Alex Czarnecki
Alex Czarnecki , 1978. (photo from 'Two Hands and Forever' LP insert)
Alex Czarnecki was a musician, composer, producer, director and film maker.
In the 1960s, he played tenor saxophone with the Montreal Jazz ensemble, “The Island City Seven” and performed for Prime Minister Pierre Eliot Trudeau’s election campaign in 1968.
Alex landed a job as a teacher with the Yellowknife Catholic School Board and moved to Yellowknife in 1972.
As a composer, he has written music for the children’s television show, “Sesame Street”.
He has produced and directed more than 50 community theatre productions.
As a film maker, Alex Czarnecki has produced a legacy of insightful films about the north in cultural transition.
Alex Czarnecki passed away January 9, 2019.
Alex Czarnecki with Montreal band, “The Island City Seven”, 1967. (Alex second from right) (photo courtesy Alex Czarnecki)
'The Island City Six', Montreal, 1962. Bob Phillips - guitar, Alex Czarnecki – tenor sax, Don Fergusan - trumpet, Milt Carroll - drums, Rick Sims – alto sax (unknown bass player) (photo courtesy Alex Czarnecki)
From the host
Somewhere, way back in the faded, jerky clips of celluloid memory, I am sitting in the St. Pats gymnasium, on those really uncomfortable metal stacking chairs, and watching the community theatre production of “Fiddler on the Roof”.
Again, I wish I could remember more detail other than flashes of colourful costumes and those unforgettable melodies from the score but my young 8 – 10 year old brain could only take in so much.
A few years later, I was old enough to realize that this was only one of many community theatre productions pulled together by a handful of Yellowknife thespians to keep the town entertained and to keep their own acting, singing and playing skills from atrophying or to discover a new skill set.
These were not small productions either. The crew of townsfolk involved in all aspects of pulling it together was formidable, all were all working full time day jobs, raising families and yet they still found the time and energy to turn a school gymnasium into a concert hall for a few nights and take the audience to someplace new.
It was a golden era in Yellowknife at the time. There were many professionals living in town that also carried with them their talents for performing on the stage and here was an outlet for them to carry on. Some of these professionals, while working their day jobs, were also highly recognized in their respective artistic fields in the south before they moved north.
As a result, the level of talent and production at these community events was at an elevated level for such a small town.
Alex Czarnecki was a tour de force, a visionary through this golden era of community theatre. He found a kinship of like-minded artistic souls and gathered them together around the idea of putting on a show. After the curtains closed, the chairs were stacked and the concert hall returned to a gymnasium, with all of the positive post stage energy, plans were already afoot for the next one.
Through all of these years, Alex was teaching full time, raising his family, directing all of these community theatre productions and playing saxophone along with his musical partner, Wilf Schidlowsky in the Yellowknife bands, “The Alley Cats” or “Easy Street”. I never got to hear Alex playing his tenor saxophone as I came on the scene a few years after he stopped playing. Somehow, I heard about his time playing Jazz saxophone in Montreal in the 1960s and had to get his musical story.
Alex’s perspective and insights of living in Yellowknife through those years had me laughing one minute and almost in tears the next. Alex is a true Jazz musician at heart, never losing his passion for the music or the instrument and in that, has endeared himself to my own musical heart.
with “The Alley Cats”, Yellowknife Legion, circa early 1970s. (L-R, Henry Undheim, Alex Czarnecki, Wilf Schidlowsky (hidden), Huguette Duncan, Drummer(unknown), Lloyd Dahl. (photo courtesy Alex Czarnecki)
with “Easy Street” at Commissioner’s Ball, Yellowknife, circa early 1970s, with Henry Undheim, (photo courtesy Alex Czarnecki)
