Peter Appleyard

Although Peter Appleyard is acknowledged to be one of the world's five top vibraphonists, he actually started his musical career playing drums.

When he was seventeen, he auditioned for the Mendelssohn's Hawaiian Serenaders. Appleyard got the job and was soon on the road with one of the biggest dance bands in England. His career was now underway.
In 1951, while on his way to join a band in Bermuda, he stopped off at Bop City in New York. On the billboard, names included the George Shearing Quintet and the Lionel Hampton Big Band. Appleyard was thrilled, - this was his real music scene.

In Canada hisfirst musical job was at the Colonial with Bill O'Connor followed by a stint with the Calvin Jackson Quartet at the Park Plaza. This included the group's weekly coast to coast CBC series "Jazz with Jackson".
In 1957, having become a Canadian citizen, Appleyard decided to form his own quartet and it toured the major club circuits in Canada and the United States. The next year, he recorded his first Jazz LP "Anything Goes" for RCA Records.

An invitation to open at the Round Table Club in New York led to rich opportunities for Appleyard and he was soon playing with such luminaires as Andre Previn, Steve Allen and the Dukes of Dixieland.

Appleyard has been the leading percussionist with the CBC on both radio and television since 1960. He has made guest appearances on the Wayne and Shuster Shows and also for Anne Murray, Oscar Peterson, Gordon Lightfoot and many major television specials seen in Canada. His work with the CBC eventually led to his career with Benny Goodman.
Benny Goodman had been impressed with Appleyard's skills and invited him to join the Benny Goodman Sextet. During the next eight years they had played in most major concert halls in the world while touring Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Bermuda, Jamaica and behind the Iron Curtain.

Working with this group gave Appleyard the opportunity to play with some of the jazz "greats" such as Slam Stewart, Bucky Pizzarelli, Abe Most and Butch Miles.

Appleyard has appeared as a guest soloist on every majorTV variety on both sides of the border. He has appeared on shows hosted by Johnny Carson and Dave Galloway. He appeared on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Show, which he won.

In 1983 his big band album "Swing Fever" went "gold" with 50,000 records sold in Canada before going international.
In the past twenty years Appleyard has appeared at all the major jazz international jazz festivals; he has performed for many members of the British Royal family; he has worked with Hagwood Hardy, Maureen Forrester, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Vera Lynn, Dinah Christie, Gordie Tapp, the Toronto Symphony, the R.C.M.P. Musical Ride, Walt Disney and Henry Mancini, to name a few.

Appleyard has recorded with Oscar Peterson on several occasions including the award winning "A Place To Stand".
Although he has enjoyed a long and brilliant career to date, Appleyard looks to the future with enthusiasm.