By Joel Weiner
Did you know that Lowertown is the birthplace of the renowned Ottawa Jazz Festival and that one of its founding fathers is a longtime Lowertown resident?
The story begins when Robert (Bob) Misener first arrived in Ottawa in 1958. At the time, he was 23 years old, a just-released serviceman and excellent pianist looking for a job, a place to live and a chance to make music. It was in Lowertown that he found all three, and also Doris, the woman who soon became his wife.
Bob’s passion for music developed even before his teens. That’s when his father, an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, brought a piano to the family home in Calgary, where they were stationed at the time. A curious lad, Bob started pecking at the ivories. He displayed a remarkable ear for melody and soon began to take formal lessons.
What soon set Bob apart was a love of jazz, thanks to the 1948 movie New Orleans. That film featured the music of Louis Armstrong, and Bob was smitten by what he saw and heard. So much so in fact that a few months later the movie’s soundtrack became the very first record album that he ever bought. He was only 13 at the time and already hooked on jazz!
Piano lessons weren’t always available as the family moved from posting to posting, but Bob’s natural proclivity allowed him to keep developing and improving as a musician. That was also true when he followed his dad’s lead, joining the RCAF and having postings of his own across Canada and Europe.
It was while stationed in France that Bob decided to try civilian life. Sent to Montreal for demobilization, he then made his way to the nation’s capital to visit a friend and figure out what to do with his life. In short order, he had an administrative position at the National Research Council on Sussex Drive and a room in a home at the corner of Friel and York.
One of the buildings he strolled past each day on his way to work and back housed an attractive young woman who, as fate would have it, also worked at the NRC. It wasn’t long before Bob and Doris started making the return walk together, and they soon decided to get married.
Not surprisingly, one of their early dates was to take in Capital City Jazz Band, a local group that played the New Orleans music that Bob loved. That was Bob’s introduction to Ottawa’s nascent jazz scene. He started meeting area musicians and jamming with them, eventually joining a group that played evenings and weekends at venues around town. Most often, though, they were at the old Riverside Hotel on North River Road, just across from Lowertown over the St. Patrick Street Bridge.
In 1979, Bob went to the recently launched Toronto Jazz Festival and was quickly inspired to set up a similar event in our town. Fellow musicians Tony Pope and Bill Shuttleworth helped him make that dream a reality, along with assistance from City Hall, the NCC and a few big jazz names. They agreed to come to Ottawa in 1980 and play on a makeshift stage for little money over a single weekend at Major’s Hill Park in Lowertown. The rest is history.
Almost 40 years later, the Ottawa Jazz Festival is a huge enterprise with multiple stages, world-famous artists and about 250,000 fans, tourists and locals alike, who attend the 10-day event each year. Bob served as the Festival’s Chief Executive Officer for five years, giving up the position when it started to interfere with his daytime job. Handling endless calls from performers, agents and managers looking for gigs, negotiating contracts or making travel arrangements were all demanding tasks that could not be reconciled with his career in human resources for a succession of federal departments and agencies. Nevertheless, he continued to play at the Festival for another 25 years.
Ultimately, the Ottawa Jazz Festival outgrew Lowertown and had to move. But Bob came back. Today, at 83, he and Doris still live in our neighbourhood, having returned after raising a family in other parts of the city. And he’s still a jazzman. You can catch him every second Sunday afternoon–on the piano, banjo or guitar–at the Royal Oak in Kanata, playing for the 28th straight year as a member of the Magnolia Rhythm Kings.