Since the release of his first recording in 1989, Roy Paterson has built a body of original work which demonstrates a personal, evocative style drawn from early musical influences and eastern meditative practices.
Roy's fourth CD, Inland Passages, was released in 1997 and came about as a result of the Roy Patterson Quartet winning the coveted Prix de Jazz at Montreal's Festival International de Jazz, the first Toronto based band ever to win this competition. The award brought exposure through national radio, television, and a tour that concluded at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Inland Passages is a testament to Roy's own earthbound and spiritual journeys and his pursuit of adventure.
More recent credits include the Jazz Report magazine award for Guitarist of the Year for 2000, and the formation of the Toronto Jazz Composers Collective, a non-profit group dedicated to the performance and dissemination of Canadian jazz compositions.
In these clips, Roy is playing a Harrison NJ-17 that features an Engelmann spruce top, Big Leaf Maple back and sides, a side multi-port, ebony fingerboard, bridge, and tailpiece, and a Bartolini 5J suspended neck pickup.
