Manitoba Music Museum

Burton
                      Cummings & Neil Young 1987


THE  LEN  CARIOU  QUARTET


HOME  ARTISTS  |  SPECIAL EVENTS  |  MUSIC ASSOCIATES  |  MEMORABILIA  |  OBITUARIES  |  CONTRIBUTORS  LINKS  |  CONTACT US

Best known for his role in the long running CBS television series, Blue Bloods, Len Cariou was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on September 30, 1939.

The Len Cariou
                              Quartet

There is no accompanying history of the long forgotten musical act, but its namesake just happens to have returned home this week from New York City.

Cariou says he was finishing his last year at Miles Macdonnell Collegiate when he and drummer Owen Clark put together the trio in 1957 with guitarist Merv Bales and piano player Cam Fairfield.  The former Holy Cross Church choirboy was already a veteran of the burgeoning Winnipeg music scene with The Starlights but the formation of his own trio was the modest on-ramp to singing stardom.

“I felt I could choose new material a little more freely,” says Cariou, 70, during a telephone interview.  “I just wanted to see if I could do it or not.  It was great fun.”

The band lasted two years after making the rounds of high school dances, community clubs, hotels and clubs like the Copa Cabana.

“The group was good,” recalls Clark.  “We recorded but over the years the tapes were lost.

“Even at his age, Len was so confident of his vocal ability and how to deal with an audience.”

Cariou sang from the pre-rock pop charts of the day, tunes like Frankie Laine’s Jezebel, Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra and St. Louis Blues.

Clark remembers a gig at the Olympic (curling) rink on Main Street at which Cariou put a charge into the Platters’ version of the Hoagy Carmichael classic Stardust.

“Len blew everyone away,” Clark remembers.  “Nobody in town was singing with that kind of power and confidence.”


Kevin Prokosh
Excerpt from BROADWAY STAR GOT START SINGING AT SCHOOLS DANCES as published in the Winnipeg Free Press July 3, 2010


BACK TO ARTIST INDEX


HOME  ARTISTS  |  SPECIAL EVENTS  |  MUSIC ASSOCIATES  |  MEMORABILIA  |  OBITUARIES  |  CONTRIBUTORS  LINKS  |  CONTACT US

©  Manitoba Music Museum  All Rights Reserved