Hornby Island Blues Workshop

Prolific West Coast drummer Chris Nordquist wasn’t always called “The Wrist.”
“I got the reputation, they called me ‘The Wrist’ because I was not animated, you know? I could play and it would barely look like I was doing anything but it would sound great. I guess it’s the economy of motion or something,” Nordquist said.

He garnered the moniker in the ’80s when he was the house drummer in Vancouver. He and a venue owner, along with some other musicians, would go through Billboard Magazine ads and “pick their heroes,” to come play. “It was a neat gig, playing with some really great blues piano players from Chicago, guys from Kansas City and New York. They would come up and it was an education for me for sure being 40 years younger than some of these piano players,” Nordquist said. He learned to play quietly with a sensitive touch in the acoustic venue and a nickname was born.

With decades of music under his belt, starting in the ’60s with what he called “hippy bands,” it’s hard to pick out which memories stick out the most. Though Nordquist did recount a time when he opened for Led Zeppelin.“That was kind of normal at that time. I met all those guys and we used to rent our PA to them back in the ’60s,” Nordquist said. “I’ve played with a lot of people. I think the list is just too long to get into.”