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Trumpet player Harry Pinchin, for 60 years one of Banks’ closest friends, bandmates and musical collaborators, said Banks was often given opportunities to move elsewhere, and to do something amazing there. Here’s what Banks said to those offers, “We’re going to do that, but we’re going to do it here.”

“We were the first people to perform on the air at ITV and launched the concert series that ran in over 100 countries of the world, and that was all Tommy. He was the guy,” said Pinchin. “And I think of that when I think of the early development of the Winspear Centre. He was the guy. Like Gretzky, someday, someone will break those records but at the moment I don’t see another Tommy Banks in this country.”

A precocious musician as a child, Banks began his professional career at 14 in the band of jazz saxophonist Don Thompson. By the age of 18, he was music director of the Orion Musical Theatre in Edmonton, and co-ordinator of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. At age 32, Banks was host, pianist, conductor and arranger for the Gemini Award-winning Tommy Banks Show, which ran until 1974, and again from 1980 to 1983.

In a 2016 interview with Postmedia, Banks credited his parents (his mother was Edmonton television personality Laura Lindsay) with trusting him enough to let him begin his touring career at a tender age. He remained grateful for the opportunity to entertain audiences locally and around the world for more than 65 years.

“Entertain may be the wrong word, but you always have to somehow attract and maintain the attention of the audience, whether you’re playing background music at a cocktail party or a concert at the Winspear,” he said. “Early on, I had to make the choice of whether to be an artist or a craftsman. I wanted to play music for a living. And every once in a while, craftspeople get to practise … art.”