Media Release

When he died in 1984 – his body discovered in a swimming pool in L.A. in a still-unsolved murder – Lenny Breau left behind a legacy of virtuoso guitar music that is still integral to modern musical history in Canada and the U.S. His revolutionary approach to the guitar resonates today, influencing musical styles in country, rock, flamenco, and especially jazz. In a masterful one-man show, writer and performer Pierre Brault brings Breau’s story to the Banff Centre stage January 29 and 30, with a presentation of the award-winning show 5 O’Clock Bells.

Originally developed during The Banff Centre’s 2007 Banff Playwrights’ Colony, 5 O’Clock Bells pulls together the personal and professional influences that made Breau’s music and legacy. He grew up in a musical family, the son of country musician Hal Lone Pine Breau, and was playing lead guitar in his parents’ band by age 14. Moving to Winnipeg, he was an early influence on Randy Bachman, and he brought a strong country fingerstyle to jazz in the 1960s, playing at the Village Vanguard and recording regularly as a session musician at CBC Radio. Breau developed a close professional connection with country star Chet Atkins, who helped him land recording deals, and through the 1970s and early 1980s his unique style would influence musicians on both sides of the border. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

Pierre Brault developed 5 O’Clock Bells in part to reconnect people with Breau’s genius – outside rarefied jazz and guitar circles, his name is all but forgotten 25 years after his death. Brault started with Breau’s voice and the music, and added a swirl of voices from his family, from Atkins, and the musicians who surrounded Breau. The result, which premiered at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa, is a work the Ottawa Citizen called “spellbinding…as finely executed as it is conceived.”

Brault is best known for writing and performing his three solo shows – 5 O’Clock Bells, Portrait of an Unidentified Man, and Blood on the Moon, which ran for three consecutive summers at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa before touring across Canada. As a performer, he has appeared in multiple productions with companies including the National Arts Centre, Opera Lyra Ottawa, and Tarragon Theatre. While they’re at The Banff Centre, Brault and his company, Sleeping Dog Theatre, will workshop their latest production, a solo theatre piece called The Shadow Cutter, about the world’s foremost sleight-of-hand artist.

Upcoming performances in The Banff Centre’s Visiting Artists’ Series: Kidd Pivot (February 13) Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer (February 14), Corb Lund (February 23), Manitoba Theatre for Young People’s Beneath the Banyan Tree (February 27 – 28), Suzanne Vega (March 5), Anton Kuerti (March 6), Yasuko Yukoshi with Masumi Seyama VI (March 7), Hawksley Workman (March 12), and more.

• More on 5 O’Clock Bells

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• More information on The Banff Centre’s 2010 Visiting Artists’ Series