Aaron Solomon - Band Leader- lead vocals, fiddle, mandolin,
guitar
Aaron Solomon is a world class musician and performer
based in the Toronto area. Cape Breton born, his passion for music and
fiery fiddling style took root at the age of two when he asked for his
first fiddle. He has been wowing audiences ever since as an energetic
fiddle player, violinist, and multi-instrumentalist mastering an
astonishing variety of styles including Jazz, Swing, Celtic, Rock,
Blues, R'n'B, Quebecois, Acadian, Bluegrass, Folk, Ethnic, Old-tyme,
Country, and Classical - ever increasing the versatility and dynamics of
his performance. He brings his experience as a professional actor and
impressive four octave range vocals to create a dramatic and memorable
delivery everytime.
Aaron has played on over two hundred recording sessions for albums,
films and commercials. He has performed with pop sensation Shania
Twain, rock band Big Sugar, blues legends The Holmes Brothers, jazzy
Jeff Healey and modern classical a cappella vocal group The Star-Scape
Singers. Through the 90s, he was heavily involved in the Toronto Celtic
scene, performing in many pubs as a solo act and as a band member. He
toured the US as a Celtic duo featuring violin, mandolin, button
accordion, guitar, percussion, and vocals.
Steve Heathcote - Drums
Steve Heathcote has performed with jazz artists including
Holly Cole, Joe Sealy, Guido Basso, Oliver Jones, Brian Hughes and the
Stan Kenton Orchestra. His music has taken him across North America, the
Middle East, Asia, and Europe. His expert musicianship and willingness
to play "outside the box" brings a fresh approach to Celtic rock
drumming.
Russell Edward Williams - Lead Guitar
Russell Edward Williams is one of Toronto's most adaptable
guitarists having performed blues with Dutch Mason, world beat with
South Africa's own League of Nations, R&B with Bobby Soul (formerly
of the Platters), and Creole French music with Levitation ( from the
Caribbean). He has toured all sixteen Caribbean islands, Canada, United
States, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Russia and Denmark. He continually
amazes audiences with his guitar styling and musical prowess in Coole
Park.
"Williams phrasing, tone, technique, rhythmic feel and
overall economy of playing has the potential to make top-ranking
guitarists like Don Ross and Lorne Lofsky say, 'Who's that guy?'"
"impressive,
flawless...inspired guitar playing"-Whole Note magazine,
February/March 2007
Coole Park - Story of the Band
by Aaron Solomon, Coole Park founder and leader
I’ve always loved Celtic music right from the first time I
heard it. Being born in Cape Breton, it would have been hard to escape
it, not that I’ve ever wanted to. My Aunt Lucy played an album by Lee
Cremo when I was two and I went crazy for it. Lee Cremo was a Micmac
fiddler from Eskasoni on Cape Breton Island. He always had his own
style but like all Cape Breton fiddlers there was a Scottish influence.
If you don’t move when you hear Lee Cremo play, go to the doctor and
ask him to check your reflexes. Anyway, I was hooked on the fiddle and
on Celtic music ever since.
Another important musical influence of mine was Ryan’s Fancy. This was a
trio of Irish musicians that moved to Canada to study east coast Celtic
music. They were great singers and multi-instrumentalists and were
hugely popular in Eastern Canada through the sixties and seventies. A
couple of the songs covered on CoolePark’s “Water Journeys” album -“Fare
Thee Well, Enniskillen” and “Rocky Roadto Dublin”, I first heard on
Ryan’s Fancy’s “Newfoundland Drinking Songs” record.
I moved to Kitchener, Ontario when I was young. Although I was playing
many styles of music, I only heard Celtic music at home. At that time,
there wasn't Celtic music being played around Kitchener. When I moved
to Toronto in the early nineties, I started playing in the Irish music
scene. And it was great. I spent a lot of my time playing that music
live in Toronto during that time.
I’d always felt there were interesting possibilities to be mined by
fusing Celtic music and rock. When people referred to Celtic rock they
often referred to a sound like that of the Pogues. And many bands
copied that sound. But if you listen to bands like Capercaillie or
Stockton’s Wing there are funk elements in their Celtic rock sound and
they don’t sound like the Pogues. If you check out various rock bands
like Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull, you cansee how their fusion of the
Celtic and rock styles play out. None of them sound like the Pogues who
drew from a more punk style of rock.
I decided I wanted to fuse rock and Celtic music together and see what I
could come up with. All I needed was a band. I had been working as a
professional musician most of my life and had done my share of road
work. If this band was to be a traveling, touring band that I wanted to
play with then not only would the musicians have to be excellent but
they would also have to be the kind of people that I would love to hang
out with. They were chosen with that those considerations in mind.
Russell Edward Williams (guitar), Chris Gartner (bass) and Steve
Heathcoate (drums) along with myself made up the core of the band. I
also recruited my friends Rick Bauer and Ray Caldwell, both
multi-instrumentalists, to fill out the sound for the first album and in
concerts.
Chris has decided to focus on his many other projects as a musician and
producer and we wish him well. Check out his wonderful band, Tasa, for
one. The rest of us are poised to try to take over the world with our
Celtic rock fusion and we hope you enjoy the results thus far.
P. S. What’s CoolePark? Coole Park, in the early 20th century, was
once the home of Lady Augusta Gregory, co-founder of the Abbey Theatre
with Edward Martyn of Tullira Castle and Nobel prize-winning poet
William Butler Yeats. It became the centre of the Irish Literary
Revival. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, John Millington Synge and Sean O'
Casey all came to experience its magic. It inspired the following Yeats
poems: CoolePark, 1926, The Wild Swans at Coole and Coole Park and
Ballylee, 1931. My partner Lori discovered this information and we
thought the history of the name and it's edgy contemporary feel were a
great reflection of the band.