The music community in the city and across the country is at a loss for words at the passing of Jack Long, Founder of Long & McQuade, musician and champion of live music and artists. The Long Family issued a statement on the Long & McQuade website Thursday morning announcing the passing of the Canadian music giant at the age of 95:
To friends and family of Long & McQuade,
We’re sorry to share the sad news that Jack Long, our father and company founder, passed away last night at the age of 95. Jack lived a long and happy life, surrounded by music and family until the very end. We are proud of the legacy he leaves and will miss him every day.
Born on June 25, 1929 in Toronto’s west end, Jack was one of four children born to Edmund and Dora Long. Jack’s interest in music peaked back in high school while attending Humberside Collegiate when an instructor taught music lessons in brass instruments for boys. It was the same instructor who assigned Jack to play the trumpet. He began listening to jazz music and saved up enough money to take music lessons in an effort to perfect his craft.
“I wasn’t a natural trumpet player, some people have natural chops for it, I didn’t,” Jack said in an interview on the TV program Toronto Biographies, “I seemed to have a natural talent for improvised jazz instead.”
In 1944, Jack formed his own band, The West End YMCA, and started getting paid for gigs at the age of 15. Growing up during the Great Depression and World War II, Jack was determined to make a living on his own and music seemed to be the way to do it. In 1948, Jack began his studies in the Music Program at the University of Toronto where he would meet fellow student and future wife Carol Pendrith at a student party. Carol was a gifted piano player in her own right and after university, Jack and Carol moved to Montreal where they performed in the nightclub circuit. In 1954, they married in Toronto and returned to Montreal where they founded the Jack Long Trio. They returned to Toronto a year later to start their family.
Jack would be a touring musician for over a decade before he decided to pivot to the next phase of his career. It was when Carol gave him the book, How to Start Your Own Business, that Jack looked into possibly starting a business selling musical instruments. In 1956, Jack started selling King Instruments out of the second floor of a house at 100 Carlton Street. Six months later, he would rent out a room to friend and drum player Jack McQuade and in 1957, the two Jacks became business partners and opened a small retail store, Long & McQuade Musical Instruments, on Yonge Street. Their business partnership ended in 1965 when McQuade sold his portion to Long.
Since 1968, Long & McQuade has expanded the business to include music lessons, rentals, repairs, layaways and much more. There are over 100 Long & McQuade stores across the country as well as over 1,000 musicians and approximately 1,800 music teachers employed at Long & McQuade. Although Jack “retired” in 2008, Long & McQuade continues to be a family-owned business with his sons Steve and Jeff running the day-to-day operations.
JAZZ.FM91 Tribute to Jack Long (1929-2024)
It’s hard to put into words what Jack meant to the JAZZ.FM91 family. A dear friend and an effervescent champion of music in Canada, the entire Long family is a part of the JAZZ.FM91 family. Two of his grandchildren are alumni of the Youth Big Band, continuing the musical legacy of the family. Long & McQuade have been instrumental partners in our annual Holiday Heroes Instrument Drive as well.
Dana Wigle, JAZZ.FM91 General Manager, remembers Jack as a “kind, generous and simply beautiful” human being. She says in a statement:
Jack was an extraordinary man and he spent his life supporting and loving music. The Long & McQuade Performance Hall gained that name because Jack was devoted to supporting and celebrating jazz and the musicians who created it. Live music filled Jack with joy and the way Jack paid that joy forward, by supporting musicians and organizations like ours, is humbling and inspirational. We’re holding Jack’s entire family in our hearts.
“Safe to say, no one has ever done more for music and musicians in Canada than Jack Long,” says BLUZ.FM Host and musician Danny Marks. “On every level from corporate to personal. His kindness is legendary. His care about our collective condition knew no bounds. His modesty and pride walked hand in hand with all of us who came in contact with him and any of his locations. Co-incidentally, I made a purchase from my local Long & McQuade Pro yesterday! He got burned too at times. But he never stopped believing. Let’s carry that forward. Play on Jack! We love ya.”
Heather Bambrick, host of Wake Up! and Jazzology, remembers Jack as “an excellent businessman” and “wonderful musician” alongside his wife Carol, who passed away in 2019. “I don’t think there is a musician around who hasn’t benefited from Jack Long’s generosity and support,” She says, “When so many musicians were beginning their careers and couldn’t necessarily afford to invest a lot into gear, Jack was there to offer them credit as needed and various other gestures of support. He “got it” when it comes to the situation in which musicians often found themselves.”
“I often went into the [Long & McQuade] shop just to browse and dream of ownership of one kind of keyboard or another. I rented many times and purchased my share of stuff,” John Devenish, host of Dinner Jazz, recalls. “I do remember in past years being in the store at the same time musicians were looking to rent instruments for one kind-of-a-show or another and were playing and trying out. It was like an impromptu concert! JAZZ.FM91’s Long and McQuade Performance Hall is as welcoming and sweetly hospitable a space as the Long & McQuade store always was and will be to me. That spirit of welcoming and generosity is Jack Long.”
Gumbo Kitchen host Ronnie Littlejohn remembers Jack’s generosity and kindness as a burgeoning teenage musician. “When I was 16 & broke, Jack let me delay a couple payments for my little used PA system,” He remembers, “Your handshake was your word. He could have very easily told me to forget it. They don’t make ‘em like Jack anymore.”
Jack is survived by his children Steve, Jeff, Jennifer, Julianne and Catherine, 17 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife Carol in 2019 and his son Jonathan in 2018. No funeral arrangements have been announced at this time.
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