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This project was made possible by funding through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy and the Heritage Policy Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Canadian Heritage

Claude Ranger

Biography

CLAUDE RANGER (drummer, composer, arranger) was born on February 3, 1941 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. After a brilliant playing career highlighted by extended periods of playing prominence in Montreal, Toronto, and finally, Vancouver, he now lives on the West Coast of Canada, and in recent years, has retired from the jazz scene.

He began his stellar career playing in Montreal show bands and was a leading figure on the jazz front there by the mid ‘60s.

He lived and worked in Toronto for 15 years from 1972, featured as a member of the Moe Koffman Quintet and working with Canadian and American musicians including James Moody, Lenny Breau, George Coleman, Jane Bunnett, Sonny Greenwich, Kathryn Moses, and Doug Riley.

His own bands frequently played locally and at jazz festivals all over Canada. The Claude Ranger Quintet was featured in concert during the “Sound of Toronto Jazz” Series at the Ontario Science Centre on February 1, 1982.

Ranger moved to Vancouver in 1987, appearing often during the du Maurier International Jazz Festival there, leading groups from a trio to a 19-piece orchestra.

Awards:

1986 – The Claude Ranger Quintet was a finalist in the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s Concours de Jazz de Montreal, and Ranger personally received a special jury citation.