Obituaries: Canadian Jazz Pianist/Composer Robert G. Scott, Rock Critic Juan Rodriguez

Robert Grant Scott, a Toronto-based jazz and pop pianist, composer and teacher, died on July 27, at age 48, after a sudden heart attack.

Best known as the co-writer of Michael Bublé's 2012 international hit single “Hollywood,” Scott was a fixture as a performer on Toronto's jazz club circuit. He frequently performed and recorded with many notable local artists.

Born and raised in Burlington and Hamilton, Ontario, Scott studied Liberal Arts at Harvard University, and in 1993 he was awarded a full scholarship ($40,000) towards studies at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music (1993). He earned a 2002 Don Wright Scholarship in Music Education (Practical Instrumental Arranging) at the University of Toronto and became an in-demand music teacher. One of his piano students, JP Saxe, is now a hit pop singer-songwriter.

Scott's debut solo album Pianoptic was chosen by CBC radio as one of the Fresh Air Best of 2007 recordings, and he was nominated by the Ontario Arts Council for the 2008 Louis Applebaum Composer Award for Jazz Composition.

A career breakthrough for Scott came in 2011 when he co-wrote the Michael Bublé hit single, "Hollywood." The song was recorded and released worldwide as a single, with video and as an EP edition Crazy Love: The Hollywood Edition. The song reached No. 1 in both Canada and the United Kingdom, and the EP was Billboard's No. 1 adult contemporary album for several weeks after its release. Scott also played the piano and sang background vocals on "Hollywood," produced by the legendary Bob Rock. The hit has earned Double Platinum status in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.

"Hollywood" earned Scott a #1 Songwriter SOCAN Award in 2011, plus International Song of the Year and Pop/Rock of the Year at the 2012 SOCAN Awards in 2012. The song's commercial success reportedly allowed Scott to afford to buy a Toronto condo.

Scott's relationship with Bublé began in 2001,when Jaymz Bee introduced the pair and helped get them a gig at The Reservoir Lounge in Toronto that lasted two years. Bublé was once quoted as stating “Robert is one of the most dynamic players I have ever had the opportunity to work with. He is simply a force of nature."

On the Toronto scene, Scott performed with prominent acts such as Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards, Alex Pangman, Terra Hazelton, Gene Hardy, Don Francks and Marc Jordan, and later served as the Music Director of The Royal Jelly Orchestra. His decades-long collaboration with producer/impresario/broadcaster Jaymz Bee was a highly productive one. "He called me his big brother and we made music together since our first meeting at an Alex Pangman gig in 1999," Bee tells Billboard Canada. Scott composed for Bee’s films and contributed to their soundtracks, including the theme song for Bee's upcoming feature film slated for release in 2025.

Bee produced Scott albums Pianoptic and Making Strides (a collaboration with Kevin Clark). Other titles in the Robert G. Scott discography include The City Dances, with Brandi Disterheft and Great Bob Scott, Ten Short Stories For Piano and Live & Improvised with Genevieve Marentette (2020), produced by George Koller. Bee tells Billboard that "Gigi [Marentette] and he were like family and she was one of the few who knew how to improvise along with him."

Koller explained to Billboard Canada, "I have an amazing solo recording I produced of Robert that is as yet unreleased but now I will work on it."

As a solo pianist, Scott held long-term residencies in Toronto at the Four Seasons Hotel and the Jazz Bistro, where he entertained patrons and many fellow musicians with his rare improvisational skills and knowledge of all songs and themes in all genres.

As one half of the acclaimed “Power Duo” alongside percussionist Great Bob Scott (no relation), Robert Scott performed regularly at Toronto venues Reposado and the Pantages Hotel. In 2015, he held a residency with Genevieve Marentette at 120 Diner and, in 2017, at the Jazz Bistro.

Scott also composed scores for shows on CTV, CBC, City-TV, HGTV and Comedy Network.

Upon hearing news of Scott's passing, many of his Toronto musical peers paid tribute on social media, and to Billboard Canada.

Jaymz Bee to Billboard Canada: "His legacy as a consummate musician and composer lives on in the hearts of all who knew him and the melodies that enriched our lives. His passing is a loss in so many ways. A widow [Mirela Elena Cara] and a two-year-old son. He was a musical genius and a really sweet guy."

Juno-nominated Toronto jazz/swing vocalist Alex Pangman performed frequently with Robert Scott. "My Mom just remembered how Robert really took her under his wing one time when we were all our tour in Western Canada," she reminisced to Billboard Canada. "The rest of the band were off doing band things, but Rob made sure to spend quality time with Mom, which is kind of awesome and speaks to his singular personality. I feel so sad about this."

Acclaimed B.C. pianist/vocalist Michael Kaeshammer sent Billboard Canada a short video tribute to his peer: "Robert Scott was a great person and a fantastic musician. He was one of the few people I've met who didn't just play the piano, he was a true pianist. He could play any style in his own way, yet he still had his own style. He was also a fantastic songwriter, and he'll be sorely missed. Rest In Peace Robert."

On Facebook, vocalist Christine Leakey posted, "Robert was such a supportive friend to me in music and he gave me some incredible music pep talks over the years. He was a pure musical genius and this world has lost a great Canadian talent."

Marc Jordan, to Billboard Canada: "So sad to hear of Robert's death. I thought he was a great player. Extremely inventive and in full command of the instrument."

Jaymz Bee informs that "We want to remember Robert's bigger than life personality and enormous talent during a celebration of life event. Details TBA."

Read more on Robert Scott here.

Juan Rodriguez, a groundbreaking Montreal rock music critic for The Gazette and the Montreal Star, died on Aug. 3, at age 76.

