Jan Randall

Jan Randall

Jan Randall
Background information
Born (1952-07-26) July 26, 1952
Genres Folk
Blues
Jazz
Classical
Soundtrack
Occupation(s) Singer–songwriter
Composer
Instruments piano
guitar
Years active 1967–present
Labels iTunes
Website http://www.janrandall.com

Jan Randall is a Canadian composer and pianist. Randall played entirely by ear from childhood, started working in blues and pop music bands while still in high school, and after receiving formal classical and jazz training as a composer and arranger went on to spend a decade in theatre before moving on to make a career of composing sound tracks for broadcast.

Composer

Commissioned works by Randall include a ballet for the National Ice Theatre of Canada, A Midsummer Night’s Ice Dream (1992)[1] which won a sterling award for Outstanding Fringe Experience.[2] Tangled Ice Webs followed in 1998, after which came Poetry in Motion (2006). He composed and produced the music for the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships, and composed and directed the music for the 2001 IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

In 1985 he built a recording studio,[3] Randall's Recordings, specifically for film and television music production. The studio has garnered over 700 broadcast production credits. In 1998 he won a Rosie award for Best Composer/Musical Score [4] for the NFB production "Lost Over Burma" [5] which featured narration by Christopher Plummer. He composed music for many other documentaries for the NFB, a large body of educational programs for ACCESS Television, and music to underscore a decade of award winning productions for Karvonen Films and The Discovery Channel.

Comedy Improvisation and Song Writing

Jan Randall has been Music Director, Pianist, Song Composer and Musical Improvisor for theatrical comedy troupes. He worked in Edmonton, Toronto and Santa Monica collaborating with The Second City,.[6] His first show for them was directed by Catherine O'Hara, and he later worked with Robin Duke, Ron James, Debra McGrath, Richard Kind, Bruce Pirrie, Sandy Belkovske, and Mike Myers. He also appeared on SCTV as a Turkish border guard in the scene "The Midnight Express" where Eugene Levy and Tony Rosato play Abott and Costello smuggling hashish. While in Santa Monica, he house sat for Ryan Stiles who was recording his first "Whose Line Is It" series in England.

Other comedy troupes Jan collaborated and performed with include Rapid Fire Theatre, and Theatresports. He was the founding music director for Die-Nasty in the early 1990s and appeared with them off and on at the Varscona Theatre and as part of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival for over 20 years. He also performed with them in London England in 2009 and played piano continuously for 50 straight hours as part of an improvisation marathon produced by The Sticking Place. He repeated this the following year at Hoxton Hall with the same group. Currently he appears regularly writing and performing original comedy songs for his 3rd season of CBC Radio's The Irrelevant Show (2011–present) with singers Jocelyn Ahlf and Martin Murphy.[7] Popular songs from this series include "operettas" about texting and a transcript of a child's tantrum, a Stan Rogers style tribute to Ben Mulroney, and spoofs of a wide variety of artists including Kim Mitchell, Loreena McKennitt, Johnny Cash, Justin Timberlake, and Frank Sinatra.

Performer

Jan Randall has performed live with Bo Diddley,[8] Otis Rush, Amos Garrett, Gaye Delorme,[9] Dave Babcock, Sha Na Na, Spencer Davis, Sam Lay (drummer for Paul Butterfield and Howlin' Wolf) and Gary U.S. Bonds. Jan Randall has been music director for the annual Banff World Television Festival (1995-2007) and performed there with many stars including John Cleese, Bob Newhart, Dame Edna Everage, Martin Short, Steve Allen and Kelsey Grammer. In 2008 he released a solo CD of original songs "Good Fair World" which he promoted in a worldwide tour of small clubs and coffee houses across Canada, the US, and Europe. Currently besides performing original comedy songs for the CBC radio series "The Irrelevant Show", he sings for his cover band "Jettstar" and is half of the duelling piano show Randall & Day. In January 2014 he performed a classical piano concert of his original solo works at the McDougall United Church that included his Piano Sonata No. 1 and a collection of Impromptus.

Sundown Recorders

In 1992, Randall donated many audio tapes that had come into his possession of Edmonton-based Sundown Recorders, originally owned by Wes Dakus, and which existed from 1972 to 1987, to the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Included in the donated material were recordings by Hoyt Axton, Bobby Curtola, Gaye Delorme, Gary Fjellgaard, Fosterchild and Hammersmith.[10]

Personal life

His first piano teacher was his mother Laura Randall, who played classical and jazz and taught the neighborhood children. Jan married Ina Dykstra in 2011. Ina has been teaching piano in St. Albert, Alberta since 1969.

Jan Randall's community volunteer work includes serving as treasurer for the Inglewood Community League from 1993-1994, and as treasurer for the Strathcona Housing Coop from 2008-2009. He also served on the board of the Guild of Canadian Film Composers from 2002-2009.

In 2004 Jan Randall received a letter from a cousin of folk singer Arlo Guthrie that contained information revealing they all shared a great-great grandfather Raphael Stukelman. Later that year he attended a cousins reunion in San Francisco and they all met with Arlo backstage a concert he gave there.

In 2006 Jan Randall began work as a radio host on CKUA radio with the Weekend Breakfast show which he produced until 2009.

Education

Jan Randall studied piano privately with Prof. Alexandra Munn, Isobel Raulston, Vic Lillo, Ted Moses, Adrian Chornwal, and Charlie Austen. He attended the University of Alberta, majoring in theory and composition, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1975. He also received a scholarship to attend the Banff School of Fine Arts, and studied jazz at Macewan University and North Texas State University.

Discography

Television Soundtracks

References

  1. ↑ The Edmonton Journal, Aug 13, 1992, Rosa Jackson, "Theatre On Ice"
  2. ↑ The Edmonton Journal June 29, 1993 Liz Nicholls "Phoenix Theatre Sweeps the Sterling Awards"
  3. ↑ The Edmonton Journal Nov. 18, 1992 Duncan Thorne "Jan Randall" D8
  4. ↑ The Edmonton Sunday Sun, April 26, 1998, Steve Tilley, "Six Degrees of Separation" p. 53
  5. ↑ Garth Pritchard, Christopher Plummer, Lost Over Burma, NFB, 1998 film
  6. ↑ The Edmonton Journal Nov. 3 1989 Alan Kellogg "Slow Lane is Where It's At"
  7. ↑ "CBC" http://www.cbc.ca/irrelevantshow/performers/
  8. ↑ The Gateway March 26, 1991 Paul Charest "Bo Knows Diddlin' Makes Music" Edmonton
  9. ↑ The Edmonton Journal Jan. 16 1986 "Gaye Delorme"
  10. ↑ Archives Canada, Sundown Recorders. Retrieved 2012-09-18.

See also

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