Abbey Leon Sholzberg

Abbey Sholzberg was born in Montreal, Quebec. He set out to be a professional musician at the tender age of fourteen having been inspired by attending the Woodstock Music Festival in Bethel New York back in 1969. He gave up a promising future as a wrestler having won the Quebec Provincial Wrestling Championship at the Palestre Nationale, and focused his energy on playing both the electric and double bass. He spent three years in the music program at McGill University under the tutelage of MSO bassist Tom Lederer for classical interpretation and piano virtuoso Armas Maeste for jazz. He then moved to Toronto to pursue a career in jazz and pop. In the 70’s and 80’s Abbey toured extensively throughout Canada, the United States and abroad in a variety of show and dance bands. In the year 2000 Abbey was pivotal in the formation of Club Django, the Canadian gypsy swing tribute to Django Reinhardt that has won many accolades for their recordings and radio appearances which include The Canadian Collectors Congress Award for “Best Traditional Album of the Year” and nominations for “The National Jazz Award”