The Gazettereported that "Years of hard living took a toll on Rodriguez’s health and he fought a long and tough battle with illness, including diabetes — he lost a foot to amputation as a result — and kidney failure. He suffered a stroke in May 2023."

Born in England, Rodriguez moved to Montreal with his family in 1953. He started writing about music in the early 1960s, while still in high school and published one of the first music fanzines in Montreal, Pop-See-Cul, from 1966 to 1970.

He was hired by the Montreal Star in 1969 at age 21, and quickly achieved notoriety with his first concert review for the newspaper when he panned The Doors. Rodriguez was fearless in harshly criticising many of the stars of the era, including Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and hometown hero Leonard Cohen. Of his latter review, of Cohen at Théatre St-Denis in 1970, Rodriguez recalled to The Gazette that “I just totally slammed him. The mood at the concert was sickeningly reverent — along the stage they had put candles, you know: It was like going into St-Joseph’s Oratory except it was a show.”

After a long stint at The Montreal Star, Rodriguez became the main music critic at Montreal's other daily anglophone paper, The Gazette.

Though opinionated and oft-controversial, Rodriguez earned the respect of his peers. Veteran Toronto music writer Larry LeBlanc argues to Billboard Canada that "Juan Rodriguez was the best music journalist in Canada ever. Feared and respected and sadly forgotten today due to his foray into hard drugs and decline in reporting in later years. In the '60s and '70s from Montreal, he reigned supreme as the master music journalist for the Montreal Star and occasionally for the U.S rock magazine Creem."

In the Gazette obituary, the paper's former Arts & Life editor Basem Boshra (now managing editor of CBC Quebec) stated "He could be stubborn and dismissive and vainglorious. But as a writer and observer of rock music, my goodness. He was capable of such dazzling and incisive criticism and, as the cliché goes, he certainly forgot more about rock music than I will ever know."

Another noted Canadian music journalist, Martin Melhuish, offered Billboard Canada this tribute: "Juan brought performativity to music criticism in the tradition of the gonzo journalism of the '70s, and he could riff with the best of them. He was a gifted writer who could fearlessly singe the wings of the complacently famous or generously expose musical shadow dwellers to the light. Either way, he was endlessly fascinated by the personalities and the process.

"I smiled when I read his confessional comment as part of an autobiographical piece he wrote for the Montreal Gazette. It was Juan to a tee – 'Musicians always made it interesting, even if I disliked their music. I was like a moth to their flame, whether I admitted it or not.'"

In 2013, The Gazette published Juan Rodriguez’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Life, a seven-part series in which Rodriguez reminisced about his career.

In 2017, Louis Rastelli, director of ARCMTL, a not-for-profit organization working to promote and preserve the independent arts in Montreal, conducted a comprehensive interview with Rodriguez that can be read here.

A memorial event is to be held at a future date.

International

Chino XL (born Derek Keith Barbosa), a hip-hop star and actor, died on July 28, at age 50. No cause of death was revealed.

A Billboard obituary notes that "Born in the Bronx and raised in East Orange, N.J., Chino formed the Art of Origin duo with Kerri Chandler, and they signed to Def Jam Recordings via Warner in 1991. Chino XL went on to reach acclaim in his solo career.

"His 1996 debut, Here to Save You All — featuring collabs with Kool Keith an Ras Kass — arrived in 1996 and reached No. 56 on the Top R&B Albums chart. Chino followed up with I Told You So in 2001 and Poison Pen in 2006, as well as 2012’s Ricanstruction: The Black Rosary."

Over his career, he collaborated with Kool G Rap, Proof, J. Dilla and B-Real among others. As an actor, he appeared in the film Alex & Emma, while appearing in television shows such as CSI: Miami, The Young and the Restless and Reno 911!

Those paying tribute on social media include Ice-T. Read more here.

Pat Collier, English record producer and bassist/founding member of The Vibrators, died on July 28, at age 72. A cause of death has not been reported.

Collier founded London punk band The Vibrators with Ian “Knox” Carnochan, John Ellis, and John “Eddie” Edwards in the '70s. The group has remained active since, releasing over 20 albums, including 2022's Fall into the Sky.

Collier had a successful parallel career as a record producer, working with such artists as The Jesus and Mary Chain, X-Ray Spex, Robyn Hitchcock, Soft Boys, UK Subs and Primal Scream.

On Twitter, Hitchcock offered this tribute: "I heard the sad news today that Pat Collier passed away last night. Pat produced the bulk of the Soft Boys' Underwater Moonlight album and went on to co-produce and engineer much of my solo work, from Black Snake Diamond Rôle to Jewels For Sophia."

"We discovered our own version of joy recording with Pat. He worked with many UK hitmakers in the 1980s & '90s, moving from his funky, spore-infested lair of Alaska Studios (under the railway arches at Waterloo) to the airy, spacious Greenhouse premises near Old Street. Pat was always level, considerate, and open to ideas, with a keen sense of what would work, & what wouldn’t. I hadn’t seen him for ages. We never fell out, but he drifted further east, to studios on the South-East London, whilst I headed west, to Nashville & the Isle of Wight. He was a good man, I’m glad I got to work with him back in those earlier days, and I’m grateful. RIP Mr Collier."

Canadian drummer Pete Lambert recalled to Billboard Canada that "Pat ran Alaska Studios where I practiced and recorded with the Angelic Upstarts in early 1983. We played a couple of shows with the Vibrators and I became friendly with him. Later in '86 we recorded the first Trojans album there. Pat was a real gentleman in my opinion. My condolences to his family and former bandmates."