ACE Jazz Trio
Named by the late blues legend and guitarist Coco Robicheaux, A.C.E. is built on the Jaco inspired bass sound of Dave Anderson, the seasoned, tasteful, and energetic Tom Chute on drums, and the eclectic ruminations of pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley. This creative trio creates a kaleidoscope of sounds, combining original compositions with unique interpretations of classic songs, as well as spontaneous improvisations, performing genres from free jazz, funk, bop, minimalism and blues. ACE has been known to hold court at all the suspected haunts on Frenchman Street and other jazz venues around New Orleans, including Snug Harbor, The Blue Nile, La Maison, The Spotted Cat, Madigans, Rare Form, The Sidebar, and the Roosevelt Bar.
BIOGRAPHIES
David Anderson
A prolific electric bassist, David Anderson has jammed with The Radiators, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Roy Pope, Darryl Brown, and many other great New Orleans musicians including a killer performance with guitarist Brian Stoltz of the Funky Meters as a main highlight of the French Quarter Festival 2002.
In 1984-85, Anderson played for and took lessons with the legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius in New York, who firmly encouraged the idea of being able to cross over between classical and jazz. Dave reminisces about those times:
“I met him once very briefly in ’79 when he was on the road with Joni Mitchel, Pat Methany and Michael Brecker when they were in Cleveland. Later when I was freelancing in NY, I happened to see Jaco at a small club in the village and went up to talk to him before the show. He remembered me from years before, saying “Cleveland, 1979!” We talked a few minutes and I heard him play that night in a very intimate setting. Occasionally I would meet him for a lesson and there would be no time limit - we would get the real book out and read through jazz tunes, taking turns on head and solos. I was playing upright bass. We talked about the pivot technique he uses with his left hand, which is very classically oriented. For example, right before the battle scene in Heldenleben and page 2 of Zarathustra classical bassists use the pivot technique like Jaco had showed me. He gave me exercises to work on which, unfortunately I don’t have due to Hurricane Katrina, but after a lesson with Jaco I’d be on a high for a week. What we talked about went well beyond bass playing…I had maybe 5 lessons but gained a year’s worth of information.”
Dave plays on several different electric basses as well as his acoustic upright for jazz sessions. His most recent addition is a custom Fodera, which will be featured on the newest ACE album, coming Fall 2020.
Tom Chute
Drummer Tom Chute has been living and playing in New Orleans for almost 12 years. After schooling for percussion and ethnomusicology at the University of Iowa, he moved to New Orleans to more closely study the indigenous forms of music. He is blessed and proud to be a homeowner in the New Orleans Musician's Village. A versatile rhythmatist, he has played with a wide variety of musical projects ranging from traditional to avant garde.
Dave Easley
Called one of the freshest and most essential voices in instrumental music today by Michael Dominici of New Orleans OffBeat Magazine, Dave Easley won the Offbeat Magazine award for “best other" instrument (pedal steel guitar) in 1997 and was chosen by New Orleans Magazine as a New Orleans Jazz All-Star in 2003. Among the bands Dave Easley plays or has played in are The Heartifacts, 3 Now 4 (Time Ebbing, Book of Spells, 3 Now 4), the Brian Blade Fellowship on Blue Note Records and The Verve Label (in which he recorded for producer Daniel Lanois and played a duet with Joni Mitchell), Coco Robicheaux, Anderson/Easley Project, and Shannon McNally. A few of the people Dave has had the honor of performing on stage or in the studio with are George Porter and Ike Stubblefield (Ruthie Foster's new as yet unreleased cd produced by John Chelew), Dave Liebman, Kenny Garret, Bill Kreutzman, Howard Levy, Charlie Byrd, Seamus Blake, world renowned sarod player, Ashish Khan, sacred steelers, the Cambell Brothers, members of the String Cheese Incident, the Grey Boy Allstars and Tiny Universe, jazz violin virtuoso George Mason, Raymond Weber, Tony Hall, Cyril Neville, and Dr. John. Additional reviews:
• "Easley soars, shifts and flows, forming elegant patterns passing from sphere to shining sphere.
Dave Easley is one of the city’s—if not the world’s—most amazing guitarists with a concentration in pedal steel."
• "In forward-thinking groups such as 3Now4 with monster bassist James Singleton, Easley filters hyper-fast melodic playing through otherworldly synthesizer foot pedal."
• "Easley can whisper over the band, and as a result often sounds feminine and beautiful or eerie and psychedelic…proceeds to swing from the downright womanly singing and acoustic picking of “Sad Train Whistle Blues,” into the almost spoken “Under a Pagan Moon,” reminiscent of a new-agey Gil Scott-Heron."
• "Easley’s lyrics and compositions combine the oblivious directness of Daniel Johnston and the chops and sarcasm of Frank Zappa."
LINKS TO LISTEN
Announcing ACE's new CD!
We are excited to announce the release of our new CD
"Adventures of the Moss Bear".
You can preview and purchase the CD HERE
