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Suds Sutherland started early music training at the “Kelly
Kirby Kindergarten” School of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto.
Simultaneously, Suds played ukulele and was playing and singing in church
basements with his mother, Roberta, accompanying on piano.
In high school, Suds started out on trumpet, soon shifted to saxophone,
then formed The Metropolitans, a 14 piece dance band, which was followed
by a rock group called D. J. & the Mystics.
In the fall of 1964, Suds entered the music program at the University of Toronto as a Saxophone Major. Here he played in the first U. of T. stage band. During university days he played in a 60’s psychedelic band called The Hallucinations and subsequently Toby Jones Blues, an R&B band that played together for years. 1975 was the year of the revival of TJB, when it transformed into a 21 piece soul band called The Toby Jones Revue.
In 1969, Suds moved to Orillia to teach at Park Street C.I. There he started a variety rock band called Joe Twine and the Bailers. In 1972, Suds started the music program at Twin Lakes Secondary School – a program that became well known in Canadian Jazz Education circles.
During the mid-70’s, Suds taught at the Ontario Student Leadership Centre for the Special Projects branch of the Ministry of Education. During this period, Suds became the regional director of the Canadian Stage Band Festival. He directed and played in the Barrie Stage Band. Beginning in the late 70’s, Suds also played in The Friars for several years.
Around 1980, Suds became part of Camille, a high-powered rock band. In 1982, Suds left teaching to play full time with Camille, eventually leaving the stage to manage the band full time. This led to several years in the role of booking agent, working with the entertainment center and expanding the management company, S.S.M.P. Inc. In its peak years, Suds Sutherland Projects Management Projects represented Camille, Legal Limits, The Distants, Boys Will Be Boys, Universal Juveniles, Cardinal Sin and Cracked Actor.
In 1985, Suds became a Canadian delegate to MIDEM (The World’s Fair of the Recording Industry) as part of a team traveling to Cannes France to sell foreign licensing agreements on Canadian recorded products.
In September 1987, Suds returned to teaching and eased out of the agency business. Around this time, Suds started to play saxophone with West Avenue, a Penetang-based, hard-kicking R&B band. A few years later, Suds joined The Sensations.
From 1993 to 2003, while playing with The Sensations, Suds collaborated with his colleague, Dave Austin, a talented lyricist, to write two-act musicals which were performed by students from Twin Lakes Secondary School. The musicals Wildwood Summer, Wurlitzer, Rock On High Reunion, Golden Slipper, Imagination and Saying Goodbye to Rock On High closed out his teaching career in 2004.
Suds, sax man of the Sensations, continues to be an avid
player and composer.