Bob Wiseman

Bob Wiseman

Bob Wiseman, photo by Joe Fuda
Background information
Born 1961
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Origin Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres Rock, country, jazz, folk, improvisational
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, producer, filmmaker, actor
Instruments Piano, keyboard, guitar, accordion, vocals
Years active 1984–present
Associated acts Ron Sexsmith, Hidden Cameras, Blue Rodeo, Dick Duck & The Dorks, Slutarded
Website bobwiseman.ca

Robert Neil "Bob" Wiseman is a film composer, songwriter and music teacher.[1] Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall Anhai, and former Canadian member of parliament Andrew Cash. He is a founding member of Blue Rodeo with whom he won 5 Juno Awards.[2][3]

Career

From 1982 to 1989, Wiseman regularly played at open stages in Toronto. He started producing his friends Bob Snider, Kyp Harness, Ron Sexsmith, Sahara Spracklin and Sam Larkin. He joined Blue Rodeo in 1984 and quit in 1992. His 13 solo albums include guest contributions by Daniel Lanois, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Eugene Chadbourne, Edie Brickell, Ron Sexsmith, Jane Siberry, Basia Bulat and Serena Ryder. Wiseman's songs often incorporate new musical elements and explicit political themes. In 2009 a 20th anniversary edition of In Her Dream was released by the Blocks Recording Club and the songs were performed live by various friends including Sexsmith, Geoff Berner, Owen Pallett, Kyp Harness, The Phonemes, Picastro, Michael Holt, Maggie MacDonald, UIC, Henri Faberge, and Don Christensen. In 2006 Wiseman and his wife, Magali Meagher, accompanied Daniel Johnston on his songs "Speeding Motorcycle" and "Beatles". Wiseman was a member or regular guest of Toronto bands Slutarded, Black Eyes, The Hidden Cameras and Dick Duck & the Dorks. Some of his better known songs include "White Dress" – a song about sexual assault, recorded by Serena Ryder, "What the Astronaut Noticed and Then Suggested" which was the theme song for the CBC Television series Material World, and "Maureen".

Touring and Theatre

In 2009 Wiseman, created a play entitled Actionable,[4] a PowerPoint presentation utilizing Super 8, video and live accompaniment on accordion and guitar which he presented in 2010 at the Uno Festival in Victoria as well as the Fringe Festival circuits. Wiseman collaborated theatrically with Scott Thompson of The Kids in the Hall, creating and touring Scottastrophe also with Anand Rajaram on award winning Cowboys and Indians and with Sean Dixon for Barbara Gowdy's story The White Bone adaptation, with The Madawaska String Quartet and with Maggie MacDonald and Stephanie Markowitz writing the music for their play The Rat King.

Wiseman toured with Feist, Final Fantasy, Ron Sexsmith, and Scott Thompson and was a guest performer with Wilco, The Wallflowers, Eugene Chadbourne, Jimmy Carl Black (of Frank Zappa), Edie Brickell, Michelle Wright, Ashley MacIsaac & Garland Jeffries. Videos on YouTube of Wiseman songs performed with Feist ("You Don't Love Me"), Serena Ryder ("White Dress") Sexsmith ("All The Trees)".

Artists who covered Bob songs include The Madawaska String Quartet, UIC, Leah Abramson, The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, Michael Holt, Change of Heart, Tom St. Louis and The Blind Venetians.

Wiseman makes super 8 films and videos that he accompanies live on accordion, guitar or piano. He tours/ performs with these films in Europe, United States, New Zealand and Canada subtitling them when necessary. Wiseman is the only live musician on John Oswald's 1988 release Plunderphonics. He was on the board of directors for LIFT, TAIS, The Tranzac & the Blocks Recording Club label in Toronto.

