June 21, 2025

‘JACK HUTTON AND FRIENDS’ WAS A ‘REALLY BIG SHOE’ FOR DEVOTED FRIENDS AND FANS OF MUSKOKA MUSICAL LEGEND

GRAVENHURST — There’s a good reason why Jack Hutton calls his annual piano fantastico Jack Hutton and Friends.

Not just for the great musicians he brings, but for his “dear friends” and devoted fans show who show up annually to hear the endearing and always entertaining local artist.

The concerts are a “really big shoe” — as Ed Sullivan would say.

By now a comfortable old shoe, like a pair of slippers you put on at night to relax.

Hutton — the Bala resident and Muskoka musical legend — made them feel like old friends with music they loved and could relate to.

**Last night was a night Irving Berlin would have loved as Jack Hutton and Friends brought his music to life more than a century later. PHOTOS Mark Clairmont**

A night dedicated to the best of Irving Berlin and Hutton’s favourite stride pianist Fats Waller while also playing Louis Armstrong’s theme “Sleepy Time Down South” among a dozen mostly up tempo tunes from the 1920s to today.

And what a backup band of friends. Clarinet virutoso Ross Woolridge, Will Wilson strumming on guitar and picking on banjo; Ralph Johnstone thumping away on bass and Bob Muir’s lyrical interludes on trombone.

His grandson Kai opened with “Skylark.”

Hutton added a couple of his good, close singing friends as a bonus.

Stan Hunter was on early singing one of Berlin’s biggest hits “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

Daryl Hollingsworth added the haunting love song “When I Lost You,” which Berlin wrote after his wife died.

He also performed a gorgeous take on the Disney Classic “When I Wish Upon A Star” with the bass/baritone singer hitting the high note of the night.

While Hutton joked about blindly trying to find middle C, Hollingsworth was just a note shy of high C.

**Cellar Singers soloist Stan Hunter opened early with his lively renedition of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”**

**And Daryl Hollingsworth went from bottom to top hitting the highest note of the night on “When You Wish Upon A Star.”**

But it was Hutton who everyone came to hear and see.

And he didn’t disappoint. At 92 his piano was loud and clear and right on time as he played basically blind and by ear.

After decades of playing in ragtime bands around Toronto and on the Segwun, he hasn’t lost his touch.

If his gait now is RIT, his hands are Allegro.

Add in an encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject, combine it with his whimsical way of telling a story crafted from life as a journalist and you’ve got another night to “Always” be remembered as in another Berlin classic he had the half-house audience singing along to.

Woolridge also led the crowd in patriotic round of Bobby Gimby’s massive 1967 mega hit “CA-NA-DA!” followed immediately by Hutton striking up “O Canada” for a combined standing ovation.

Which shows why Hutton’s nights are so coveted at the Opera House.

And really it’s because he’s so loveable. The best artists produce great music but aren’t always so loveable. “Jack” is both while looking, writing and sounding like Stephen Leacock.