Jack Long, Founder of Canadian Music Store Long & McQuade, Dies at 95 │ Exclaim!

Jack Long, the Canadian musician who founded Canadian music retail chain Long & McQuade, has died. The company shared news that Long passed away yesterday evening (September 4), though a cause of death was not revealed. He was 95.

“Jack lived a long and happy life, surrounded by music and family until the very end,” the Long family wrote in a statement. “We are proud of the legacy he leaves and will miss him every day.”

Before founding Long & McQuade, Long was a professional trumpet player in Toronto who had earned a degree in music from the University of Toronto. Interested in selling instruments to friends in the music community, he opened a musical instrument store in 1956 on the second floor of a house on Carlton Street.

Long’s shop would later be renovated to include practice studios, allowing him to teach music lessons on the side. One of those rooms would be rented to a local drummer named Jack McQuade, who taught lessons himself.

The two Jacks would team up in 1957 to open a retail store on Yonge Street, calling their business Long & McQuade Musical Instruments. In 1965, McQuade would sell his portion of the company to Long, and later in the decade, the store began its expansion across Canada.

Long & McQuade has proven important to leagues of instrumentalists across Canada in myriad genres. Notably, the first drum kit the late Neil Peart ever played with Rush — a chrome-coloured Slingerland set that sold for half a million dollars in a 2020 auction — was purchased at a Toronto location.

Long was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2014 for “his engagement as a pioneer in Canada’s music retail industry who is committed to musicians, customers and employees across the country.”