I was to sad to find this video back in 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GOha8adhPA
This place literally kept me in the music business at one point. I know there are efforts to revive it I believe so crossing fingers. Here's my time at Le Studio....
In about 2000, I had the spent the better part of a winter’s day being screamed at by a promoter in Toronto for something that one of our band’s managers had done. Although it had nothing to do with me, it was a clash of epic proportions and by the time I hung up the phone and calmed down I was questioning very seriously if this was the right business for me.
Kevin Parent was recording his newest album at Le Studio and his band was Bill Dillon, Tony Levin and Jim Keltner. They needed a new DAT machine and Jim needed a ride to the airport that night, so I was dispatched to handle both things. What should have been roughly an hour and a half drive turned into a 4 hour snowstorm traffic jam. I’m pretty sure I decided to leave music during those 4 hours in the car alone.
When I got to the studio I was introduced to everyone and immediately Tony Levin sensed I was stressed and told me to sit down and he would make me the best espresso I’d ever had. It was almost dinner time and I was invited down to have cabbage rolls with everyone. Jim and Tony had never played on a session together before, so I got to sit with them for 2 hours while we ate, drank wine and listened to these guys trade stories. Tony told us some Peter Gabriel stories. Jim was very curious about the album “From the Caves of the Iron Mountain” that Tony had done with Jerry Marotta. Tony started asking Jim about making all the John Lennon solo records and Jim talked for over an hour about everything from postcards John used to send him that were a mixture of hand drawn pictures and collages of JFK etc. to the night John Lennon was shot and how he was staying with them and the sequence of events that fateful night. It was literally mind blowing to think that I was sitting there hearing first hand accounts of John Lennon’s death from his drummer.
After the mood lightened a little bit, Jim said his goodbyes and I spent the next 2 hours in a car chatting with him on the way to the airport. He told me about how he was blown away by how much snow we had gotten and it was a stark contrast to Cuba where he had just been recording with Ry Cooder. Apparently they were the first Americans to be issues work permits for Cuba in 50 years… by none other than President Bill Clinton himself! Jim asked me questions about my drumming in a very sincere manner and made me fee like an equal. We hugged at the airport and on the way home I couldn’t help but think this night was a reminder of why I got into the music business in the first place. Thanks for keeping me musically rich and financially poor Jim Keltner.
RIP Le Studio