Fonds P228 - Vernon Isaac fonds

Vernon Clarence Isaac, a jazz musician and bandleader, was born in Pittsburg, Texas on October 21, 1913 as the first child of the storekeeper Arthur Lee Isaac and Helen D. Isaac Williamson. In 1922, his family moved to Oklahoma City.

Vernon and his nine brothers and sisters grew up in a musical environment with their father and mother both playing mostly religious music on piano and organ. At age 14, Vernon Isaac was playing piano, violin and clarinet and started saxophone. With 16, he dropped out of high school, to travel around the United States for about ten years, playing alto and tenor saxophone with jazz musicians like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie.

Vernon Isaac married Ester Geraldine Wonowity (Gerry Isaac) in 1942. They had three children : Richard, Jean and Francine. In 1942, Isaac was also drafted to the U.S. Army’s 92nd Colored Division. There he led the 37th Special Services Band. In 1946, after being discharged from the army, Isaac returned to Philadelphia where he formed the jazz group "Three Jacks and a Jill." Vernon Isaac came to Canada for the first time in 1948 while he was on tour with "Three Jacks and a Jill." Few years later, in 1951, Isaac moved to Canada, settling in Montreal where he remained for 25 years. Until "Three Jacks and a Jill" disbanded, he toured in Ontario and the Maritimes. Later, he played mostly in Montreal at the Montmartre and with Allan Wellman at Rockhead's Paradise. Also at Rockhead's Paradise, he helped organize the show ‘Ebony in Rhythm’ in 1964. At the same time, he led some smaller bands, like the L.V.J. Trio, named after Lem Neal, Vernon Isaac and Jimmy Valdez, and went on tour again.

In 1973, Vernon Isaac moved to Ottawa, where he became a founding member of the oldest non-profit organization in Canada to promote jazz, Ottawa jazz, in 1975. Ottawa Jazz helped to promote, preserve and present jazz in the Ottawa area until its dissolution in 1996. It had a major impact on the Ottawa Jazz scene, by organizing jazz sessions and supporting clubs like La Paloma, Beacon Arms Hotel, The Penguin, Mr. Keith’s MacDonald Club, as well as the Ottawa Jazz Festival.

In the 1980s, Vernon Isaac established the Vernon Isaac Big Band, and in 1985, he participated in the St. Michel All-Stars at Le Grand Café in Montreal.

Vernon Isaac died in Gatineau, Québec on December 16, 1999.