Ron Paley built more than a band

When Ron Paley [BMus/71] returned to Winnipeg in 1976, he brought a world of jazz experience with him.

After studying music at the University of Manitoba and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Paley toured internationally with the big bands of Buddy Rich and Woody Herman. He also performed alongside Frank Sinatra on the 1974 live album The Main Event – Live.

Ron Paley scrapbook including newspaper articles

Ron Paley's scrapbook with newspaper clippings and mementos from touring the U.S.

Ron Paley scrapbook including newspaper articles and ticket stubs

But instead of building his career somewhere else, Paley came home. That decision helped change the sound of jazz in Manitoba.

Soon after returning, he founded the Ron Paley Big Band, an ensemble he would lead for more than 40 years. The band became a cornerstone of Winnipeg’s music community, performing at concerts, dances, festivals and major collaborations across the province and beyond.

Paley is being recognized with the University of Manitoba Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.

As a student at UM, he studied piano with William Aide and composition with Robert Turner, building the foundation for a career as a pianist, bassist, composer, arranger and bandleader.

Ron Paley's UM School of Music assignment

Ron Paley's graduation photo from UM School of Music in 1971.

His connection to UM continued after graduation. From 1976 to 1986, Paley served as musical director of the Faculty of Music stage band, then part of the School of Music. In that role, he helped initiate curricular interest in jazz studies at UM, work that later developed into the Faculty’s Jazz Studies degree program.

His influence also extended well beyond campus.

For decades, the Ron Paley Big Band gave local musicians a regular place to perform and be paid for their work. His open rehearsals became a gathering point for Winnipeg’s jazz community, and the band provided apprenticeship and employment opportunities for hundreds of professional and aspiring musicians.

Paley’s career has moved between performance, education and community-building. His ensembles collaborated with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, including the RWB production A Cinderella Story, which featured his jazz arrangements of songs by Broadway songwriting duo Rodgers and Hart and toured widely throughout North America.

He also performed on CBC television and radio, at Jazz Winnipeg, at Expo 86 and for the Royal Family. As a composer and arranger, Paley has released six recordings as a leader and received major commissions from national arts institutions, including the National Arts Centre and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

A collection of Ron Paley's albums as CDs

His contributions have been recognized with the BreakOut West Heritage Award and, in 2024, the Order of Manitoba.

Still, much of Paley’s impact is measured through the musicians who came through his orbit. Many found in his bands their first professional opportunities, their first experience reading demanding charts or their first sense of belonging in Winnipeg’s jazz community.

Recently, the community celebrated Ron’s legacy with a tribute concert, alongside a crowdfunding campaign to support future jazz students in UM’s Desautels Faculty of Music.

More than five decades after graduating from UM, Paley’s influence continues to resonate through the students, players, ensembles and audiences shaped by his work.