Jay Van Buskirk

Jay was born in Saskatchewan and his family moved to the Westcoast in the early 1950's eventually settling in the Fairfield area of Victoria. His dad was a professional musician who played multiple instruments and was known as the “Banjo King of Canada” during the 1930's. His father also played Hawaiian steel guitar with Fred Usher and The Hometowners in Victoria during the 1950's & 1960's Jay's mother Molly was his biggest fan. Growing up, Jay and his siblings Joy and Gary had musical instruments put in their hands with Jay originally playing guitar. It wasn't long before he changed and chose to play wind instruments picking up the clarinet and later saxophone. He started in local groups like The Jesters in the 1960's , and in the 1970's with Sandoz including drummer Britt Haggarty who also became an accomplished author whose first book, "Prisoner of Desire" was Britt's novelized memoirs between 1971 and 1973, which was reputed to include Sandoz under an alias to protect his band mates. Then Jay hooked up with the group Hoochie in 1973-74. After taking a hiatus to raise a family, Jay began playing again in the mid 1990's with The Fabulous Voodoo Slaves and in the late 19... more...