GUIDO BASSO

Can it be?
Has the amazing Guido Basso, that mainstay of jazz in Canada, died?
I was contacted earlier today with news that he had passed, and I’m still shocked. It seems like only yesterday we were enjoying his wonderful flugelhorn playing on the annual Jazz Cruise, this time on the Pacific Ocean out of LA. Guido played beautifully, along with Mike Murely (sax), Steve Wallace (bass), Lee Wallace (guitar), Barry Elmes (drums) and Heather Bambrick (vocals). It was on that same cruise that Guido and I talked about him being involved in the film that will be made about Ruth Lowe based on my book, “Until I Smile At You”.
But now he’s gone. He was 85. Too soon.
Guido Basso was a Member of the Order of Canada. He kept big band music on high in a career that lasted more than 65 years. I remember him first as a charter member of Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass, but he also worked as a musical director for TV programs and played with legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. It was Guido who said, “You attack the trumpet, but you make love to a flugelhorn.” And man, did he do that in style!
Guido leaves his lovely wife, Kristin who said he went “so quickly and so peacefully.”
​Can it truly be?

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