I checked out Patrick Tevlin & The Happy Pals again yesterday...like I do a few times every year. What a great way to spend a late Saturday afternoon...you spend the whole time there smiling, clapping your hands, stomping your feet and for some dancing. I have never failed to leave without a great big smile on my face and feeling really good...and that's something to say while living in a 'pandemic world'. Patrick Tevlin is an incredibly talented trumpet player. This group of musicians could easily play in any bar in New Orleans and nobody would know they're from Toronto. They're that good! They are a fine example of why Toronto has been one of the great 'music cities' of the world. Do yourself a favour and go out and see them...you'll be 'Happy' you did.

The Happy Pals are a Toronto Institution, playing authentic old-time New Orleans jazz party music. They’ve been featured every Saturday at Toronto’s legendary Grossman’s Tavern for over forty years, and have attracted literally generations of fans. The music is stomping “revival” jazz from the Preservation Hall period.

The Happy Pals New Orleans Party Orchestra are a New Orleans traditional dance hall jazz band which was formed in 1968 by Clifford “Kid” Bastien. The Happy Pals are a classic New Orleans style ensemble which includes trumpet, trombone, clarinet, banjo, piano, double bass and drums. They are inspired by the early jazz and blues music of the 1920s and 1930s.

Kid Bastien in the 1970's
Clifford “Kid" Bastien immigrated to Canada in 1962 after a brief stint in New Orleans. Bastien earned a reputation as a "guru of New Orleans jazz in Toronto". In 1968 Bastien founded the Kid Bastien's Camellia Jazz band, later to be renamed The Happy Pals. Bastien was now considered to be the foremost disciple of New Orleans trumpet legend Kid Thomas Valentine, whom Bastien had first witnessed playing at a neighborhood dance, at the Westwego Louisiana firehall. Bastien also gained a reputation for outlasting the revolving door of bar owners at Grossmans Tavern, and having personalities such as Woody Allen appear with him onstage.

On February 8, 2003 Bastien died of a heart attack in his Toronto apartment. After Bastien's passing, tenor saxophone player Patrick Tevlin switched to the trumpet in order to take on the leadership of the group.The singers and composers whose material they favor include Kid Thomas Valentine, King Oliver, Fats Domino, George Kewis, Johnny Cash, Glenn Miller, Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan.
New Orleans jazz is alive and well and has taken root in, of all places, Toronto, Canada. The setting is live, the music is all New Orleans jazz swing, and the band seems to be having a heck of a party. Bourbon Street beckons for this kind of sound.