About

Musique Royale invites the audiences to the beautiful St John’s Anglican Church on Bell Island on Saturday May 9 at 3 pm to hear the Daniel MacNeil’s jazz quartet. Featuring guitarist Daniel MacNeil, joined by Chris Mitchell, saxophone; Tom Easley, double bass; and Nick Halley, drums, the quartet represents some of the most versatile musicians in Nova Scotia. The concert will mix original works with improvisations, jazz repertoire, and classical traditions from around the world. Don’t miss it!

About the Artists

Daniel MacNeil – guitar

Named one of Canada’s most versatile guitarists, Daniel is a multiple award-winning instrumentalist, composer, and educator based in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Some achievements include performance, composition, and arranging for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony, and Symphony Nova Scotia. All concerts have had tremendous success with rave reviews, and Daniel has been featured as a soloist (guitar) in concert with all of these orchestras. As both a composer and instrumentalist, MacNeil has also been featured and filmed for an entire concert of original works produced by CBC’s studio 60 and the East Coast Music Hour, and he has been featured in jazz, classical, new music, and flamenco festivals across Canada. Daniel is also the founder and director of Halifax, Nova Scotia’s New World Music Ensemble, in which he composes, and performs guitar and oud, and he is also the founder and director of Nova Scotia’s premiere Middle Eastern chamber ensemble Nafas.

A performer and collaborator in a diverse range of “world music” genres (including: flamenco, Indian classical, Middle Eastern, Latin, Balkan, and African to name just a few), his musical sensibilities and proficiency as an instrumentalist are equally adept in jazz, new music, classical, improv, and fusion styles. Daniel is equally at home as a composer as he is in performance. Drawing on an extremely rich and diverse background, he continually presents new ideas and produces original works for virtually any medium or genre.

Chris Mitchell – saxophone

Currently active in numerous endeavours and musical groups Chris Mitchell is an engaging and innovative saxophonist. Heralded as one of Canada’s finest instrumentalists, Chris has contributed to the music scene in a number of diverse and exciting ways. A versatile player, Chris is a sought after talent across a variety of genres performing with a myriad of artists including David Foster, Natalie Cole, Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Rosemary Clooney, Phil Woods, Kenny Wheeler, Jackie Richardson and Doug Riley to name a few. Chris recently toured with The Afro Cuban Jazz and Beyond Quintet featuring Ignacio Berroa, Hilario Duran, Roberto Occhipinti and Jorge Luis Torres. Chris has also toured extensively in North America, Europe and in Asia and has also performed with a numerous symphony orchestras across Canada and in Europe. His extensive experience as a performer, composer and arranger has culminated in the production of four solo instrumental albums to date. As a result of his 1997 release “ The Witches of Red Beard ” featuring the late jazz icon Phil Woods. The Chris Mitchell Quintet was the recipient of the prestigious “Prix De Jazz DuMaurier” performing at the 1999 Montreal Jazz Festival. As a sideman Chris has also recorded with numerous Juno and ECMA winning artists. Chris’ talents include a keen ability to understand product advertising and promotion. He runs his own successful production company – MitchMusic. In addition Chris’ understanding of multi-‐ media presentation has resulted in compelling commercial music and marketing materials for a number of clients including both the public and private sectors.

Tom Easley – double bass

Bassist, composer, and educator Tom Easley has earned a reputation as one of Eastern Canada’s finest jazz bassists. Two-time East Coast Music Award Winner, Maple Blues Winner and multiple award nominee, Tom co-lead the music group Hot Toddy for a decade; co-producing seven CDs and performing at major jazz and blues festivals all across Canada, Europe and the United States. Tom is also a member of the award winning group Nine Steps featuring Bill Stevenson and Geoff Arsenault.

Over the past 25 years Tom has performed with a number of internationally recognized artists including Mike Murley, Juan Martin, Ed Thigpen, Jeff Hamilton, John Abercrombie, Hal Galper, Mike Stern, Peter Erskine, Adam Rogers, Lage Lund, Tierney Sutton, David Liebman, Phil Dwyer, Lorne Lofsky, Matt Wilson, Cyril Aimee, Andy Laverne, Chad Wackerman, Randy Brecker and Los Lobos.

Nick Halley – drums

Nick Halley is a drummer/percussionist, keyboardist, composer, and conductor based in Nova Scotia, Canada. Born in New York City, he studied drumming and percussion with Jamey Haddad from an early age, majored in jazz and classical percussion at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and spent a year training and performing in Brazil prior to returning to New York City to attend The New School University’s jazz and contemporary music program.

As a drummer and world percussionist, Nick has performed and recorded internationally with a wide range of musicians including American musical icon James Taylor, Paul Halley, the late Oscar Castro-Neves, Glenn Patscha, Old Man Luedecke, Suzie LeBlanc, Chris Norman, David McGuinness & Revenge of the Folk Singers, Concerto Caledonia, and Viradouro Escola de Samba. Nick often performs with Dinuk Wijeratne in ensembles of musicians from around the world, including Kinan Azmeh, Nazih Borish, Joseph Petric, Roberto Occhipinti, and Sandeep Das. In 2008, Nick released his debut recording Barnum Hill, featuring Nick’s own compositions performed by Matt Brewer, Adam Niewood, and other young jazz stars, and produced and engineered by the late, great Tom Bates. Nick has taught workshops in percussion, music theory, and rhythm at Boxwood Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Interlochen Summer Festival, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (LAMP), and in other venues around the world.