The late Bob McMullin casts a long shadow across the musical history of the CBC. He played clarinet and trumpet in the CBC Edmonton Radio Orchestra, and served as composer or music director for the programs Linger Awhile, The Bob McMullin Show, Music Hop, House Of Pride, Side Street, The Collaborators, The King of Kensington and The DuMaurier Search For Stars. In addition to all this, he had material performed by the Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and CBC Symphony Orchestras, produced and/or arranged albums by pop, jazz and country artists, scored a few feature-length films, led his own jazz quartet (which sometimes played with Lenny Breau) and hosted a nightly classical music radio program.

Born in Lewiston, Utah, in 1921, McMullin moved to Alberta at the age of four and became a Canadian citizen in 1946. His musical career was built on the foundation of only one year of formal piano lessons, and he was active as a musician until shortly before his death in 1995, acting as musical director of Winnipeg's Rainbow Stage throughout the 1990's.

All three of the songs I've posted here are jazzy instrumental themes for CBC programs of the same name, the best-known of which is, of course, The King Of Kensington.

Sandy Montage
The King Of Kensington
The Collaborators