Biography
Born Douglas Brian Riley on 12 April 1945 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the musician died on 27 August 2007 after suffering a heart attack at Calgary airport in Alberta. From early childhood he took up the piano, later enrolling at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music and at the city university, where his curiosity extended to First Nations music, especially Iroquois traditions. At the same time he performed with an R&B ensemble in a local nightclub and began building recognition for writing advertising jingles.
During the 1970s he served as both producer and sideman on television projects while fronting his own expansive vocal and instrumental ensemble, Dr. Music. The band achieved several Canadian Top 20 singles and released a run of albums on the GRT label in the first half of the decade; activity persisted into the next ten years with the 1984 project Dr. Music Circa 1984, ultimately encompassing some 300 sessions across his career. In the 1990s he concentrated more on live appearances, most often leading a quartet alongside saxophonist Phil Dwyer, and continued to receive steady performance offers.
Much of his composing took place at his Prince Edward Island residence, where his output moved freely between classical and pop idioms; in addition to piano he mastered the organ, topping the Jazz Report Awards poll as Jazz Organist Of The Year every year from 1993 to 2000. Among the artists with whom he performed, recorded, or produced were Guido Basso, the Brecker Brothers, Measha Bruggergosman, Ray Charles (for whom he played and arranged on the 1968 album Doing His Thing), and Placido Domingo (for whom he arranged “None But The Lonely Heart”). Further recording credits include the London Symphony Orchestra, Ofra Harnoy, Molly Johnson, Jake Langley, Gordon Lightfoot, Natalie McMaster, Anne Murray (featured on roughly 25 of her albums), Jackie Richardson, John Roby, Bob Seger, Ringo Starr, Dionne Taylor, David Clayton-Thomas, and Tyler Yarema.
For nearly two decades he served as musical director of the Famous People Players and created several ballets, among them Dreams for the Canadian National Ballet, plus a double concerto for flute, clarinet, saxophone, and string quartet commissioned by Moe Koffman and a piano concerto written for Mario Bernardi and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In 2004 he received the Order of Canada. While returning home in 2007 he collapsed at Calgary airport and succumbed to a heart attack.
During the 1970s he served as both producer and sideman on television projects while fronting his own expansive vocal and instrumental ensemble, Dr. Music. The band achieved several Canadian Top 20 singles and released a run of albums on the GRT label in the first half of the decade; activity persisted into the next ten years with the 1984 project Dr. Music Circa 1984, ultimately encompassing some 300 sessions across his career. In the 1990s he concentrated more on live appearances, most often leading a quartet alongside saxophonist Phil Dwyer, and continued to receive steady performance offers.
Much of his composing took place at his Prince Edward Island residence, where his output moved freely between classical and pop idioms; in addition to piano he mastered the organ, topping the Jazz Report Awards poll as Jazz Organist Of The Year every year from 1993 to 2000. Among the artists with whom he performed, recorded, or produced were Guido Basso, the Brecker Brothers, Measha Bruggergosman, Ray Charles (for whom he played and arranged on the 1968 album Doing His Thing), and Placido Domingo (for whom he arranged “None But The Lonely Heart”). Further recording credits include the London Symphony Orchestra, Ofra Harnoy, Molly Johnson, Jake Langley, Gordon Lightfoot, Natalie McMaster, Anne Murray (featured on roughly 25 of her albums), Jackie Richardson, John Roby, Bob Seger, Ringo Starr, Dionne Taylor, David Clayton-Thomas, and Tyler Yarema.
For nearly two decades he served as musical director of the Famous People Players and created several ballets, among them Dreams for the Canadian National Ballet, plus a double concerto for flute, clarinet, saxophone, and string quartet commissioned by Moe Koffman and a piano concerto written for Mario Bernardi and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In 2004 he received the Order of Canada. While returning home in 2007 he collapsed at Calgary airport and succumbed to a heart attack.
Albums
Freedom - Remastered
2024
Freedom
2012
A Lazy Afternoon
2003
Two Pianos, No Waiting, Vol.2
1997
Two Pianos, No Waiting
1996
Singles