Production

Wiseman started producing records in 1985 and his debut "Wet Water" charted No. 4 on CKLN-FM at Ryerson University. Soon he was arranging and recording many friends like Ron Sexsmith, Sam Larkin, Kyp Harness, Sahara Spracklin and UIC. The record he produced for Ron Sexsmith "Grand Opera Lane" was rejected by Canadian A&R representatives. Through persistence he managed to get it to Todd Sullivan at Geffen Records in Los Angeles, who eventually gave it to Ronnie Vance in the publishing department which led to a deal for Sexsmith with Interscope. Other notable clients were Kid in the Hall Bruce McCulloch, with whom Wiseman produced and co-wrote much of his Atlantic Records release Shame Based Man (listed as # 24 on Spin Magazine's top comedy albums of all time).[5] Other artists Wiseman has produced include Edie Brickell, Canadian Member of Parliament Andrew Cash, Knitting Factory Recording Artist Carmaig de Forest, Robert Priest, Anhai, Friendly Rich, Jess Reimer, Katie Crown, Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, Eugene Chadbourne, Bob Snider, Maria Kasstan, Levi MacDougall, The Phonemes, Mimi Osvath, Basic English, The Lowest of the Low, Sophie Traub, Kwesi Immanual, Stacey McLeod, Laska Sawade, Sean Dixon, Random Order, Jeanette Froncz, Christine Cleary and Kira Sheppard.

Composing Film, TV and Theatre

Films

Television

Theatre

Radio

Production discography

Selected releases

Production

Solo discography

Film and Videography

A retrospective of his films and videos were shown in 2010 both in Kuopio, Finland and in Genoa, Italy at the Associazione Culturale Disorderdrama.

Personal

Wiseman attended Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate, École River Heights, Grant Park, Argyle Alternative High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Wiseman's brothers are Ron Wiseman, singer-songwriter and purveyor of Judaic-reggae, film professor Howard Wiseman and Gordie Wiseman.

His mother, painter Elaine Ellen Wiseman takes questions from fans via his website and his late father, Mannie, was an optometrist and director of Lesage Holdings which included the Dainty White portfolio. Wiseman is the grand nephew of Isaac Colish, Justice of the Peace and Mayor of West Kildonan (Winnipeg, 1915) and a cousin to writer Morley Torgov and artist Sarah Torgov. Wiseman's Grandmother Rochel Colish was from Vilnius, Jascha Heifetz was their cousin.

Awards

Footnotes

Citations

  1. ↑ Armstrong, Denis Sun Media (30 September 2009). "Artist: Wiseman, Bob > The many faces of Bob Wiseman". jam.canoe.ca. Jam!. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
  2. ↑ Keast, James (March 2005). "Music School > MEET & GREET > Mar 2005". Exclaim!. Toronto: 1059434 Ontario Inc. www.exclaim.ca. ISSN 1207-6600. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
  3. ↑ Schwartzman, Lisa. "Bob Wiseman Biography". allmusic.com. Allmusic. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
  4. ↑ "Actionable:music is at its beautiful core". 24 May 2010.
  5. ↑ "SPIN's 40 Greatest Comedy Albums Of All Time - SPIN". 1 November 2011.
  6. ↑ "*In her dream (sound recording) : Bob Wiseman sings Wrench Tuttle / [all songs written by Wiseman-Tuttle]", collectionscanada.gc.ca, Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada, OCLC 25529378, AMICUS No. 19537810, retrieved 4 March 2011.
  7. ↑ Liss, Sarah (29 July 2009). "What about Bob? Toronto music MVP re-releases his dreamy debut on Blocks Recording Club". Eye Weekly. Toronto: Torstar. eyeweekly.com. ISSN 1192-6074. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
  8. ↑ "Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - ChartAttack's Top 100 Canadian Albums of All Time".
  9. ↑ "Presented by Lake Michigan Soda CD" – via Amazon.
  10. ↑ "City of Wood - Bob Wiseman - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic".
  11. ↑ "Artist: Bob Wiseman, Album: Accidentally Acquired Beliefs, Song: William".
  12. ↑ "Libelous, by bob wiseman".
  13. ↑ "Benjamin Boles's Top 10 Discs". 28 December 2006.
  14. ↑ "Vue Weekly".
  15. ↑ "Bob Wiseman The Legend".
  16. ↑ "January 2013 reviews".
  17. ↑ "'Muzzling' of Canadian government scientists sent before Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault - Toronto Star".
  18. ↑ "Artist Summary - The JUNO Awards".
  19. ↑ "Juno Awards Database". junoawards.ca. Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
  20. ↑ "CBC Music".
  21. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 November 2013. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
  22. ↑ "The Dan Galea Awards".

References

External links

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