Dave Staples Trio

John Chaisson grew up in Antigonish, and studied jazz at St. Francis Xavier University, long before the singing jazz upright bass player Esperanza Spaulding came to prominence. Fans of John’s smooth baritone-plus-bass already had her Nova Scotia counterpoint.

John has put true, low notes behind PEI legend Lenny Gallant, the stratospheric pipes of The Rankins, and beneath the fretless lilt of Natalie McMaster’s fiddle. For Natalie, John has been a music director, that is to say, her band-leader and arranger, the person who runs rehearsals.

Now based in Halifax, John’s trio plays for special events and regularly at Baton Rouge and many other venues across Nova Scotia; John and trio also provided expert framing for young phenoms like saxophonist Rob Crowell.

John admits that inspiration is a deep well – for him it starts with music in the house, played and encouraged by his parents, then with the arrival of a lead-singing bass player, Paul McCartney. John also mentions McCartney’s apparent opposite in ’60s music – the iconoclast composer, singer and bassist Charles Mingus, himself known for heart-rending chord changes, like those in Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.

John’s signature instrument is an unusual solid-body upright bass, nothing McCartney or Mingus could have had, in the day. This bass sounds sweet, and repels the Maritimes’ dry and damp spells with warmth.

Dave Staples is a veteran East Coast performer and music educator and maintains a busy freelance career as a pianist, trombonist, composer and recording artist. Dave has performed and recorded with such artists and groups as Mike Murley, Rene e Rosnes, Kenny Wheeler, Kurt Elling, Omar Hakim, the Maritime Jazz Orchestra and Bicoastal Collective as well as numerous East Coast musicians and ensembles, including John Chiasson, Ian Janes, Scott and the Rocks, Mike Cowie, Latin Groove, the Blakey Project, the Mingus Project, the Horace Silver Tribute Band, the Halifax Trombone Summit, the Back Alley Big Band and his own Dave Staples Septet. In 1995, he received the East Coast Music Award (ECMA) with Jeff Goodspeed as Jazz Artists of the Year for their album release of “Eastern Passage”(CBC Productions) and is featured on the 2006 ECMA Jazz Album of the Year “Tom Roach: Piano Trios “(CBC Productions).

Dave taught instrumental music with the Halifax Regional School Board for over 30 years and is co-founder and director of the Nova Scotia Honour Jazz program, which has worked with talented students of jazz in Nova Scotia for the last 25 years. He has also served as a board member of JazzEast and was on the Canadian Executive Board of the International Association for Jazz Education as Newsletter Editor and Director of Communications from 2003 to 2008.

Charlie Cooley has performed and/or recorded with such artists as: Leonard Cohen, K.D. Lang, The Guess Who, Heillig Manoeuvre, Amanda Marshall, Anne Murray, Randy Brecker, Kellylee Evans, Sass Jordan, Long John Baldry, Matt Dusk, and The Blues Brothers (musical director – Paul Shaffer)

Charlie is also a member of the Juno Award winning world beat jazz ensemble Manteca. Manteca has performed in many territories around the world including The North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands (Holland), The Canadian Pavilion at Expo in Seville, Spain, The Aspen Jazz Festival, The Playboy Jazz Festival at The Hollywood Bowl and The Pori Jazz Festival in Finland.

Charlie has been the in-house drummer for many of Canada’s prime time television award shows such as The Juno Awards, The Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame Awards, The East Coast Music Awards, The Gemini Awards, The Canadian Country Music Awards, and the Canada Day Celebrations from Parliament Hill (CBC)