Onstage at his barn in May, vibraphonist Peter Appleyard jumped from his instrument onto the drums, playing them too. He didn’t let a pain in his back interfere with his performance.

“He didn’t let up. He just did what he usually does,” said Joe Sealy, one of five other jazz legends also onstage. “And when he finished, he still had trouble walking. You wouldn’t know it while he was performing, it was almost a transformation.”

Appleyard died at home Wednesday night from natural causes. He was 84.

The barn performance in front of a couple hundred people, he had joked, would be an early celebration of his 85th birthday in August.

A proper stage, new floor, second exit and other preparations had to be completed before Appleyard could host the show, Sealy said. Once that was done he finally got onstage at home in Eden Mills, Ont., with fellow Order of Canada recipients Sealy, Guido Basso, Jane Bunnett, Dave Young and Terry Clarke.

“He was a consummate professional and a consummate showman,” said Sealy, who packed up and left that afternoon, not knowing it would be the last time he’d perform with Appleyard.

“He really knew how to hold a crowd’s attention,” he said, adding he’d explain the history of songs and be inclusive with the audience.

Appleyard had performed that way since at least the early 1950s, said Canadian actor Paul Soles. He first saw Appleyard perform at the Park Plaza Hotel, after the self-taught musician emigrated from Lincolnshire, England, where he was born in 1928.

He started his own band in 1956 and immediately began lining up commercial work with frequent TV and radio appearances, including hosting gigs on CBC-Radio’s Patti and Peter (alongside Patti Lewis) and the CBC-TV program Mallets and Brass, with Basso.

But his career took a pivotal turn in 1972 when a casual conversation with famed clarinetist Benny Goodman — otherwise known as the “King of Swing” — turned into a head-turning position in Goodman’s sextet as well as globetrotting tours for Appleyard.

Although he shared the stage with famous stars — Frank Sinatra, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis — Soles said Appleyard would perform “almost anywhere anybody ever asked him.”

“Peter, I think, knew that he was talented, was grateful for it, never took it for granted and honoured that talent, by making music whenever there was a chance to,” Soles said.

Part of the reason he was so successful was because he was truly a fan of the music he and others performed, said Soles, who last saw him in front of a small crowd in London, Ont.

Ross Porter, CEO of Jazz.FM91, said a combination of traits made Appleyard “one of the giants” of Canadian music.

“There were four ingredients. It was about musicianship, it was about repertoire, it was about keeping people entertained and it was about being the consummate gentleman,” Porter said.

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In 1992, Appleyard was made an officer of the Order of Canada, which Sealy said was a particular point of pride for the musician and one he mentioned often. He also received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee award last year.

The avid equestrian lived with his wife on a farm in Eden Mills, outside Guelph. He regularly performed at the community hall, which received the proceeds from his concert in May.

“He managed to put on a great performance,” said Young, the bassist at the show, who played with Appleyard a dozen times this year and said he’d particularly been looking forward to the barn show.

“We talked many times about it. So it’s kind of ironic it’s now a performance space and he’s not with us anymore.”