Dave St. Jean

Dave is an upcoming musician who is showing strong promise in the world of musicians. Already in his beginning years Dave has accomplished many goals involving education, experience and awards. At the age of 19 he has established several jazz groups and performed with a large number of musicians.

For the last six years Dave has lead five different jazz groups in the Nanaimo area. In 1998 he directed his first group, the John Barsby Combo, to victory, obtaining gold at Music Fest Canada, Vancouver. The next year, he brought them back to receive Silver in Toronto. During his grade 11 year at John Barsby, Dave wrote his first large arraignment, �A Night in Tunisia,� with a lot of inspiration from Maynard Ferguson. This tune together with two others, won his Senior Jazz Quintet the second place at the Lionel Hampton National Jazz Festival.

In May 2002, David was invited to join artists from the world renowned Norrbottens Big Band for their spring retreat and jazz camp in G�llivare, Sweden (The Norrbotten Music Teachers Camp).

Recently he has managed a large ensemble of musicians to form the Sextetuals. With this group he has been able to explore his arraigning skills and expand on his own compositions such as, �Just another Fish in the Sea� and �Black and White Stripe�. As well as playing at festivals, Dave single handily organized an outstanding concert at Dizzy�s Night Club in Nanaimo, where the Sextetuals played together with Montreal famed Christine Jensen. The concert also featured several promising Nanaimo musicians who had won at the Lionel Hampton Festival, 2003.

In his short time at being a musician Dave has accomplished quite a bit. His awards include two years of Honors at Music Fest Canada �98 & �99, most outstanding Brass player at the West Coast Jazz Festival �99, five years of band awards at John Barsby Secondary �97-01, as well as a recent Outstanding College Player at the West Coast Jazz Festival.

Dave has been blessed with the chance to play with great musicians as Ingrid & Christine Jensen, Tim Hagens, Hugh Fraser, Bill Waltrouse, Al Grey, Carl Fontana, Bryan Stovell, Steve Jones, Christian Fabian, Wally Watson, Ross Taggart, Allen Matheson, Roy Hargrove, and Mathew Carter.