Welcome Friend

I produce, arrange, teach, play trumpet, EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument), breathe music and love all things creative. I lead a number of bands, Bruce Cassidy’s Mbaqanga, (which features South African Township music), One World Trio (a world music project) and Bruce Cassidy’s Hotfoot Orchestra (a 10 piece wide-format band) populated by the finest virtuoso players in my chosen hometown of Toronto Canada. My latest project is Bruce Cassidy’s Anti-Gravity Machine and I traveled to Johannesburg South Africa to launch it. See a short rehearsal clip below. I teach music theory at York University in Toronto where I am a PhD candidate. Please browse my site – leave a comment on the contact page and let me know if I can be of assistance to you.

In November 2016 I traveled to South Africa to launch my new chamber-jazz project Bruce Cassidy’s Anti-Gravity Machine

Below is a short video clip courtesy of Maciej Lacny.

From 1978 to 1980 I was musical director of Blood Sweat and Tears – here is a video from an appearance on a German TV show during a 1980 tour.

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Colgrass has written a wonderful piece of music that shows off the EVI. It was premiered with the Esprit Orchestra on April 17, 2014. Below is Michael’s note about the composition:

Dragon for Electronic Valve Instrument (EVI) and orchestra was commissioned by the Esprit Orchestra of Toronto under a grant from the Ontario Arts Council for Toronto’s EVI soloist Bruce Cassidy.
Dragon was inspired by writer Stieg Larsson’s trilogy about Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. She is a ruthless, ingenious computer hacker with a photographic memory. She also packs mace and a Taser and can take out guys twice her size (she’s only 4′ 11″ and 90 pounds!). Her appearance says it all: she wears black-studded leather, lots of piercings and a T-shirt that says “This is fair warning.”
The EVI’s wild sounds brilliantly capture Lisbeth’s complex personality. She is merciless with enemies but gentle with those in need—especially abused women, because she was abused as a child.
Dragon was first conceived as a work in graphic notation—simple abstract markings that represent musical events—and later filled in with rhythms and pitches. The work includes sections of pure improvisation for the EVI and selected members of the orchestra

My latest release ‘My African Heart’ is an album of South African themes played by my 10 piece band and some tracks by my quintet. Here is a track from that album:

Mid-Atlantic Blues

You can get a digital version of the album and view all the tracks on iTunes.

At the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga Ontario with the Mississauga Big Band and my Hotfoot Orchestra Feb 21, 2014