John Chiasson & Friends

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.