedia
Thunder Bay
-In Canada:Thunder Bay is the name of three places in the province of Ontario, Canada along Lake Superior:*Thunder Bay District, Ontario, a district in Northwestern Ontario*Thunder Bay, a city in Thunder Bay District*Thunder Bay, Unorganized, Ontario...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, he lived primarily in western Canada until his death of a possible heart attack. Delorme was to perform at the Calgary Bluesfest Warmup with his Vancouver band featuring Sneaky Pete on June 25, but died during the early hours of June 24 at a friend's home.
Delorme was able to play many styles of guitar music including flamenco, classical, jazz (in the styles of Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
and Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...
), country, blues, rock and heavy metal. His wide-ranging skill as a guitarist included the ability to emulate other instruments such as the sitar and the koto. Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
described Delorme as "one of the best". He was entirely self-taught, having picked up the guitar at age fifteen during a stint in juvenile detention. He learned how to read music in the 1990s after performing as a professional musician for over thirty years.
In the early 1970s he led a Jimi Hendrix-styled power trio called The Window in Edmonton, Alberta. During this period, he could also be heard in jazz jams around town, or at the Hovel folk club. He moved from Edmonton to Calgary and played in country bands there for a few years, until forming another trio to play his original rock and blues oriented tunes to play the dance club scene in Alberta. After a brief move to Vancouver, he returned to Edmonton in the 90's and was a mainstay at the Sidetrack Cafe, where he developed a latin fusion style that at one point featured Gaye leading a 10 piece band with a horn section. From roughly 2000 to 2009, Gaye lived in Vancouver, and focused on his writing, recordings and concerts, often appearing solo. In 2009, Gaye moved back to Edmonton.
Collaborations
Delorme played with many musicians and groups including Jann ArdenJann Arden
Jann Arden is a Canadian singer-songwriter.-Life and career:Arden was born and raised near Calgary in Springbank, Alberta and attended Springbank Community High School. Her breakthrough came with her critically acclaimed 1993 debut album Time for Mercy and her first single "I Would Die For You"...
, the Powder Blues Band
Powder Blues Band
The Powder Blues Band is a Canadian blues/pop/jazz band formed in 1978 in Vancouver. Its first album Uncut went double platinum in Canada. The second album Thirsty Ears was similarly popular...
, Lenny Breau
Lenny Breau
Leonard Harold "Lenny" Breau was a musician, guitar player, and music educator. He was known for blending many styles of music including: jazz, country, classical and flamenco guitar...
, David Foster
David Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC , is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni...
, Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
, Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
and Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
. In 2006 he was accompanied by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
As the professional orchestra of Alberta's creative capital city, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra presents over 85 concerts a year of symphonic music in all genres, from classical to country...
for his performance of Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez , commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success...
's Concerto de Aranjuez. 1986 saw Delorme record a one-hour special for CBC television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
entitled "Gaye Delorme in Concert". As well as composing and playing guitar, he produced k.d. lang
K.D. Lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...
's first album A Truly Western Experience
A Truly Western Experience
A Truly Western Experience is the debut album by k.d. lang and the Reclines, released in 1984.The album was re-released in February 2010, with bonus tracks and a DVD with rare videos-Track listing:#"Bopalena" – 2:30...
.
The LA Years
During the 1970s and 1980s, Delorme lived in Los Angeles, collaborating frequently with Cheech and ChongCheech and Chong
Cheech & Chong are a comedy duo consisting of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong, who found a wide audience in the 1970s and 1980s for their films and stand-up routines, which were based on the hippie and free love era, and especially drug culture movements, most notably their love for...
, most notably writing the music for Cheech and Chong's anthem Earache My Eye
Earache My Eye
"Earache My Eye" is a comedy routine and song by Cheech and Chong which features Alice Bowie .-History:It first appeared on Cheech & Chong's Wedding Album and later on the greatest hits collections Cheech & Chong's Greatest Hit , and Where There's Smoke There's Cheech & Chong, a double-CD...
. The immediately-recognizable guitar riff became part of the modern musical lexicon, with numerous covers of Earache My Eye recorded by heavy metal, punk and even hip-hop artists. His long-running association with Cheech and Chong included musical contributions to Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980), and culminated with Delorme scoring their film Things Are Tough All Over
Things Are Tough All Over
Things are Tough All Over is the fourth Cheech and Chong movie. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are featured as the two hippies, and additionally as Arab businessmen Mr. Slyman and Prince Habib...
(1982). The drug and alcohol fueled atmosphere of LA was taking a heavy toll on Delorme by the mid eighties, so he moved back to his native Canada.
Comedy
Delorme was often involved in Cheech and Chong's improvised writing process, and humor was integral to his audience rapport during live performances. His own comedy caused a buzz in 1980 when The Rodeo Song was released by Garry Lee and the ShowdownGarry Lee and the Showdown
Garry Lee and Showdown are a Country band from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. They are best known for their hit song "The Rodeo Song" from the 1980 album "Welcome to the Rodeo"-Singles:...
. The single resulted in a CRIA
Cria
A cria is the name for a baby camelid such as a llama, alpaca, vicuña, or guanaco. It comes from the Spanish word cría, meaning "baby". Its false cognate in English, crya , was coined by British sailors who explored Chile in the 18th century and were quick to describe the camelids onomatopoeically...
double-platinum record. The song quickly became a cult favorite and was compiled by Dr. Demento
Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen , better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present....
on Demento's Mementos, and was used in the Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
film Sleepwalkers
Sleepwalkers (film)
Sleepwalkers is a 1992 American horror film based on an original screenplay by Stephen King and directed by Mick Garris.-Plot summary:...
(1992). Delorme's own version of the Rodeo Song was released on the album Rodeo Songs in 2002.
Discography
American Jumbo - Beautiful Guitar vol. 2 (2008)Borderline (2002)
Delorme (2002)
Rodeo Songs (2002)
The Best of Gaye Delorme (1999)
Beautiful Guitar (1998)
Blue Wave Sessions (1990)