10 Questions for - Don Breithaupt (Monkey House, Brass Transit)

1. How old were you when you first started playing piano?
Five years old. As soon as I could reach it.

 

2. Who was/is your biggest musical inspiration?
I guess everyone would expect me to say Steely Dan, but I don’t know how my answer could not be the Beatles. They were everywhere when I was a little kid. They were the band that switched everybody on, turned the world from black and white to colour.

3. Where do you make your home?
After a decade in Los Angeles, I’m pleased to be back in the warm embrace of my hometown of Mississauga, ON!

4. Do you have any pets?
Not right now, unfortunately — too much travel.

5. What is the best concert/gig you have ever done?
That’s a really tough one. I probably played in front of the biggest crowds of my career during my seven years with the Kim Mitchell Band. Brass Transit regularly plays in front of 1000-2000 people. But playing keyboards for Aretha Franklin at the Toronto Jazz Festival has to take the cake!

6. What is the best concert you have ever attended?
Again, tough one! Might have to say Rickie Lee Jones at Massey Hall in 1987. She absolutely ripped my heart out. Unforgettable. Steely Dan at Madison Square Garden in 1993 and Gino Vannelli at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1979 are also in the conversation.

7. Do you have an all-time favourite song?
Anything by Joni Mitchell from 1971-1979! Seriously, though, how about “Lush Life” by Billy Strayhorn?

8. What musician would you still most like to work with?
Toss up: Stevie Wonder or Paul McCartney.

9. If you weren't a musician what would you be?
A writer. (I’m that, too.)

10. What is your favourite thing about Vancouver?
Breathtaking scenery, literally everywhere!

 

Vickie van Dyke ~ middays