Skywalk was a

Jazz Fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

band based out of

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. The band was formed in 1979 by Graeme Coleman (keyboards) and Rene Worst (bass), with

Tom Keenlyside Thomas William Keenlyside (born 1950) is a Canadian saxophonist and flautist from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Biography Born and raised in Vancouver, Keenlyside grew up hearing many genres of music on the radio that his parents left tu ...

(tenor and soprano saxophones, flute), Ihor Kukurudza (guitar), Jim McGillveray (percussion), and Lou Hoover (drums).Skywalk - The Canadian Encyclopedia
/ref> They opened for

Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest Jazz piano, jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordin ...

at the 1980 Montreaux/Detroit International Jazz Festival.!earshot: Altering Musical Laws with Tom Terrific
/ref> This performance was recorded and released as their initial album ''Skywalk Live In Detroit'' (RCI 520), which received air play on

Radio Canada International Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Prior to 1970, RCI was known as the CBC International Service ("CBC IS"). The broadcasting service was also previously ref ...

. This is the only recorded performance of the band with Hoover still playing drums. By 1980, Kukurudza had been replaced by Harris Van Berkel, and Hoover by Kat Hendrikse. Silent Witness (Skywalk Records 001) was released in 1982 initially on their own label, Skywalk Records, and was picked up and released in the U.S. by Zebra Records in 1983 (ZEB-5680), where it achieved #12 on

Billboard's ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to the ...

jazz/contemporary charts. Subsequent releases include The Bohemians (ZEB-5715) in 1985, Paradiso (ZEB-42204) in 1987, and Larger Than Life (Mesa/BlueMoon R279173; also on Rhino/WEA) in 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skywalk Musical groups established in 1979 Musical groups from Vancouver Canadian jazz ensembles 1979 establishments in British Columbia