Roy Patterson

“Every note that he plays seems to have a purpose and a place, and both purpose and place usually have something to do with melody.”-The Globe and Mail 
Canadian guitarist Roy Patterson, began his career touring with dance bands in Atlantic Canada until 1978 when he made the move to Toronto. Since then Roy’s playing has taken him to Finland, Istanbul, Italy, Taiwan and the U.S.A.
Credits include the Jazz Report magazine award for Guitarist of the Year for 2000 and a biographical profile in a book called, “The Great Jazz Guitarists: the Ultimate Guide” by Scott Yanow. (Backbeat Books, 2013) In 1996 the Roy
Patterson Quartet won the coveted Prix de Jazz at Montreal’s Festival International de Jazz, the first Toronto based band ever to win this competition. To date, seven CDs have been released under his own name.
Along the way, Roy earned a Master of Music degree and has taught at McGill University, the University of Toronto, workshops in Poland and Italy, and is currently an adjunct faculty member at York University. For decades he was a regular contributor to the US quarterly, “Just Jazz Guitar.”
His current focus is on Americana music: part of an evolving trend that includes Bill Frisell, Julian Lange, Jim Campolongo, et al. His recording, “Songs From My Father’s House” (2014), was drawn from impressions of the music he heard on a daily basis on the radio growing up in rural Nova Scotia.