Neil, Al, 1924-2017

Al Neil was born in 1924 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

He was a Canadian musical artist. In 1941, he worked as a surveyor with the Department of Transport, helping to build the wartime airfield at Port Hardy, Vancouver Island. He served in Normandy during the Second World War. After the war, Neil resumed studying music and had various jobs, including clothing salesman, postal clerk, roof tarrer, lighthouse keeper, and jazz musician. He co-founded Vancouver's Cellar Jazz Club in 1952 and performed with artists such as Art Pepper, Conte Candoli and Kenneth Patchen. During the 1960s and 1970s, Neil became known for solo and ensemble performances, which combined music with texts, art assemblages, slides and prepared tapes. He performed regularly at the Western Front in the early 1980s, and his collage works were exhibited in galleries such as the Vancouver Art Gallery, Coburg Gallery, and Atelier Gallery. His published writings include “West Coast Lokas” (1972), “Changes” (1975) and “Slammer” (1981). In 2003, Neil was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr University of Art & Design. His work was the subject of a retrospective entitled “The Al Neil Project” in 2005, organized partly by grunt gallery. Neil’s artwork was featured on the poster for the 2008 Vancouver International Jazz Festival, which included a concert called Homage Collage: Improv for Al Neil. In 2014, he received the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Ca. 1964, he married Marguerite Sanders; they separated in the early 1970s. He died on November 16, 2017, in Vancouver, British Columbia.