Linda Nash - It is amazing. When I first returned to Toronto from Calgary two and a half years ago a good friend of mine who is another recording artist, who hasn't recorded in a little while, whose name is George St. Kitts was appearing in the Lion King. George invited me down to see the Lion King not knowing of course that the actors in these Broadway type plays don't get free tickets. So, I came down, I had a beautiful seat and enjoyed the whole thing and there was a guy that night who was playing Mufasa, who blew me away. His name I saw in the program was Demo Cates and I still really didn't know who he was. So, I go backstage to thank George for the ticket and he introduces me to Demo and Demo very sheepishly says, "Oh, pleased to meet you. I hope you don't mind but would you please listen to my album." I said, "Oh, sure." But in the meantime I'm rolling my eyes because I am constantly getting hit on to listen to albums and music. Anyways, I drove home that night and normally I would have stuck it in the trunk of my car in the CD player and listen to it on the way home. I just couldn't be bothered and the album cover was kind of so, so and besides this guy is in a Broadway play and not my thing. So, I go up to the thirty-ninth floor of my apartment, I get up there and it occurs to me that this guy is going to call my at nine o clock in the morning to see how I liked his album. Okay, I am thinking, I guess I better go back down thirty-nine floors to the garage go get the CD out of my car and listen to it. After three tunes it was 11:45pm and I picked up the phone and called Demo Cates at home and I said, "Demo, I want to talk to you and now, right now!" He said, "I just got home from work." I said, "I don't care, I will meet you at your place or you can meet me at my place or we can meet for coffee or whatever you want." Demo then said, "Well, my wife is still awake so if you don't mind coming over here that would be great." So, I said, "Okay, I will come over there." I later looked at him and I looked at her and I pointed at him and I said, "Demo, I will help you, I like what I heard but you got to listen to everything I tell you and if you listen to everything I tell you, I promise you, you will get somewhere." That is basically how we met and we have been working together ever since. We have been in the studio for two years perfecting the album that we've got. We are just both so very proud of it. The studio here in Calgary by the way is so proud of it and the engineers are proud of it and it is just something I am really thrilled to put my name on.

John - So it was done at your husband Lanny's studio the "Beach," right? Did he actually work on it?

Linda - Absolutely and most of the beds were done actually at Eddie Bullen's because Eddie did a lot of the arranging. All of the cleaning up and all of the mixing and the mastering and the sweetening and all of that was all done at the beach here in Calgary. Lanny was the main head engineer on this whole thing.

John - Obviously when you heard it what was it about that first take that really hit you?

Linda - I am very much an instrumental person and I am a violinist myself, I am a musician. The first thing that really blew my away with Demo is the skill of his saxophone playing. I was shocked. I knew he could sing because I had just heard him that night in "The Lion King." He has this gorgeous, sultry, silky, sexy voice. I kind of expected that from Demo but when I heard him play the saxophone I was completely blown over. I have worked with the greats of the greats and many legends of today from day one. Demo to me was right up there with those legends.

John - He must have been incredibly enthusiastic when he got you to work with. Was he really hungry to get into the project and make it?

Linda - Demo is so easy to work with. He wasn't hungry in the sense that he was starving for money because he was making a lot of money in "The Lion King." He was front and center in The Lion King and he was a star in that show. He was definitely hungry though to finally get a break. I think it had gotten to the point where Demo for the last number of years that he has been in Canada has done so many other things aside from concentrating on being a solo recording artist. It was not a burning desire, not because it was not what he wanted but because it sort of eluded him while he had been in Canada. He was busy doing so many things. When this did come up and I saw the potential and the artistry in this guy then his enthusiasm really sparked and actually you could just see his whole persona change. Demo suddenly had more of sparkle in his eye than ever before and a bigger smile on his face.

John - Tell me about the first single. Was it a joint thing between the two of you? Did you always know that was going to be the first single?

Linda - Actually, Demo chose the song to record. The album started out to be an album of all originals and Demo as I said is a brilliant song writer. Much to my own surprise, he is one of the best! He is brilliant at doing bridges which I give him a lot of credit for because those are the most difficult to write. He came to me and he said, "You know Linda there is a song that I really like that was a hit written by Smokey Robinson and I would really love to record that song." I said, "Which one?" It was called "I'll Try Something New" and I knew the song and I thought Demo would do a great job on that song. It just came out so good and we all agreed that should be the first single.

John - I was looking up the song and I thought just Smokey and the Miracles had done it but the Supremes have done it too.

Linda - Yes, they put in on an album in 1974.

John - A few people had recorded that actual song, it of course being a Motown oriented song you get so many people recording it. It is almost a new song I think to a lot of people.

Linda - It is almost a new song yet it is a familiar song. It is a smooth and uplifting song and it just puts a lilt in your walk.

