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Lester Quitzau was born in 1964 and he was raised in the working class part of Edmonton. It was a rapidly growing town at the time and a place with lots of blue collar soul. People had a big heart for music, the theater and art in general. Thankfully, a guitar was part of the Quitzau household and Lester gets his first electric at the age of fifteen. Shortly afterwards there’s a garage band at work and the blues virus hits Lester with the sounds of John Lee Hooker and the Chicago Blues masters of the 50s. It’s a mind-altering process that other white boys from Canada go through, too: David Wilcox, the Downchild Blues Band, Dutch Mason...
Lester Quitzau starts his dues-paying years early. His wild years are spent on the North Side of town with hard-drinking bar bands like the Slippin’ Lizards and the Yard Dogs. They are good bands but they party hard. Lester is lucky. Bass player Farley Scott becomes his mentor and Farley is a bit more evolved as a person. He teaches Lester about taste, the essentials of the music, the tricks of the trade and how to stay healthy. After half a decade as a"Yard Dog”, Quitzau moves to British Columbia in 1993. This is hippie country and a well-needed change to the rougher social climate of Edmonton. It’s here the first Quitzau album KEEP ON WALKING is being recorded. The album introduces a real songwriting talent, great guitar work and a new blues voice open for discovery. Lester Quitzau moves on quickly. Album No. 2 ("A BIG LOVE”) – is much more electric, eclectic and well-produced (!). Just like this one, in fact..
Lester Quitzau is a bluesman, indeed, and SO HERE WE ARE speaks volumes in this regard. "I’ve always liked the honesty of the blues,” he says, "but for me, it’s important to be about what’s going on now, not some museum piece.” The Canadian and US folk and roots music scene provided lots of work in the following years. The folk/roots, world music and blues genres move closer together all the time and a developing network of festivals and clubs generates a scene with lots of gigs and musical encounters with greats like Charles Brown, John Hammond, David Lindley, Martin Simpson and Los Lobos..
The founding of the TRI/CONTINENTAL trio makes for another creative push for Lester. The combination of Quitzau’s blues/roots stylings with Bill Bourne’s folky songwriting and the Malegassy blues of Madagascar Slim is a new kind of musical synthesis. Lester Quitzau is one of the three architects of this new and timeless mélange. This is what T & M wrote about him in the info that came with the album: "Quitzau is not a blues purist but a sensitive modern player, whose work is dominated by a feel for texture, space and openness. This is still very much true today and further evidence can be found on SO HERE WE ARE. .
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