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Some people are born with it, some people grow slowly into it, and many others discover it quite by accident. The “it” is a passion and talent for something and in Lynn McDonald’s case, she was definitely born with “it”. Lynn is and always has been a Jazz Singer, in capital letters. At six years of age Lynn knew jazz was exactly where she was going to go with her life and she has never strayed from that path since. Lynn grew up in the Ottawa Valley and credits her father with opening up the musical doors for her. She says “I think I was my father’s protégé. He took a lot of interest in me musically and shoveled jazz down my throat.” It does not appear that she minded the atten- tion or the music because she started singing at six years of age and learned approximately five hun- dred songs by sheer osmosis. Lynn has no recollec- tion of actually learning all those songs; she says they were simply in her. “My dad would go to Sam the Record Man, in downtown Toronto every day, and every day he would come home with another great jazz artist. I would just copy the song and it would, and still does, remain in my head,” she says. Music was with Lynn all through school. In high school she took vocal lessons from two opera singers, she was in the choirand = «« was also president of the folk club. My dad would go to “In the late 60s and early 70s”, says Sam the Record Man Lynn, “I was the one wearing black, drag- every day and every ging a guitar around. It was the beatnik era and J absorbed myself in all the music Yorkville had to offer.” Later on, at Trent University, Lynn sang at dances and in bands when she wasn’t studying and working on her Honours degrees in Eng- lish and Psychology. Even during her marriage and the raising of her children in the Beaches in Toronto, Lynn’s passion and involvement in jazz never sub- sided. In 1992 Lynn went back to university, now in Toronto, so she could learn the nuts and bolts of music theory. The death of Lynn’s mother in Brechin in 1998 NOVEMBER.FOCUS.48.indd 3. Lynn McDonald of Port Perry has had a passion for jazz her entire life. brought her to the Port Perry area and it is here she found a place to hone her skills and share her music, as an artist, as a teacher and as a friend. Lynn’s contributions to jazz and music appreciation are dizzying — both her past and present accomplishments and commitments would fill pages and pages of type. It is hard not to be blown away by her vitality, energy, exuberance and day would come home with another great jazz artist”” .. Lynn McDonald passion for what she does. In 1998 Lynn founded a music ap- preciation society in Durham Region called “Amis Du Jazz” which is still going strong and has taken “Jazz Trips with Lynn” to Delaware Water Gap, Havana, Cuba, Vienna, Prague and Bu- dapest. Her “Lynn McDonald Presents” is a larger forum in bigger venues and has featured some amazing jazz names. In between all this Lynn has found the time, since the mid 1980s, to sing the standards in hundreds of clubs all over Canada; top clubs in Kelowna, Montreal, Ottawa, King- ston, Belleville, Hamilton, the list goes on. South of the border she has appeared in San Francisco, New York and the Virgin Islands. One very busy, high energy lady you might say. That is Please turn to page 6 FOCUS - NOVEMBER 2011 3 40/23/11 10:16:17 AM