John - There is richness to the way he sings. It is such a positive thing when you first hear his voice in the beginning that is what kind of struck me about the song. So, "The Wave" in Hamilton is starting to play it?

Linda -Yes, they have. The other thing I wanted to say about Demo choosing that song is that Demo usually writes about his wife. Most of his beautiful love songs are songs about how he feels about his wife, Diane. This particular song happened to also fit. I think it was another reason he chose that song.

John - What else is on the album?

Linda - All the rest of the album except for one other tune are all originals. The other tune Demo I am so proud of because he wrote lyrics to a Freddy Hubbard standard called "Little Sunflower." That song has been covered probably thirty or forty times by many, many artists.

John - And always been an instrumental hasn't it?

Linda - Always been an instrumental except for two versions that I have heard and one version by Al Jarreau and another version by an unknown artist with other lyrics that I wasn't very familiar with. The way this happened was Freddy Hubbard who I use to work with at CTI called me one day and said, "Linda, why don't you have one of your artists write some new lyrics for me for this tune? I am not really that in love with the ones that are out there." I said, "Okay, let me see what I can do and get back to you. So, I told Demo to write lyrics to this song and I didn't tell him anything that I knew about the song and I knew a lot about it. Freddy Hubbard had written that song for his five year old son named Dwayne, who today is around forty. Freddy told me the story that he was fooling around on the piano looking for a melody and little Dwayne came up beside him and smiled and (Dad) Freddy Hubbard said to little Dwayne, "Do you like that song? Well, this song is going to be for you Dwayne because you are like my little sunflower. That is what I am going to call it, "Little Sunflower." Now, I did not tell Demo that story. I just wanted Demo to see what he could come up with. Demo came back with lyrics about his daughter. I played it for Freddy on the telephone, coincidentally on Freddy's birthday and Freddy Hubbard called me back practically in tears so touched and said, "Those are the most beautiful lyrics that he has heard on that tune." So that has gone on that album too.

John - There are some instrumental songs on there or are they all vocals?

Linda - It is half and half I would say. In fact, there are a couple of Latin oriented tunes. There is another tune that Demo actually had on his last album called "Mon Amis" and there is a great story about that one because we totally redid the song and it has a wonderful Latin rhythm now with all live players. The great story with that one was when I went to see Demo that very first night and I had said if he listens to me I will help him. I said to him "You know Demo, that instrumental Mon Amis, why don't we write some lyrics to it. "No, No, No," said Demo. "I don't want lyrics and it was never meant to have lyrics." The very next day I have a message on my machine in Toronto from Demo Cates playing his CD in the background and he said, "You know Linda, you kind of inspired me and I kind of stayed up last night and I came up with these lyrics for Mon Amis and I hope you like them." Boom, that was that and they were great, they were absolutely great! We redid the song with a complete Latin oriented Jazz rhythm to it and it just came out incredible. It is one of the best songs on the album!

John - When is the album coming out?

Linda - We are hoping the album comes out before Christmas. We are finalizing our distribution right now with a major label, which I don't want to say anything more about.

John - The album is called "Finding Demo" when's his Disney DVD coming out?(laughing)

Linda - (laughing)

John - I love that title! When I first saw his name and I wasn't familiar with him when I first saw his name on print, I said Demo.

Linda -You know Demo had an opportunity to open for George Benson and we sent Demo's stuff out to George's booking agent and didn't hear back for days and days. I finally called him and I said, "Bob, why haven't you called me back?" He said, "You didn't send me anything, any of his good stuff." I said, "What are you talking about." He said, "Oh my god, I saw that thing and I thought it was a demo!" After that, I knew I had a problem with the name. Demo's full name is Demitrius and he has been called Demo all his life! So, we aren't changing his name.

John - I want to go back to CTI and I want to talk about that. Before you were with CTI were you involved in the music business at all?

Linda - You are not going to believe this. Before I was hired by CTI, I was a musician and my life's ambition was to play the violin in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I was working for lawyers and the very day that I was hired by CTI I was accepted by the University of Windsor Law School.

John - No kidding!

Linda - No kidding. So, it was a major decision for me and the music of course has always been my passion, always. I thought well if you have been accepted once than you are always accepted in Law school. I have to try this and I don't know when this opportunity will ever come by again. So, I am going to take this position and if it doesn't work out, I will go back to Law school. That is what I was doing prior to being hired by CTI.

John - How did you find out about the label and were you a Jazz enthusiast before you worked for them?

Linda - Absolutely, when you study Classical music really the next step once you have mastered it whether it is in your head or with an instrument is Jazz. Once you've reached as far as you can the next step is the improvisation of the music which is in Jazz. So, I began to study Jazz a lot and really stopped playing because I was a good musician but not good enough to play Jazz. At that point when I stopped playing I really started listening. I started buying Jazz oriented stuff and I bought easy stuff that I could get into at first. Before, I was into Charlie Parker and John Coltrane and all of that. I started out buying something by an instrumentalist, whose instrument as a young violin student I hated and that was the trumpet. To me it always ruined the Orchestra and they played out of tune, they were too loud and they were too brassy. The first time I heard Freddy Hubbard play which was in the late 60's I thought that it was a synthesizer. There was no way on earth that anyone could play that instrument that beautifully. About two years later I was driving down Younge Street in Toronto in front of the Colonial Tavern and I was nineteen years old, too young to get in and I see on the marquis that Freddy Hubbard was playing that week. So, I borrowed someone's ID and went down to see it.

John - Were you wowed?

Linda - I really couldn't believe my ears and this guy really could play the trumpet the way I heard on this record. At that time his very first album on CTI was about to be released and he gave me a copy of it. I just started to expand my own personal library by buying recordings of the artists that were on his record. I bought Freddy Hubbard and from him I bought a Ron Carter record and then I bought a George Benson album because he was a side man on that date. I bought a Herbie Hancock record and although he wasn't a CTI artist, he was a side man on a lot of CTI products. Before I knew it I owned the entire CTI catalogue. It was about a year later and I was in Detroit visiting family coming back and I see at the Ford auditorium a big marquis and it said CTI Winter Jazz Festival. I had no idea what CTI meant as labels didn't mean anything to me. It featured Freddy Hubbard, George Benson, Stanley Turrentine, Grover Washington Jr., Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette and I thought oh, my God! This is a dream come true for me and I had every one of their albums and it was a complete dream come true for me. However, I had one little problem. It was four o'clock in the afternoon and I had a four hour drive ahead of me hopefully if the weather held up and I was starting a brand new job in the morning at a Law office. So, there was no way I could stay for this concert, it was out of the question. I thought well I will just go across the street to the Ponchatrain Hotel because probably Freddy Hubbard is in there and he's the guy who gave me this album a couple of years ago when it was just coming out. He wasn't there, he hadn't checked in yet. Freddy Hubbard can often be late for his concerts. To make a long story short I went down the whole list and nobody had showed yet except for Ron Carter. So, I went up to Ron Carter's room and he invited me to stay until Freddy Hubbard came, perfect, perfect gentleman that he is. He took me to the rehearsal and it was at the rehearsal that I met the CTI people. They were shocked and so was Ron Carter, who had never met me before to find out and understand and realize how much I knew about their label. They were shocked! Then when they found out I grew up with Sam Sniderman's kids that made it even more interesting to them.

John - It was a tough market. How did they crack it?

Linda - They had been thrown out of Sam the Record Man stores and in those days in the early 70's if Sam Sniderman didn't buy your product and A&A's then forget it you didn't have any product! Sam in those days also wasn't too fond of Americans. So, these two American guys come in and they are doing there American thing trying to sell Sam Sniderman the CTI catalogue. He literally threw them out of the store and said don't ever come back. So, they hired me for my knowledge of the label and also quite obviously I didn't know at the time but my connection with Sam Sniderman's kids and nieces. Before I knew it, I was the top seller for the company and they didn't tell me any of this stuff. I was so green and had no idea and they literally threw me to the wolves. They sat down with me one day and they gave me a list of record industry jargon, told me to start at the top of Younge Street (which was Steeles Avenue at the time) with my order form and just hit every record store taking orders. No one told me that the stores open at eleven and I was there at nine and it was literally like that. I soon realized that I had to get airplay before I could sell any records and that wasn't that easy either in those days when you were selling stuff that started with the letter J. That was in those days called the 'J' word. So, I had to be pretty innovative in how I was going to get this stuff on the air. When I think back to some of the crazy things I said and did and how I got it on there, I'm amazed myself. I'd walk in and they would say, "Get out of here with that Jazz shit!" I would say, "Jazz, what Jazz? This isn't Jazz this is instrumental music." In those days the CRTC forced radio to play a certain amount of instrumental music.

John - Special interest music they use to call it back then.

Linda - Well, they weren't looking for this exactly! I convinced them somehow that this would fit for them. I would even go to the extent where I would take the more avant garde cut and actually scratch them with as safety pin so bad that they weren't playable. I didn't want them to be turned off of the artist by hearing the more avant garde things.

John - So you wouldn't have to go there, huh.

Linda - Exactly, they would hear things like Bob James "Making love," his version. George Benson's "White Rabbit" and Grover Washington's "Inner City Blues" and that sort of thing.

John - You have been in the business a long time, so now looking back there is something about Jazz artists aside from learning their craft they are just the nicest people in the world.

Linda - Absolutely.