Biography

Pascal was born into a musical family in Auckland, New Zealand and grew up by the bush in the North Shore. Classically trained from the age of three, he spent much of his youth playing and leading orchestras. Pascal then moved onto playing Jazz, then Irish, followed by many other genres of music.

Playing in Irish Rock bands in pubs all around Auckland as a teenager, he soon became a legend in the scene. Pascal performed solos in New Zealand’s most prestigious venues such as Aotea Centre, St. James Theatre and Auckland Town Hall. He also won the “Best Young Jazz Musician of the Year Award” at the Tauranga National Jazz Festival, NZ in 1997. While living in New Zealand he gave concert tours around Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and Australia where he performed at the Sydney Opera House. In 2002 Pascal was invited to perform as a residential artist in Ibiza for the summer season. He was also invited to perform at the BAFTA awards ceremony in London.

Pascal has been featured in a number of national radio and television programs including BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 as well as being broadcasted on Sky TV, BBC 1 and BBC 2, ITV, TVNZ and French Televisions. His recordings include albums with 33 Records, Sanctuary Records, EM marketing, Nuclear Blast GmbH, Consequence Records, Florestar Music and EMI.

Pascal completed a Masters Degree in Jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2006, followed by an invitation to teach as a professor and to give performances at the La Coruna Jazz Summer School in Spain. Since graduating from GSMD he has been performing at many of London’s top music venues including the Jazz Cafe, 606 Club, La Floridita, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Pizza Express and the Vortex. Here are some of the highlights since 2006. Much of 2007 was spent touring all over UK and France with the rock band “Tarka Groove Experiment”. He also performed at the WOMAD festival in Las Palmas, Spain in 2007 with Mor Karbasi which led to UK, US and European tours and a performance on French television. In 2008 Pascal went to Havana, Cuba and played alongside members of Sierra Maestra and the Buena Vista Social Club. He toured Germany and Spain with prog-doom disco legends Chrome Hoof in 2009.

2010 saw him perform with his group “The Secret Cinema Band” at Glastonbury Music Festival as well as headlined the Peter and Paul Jazz festival in St Petersburg, The Ealing Jazz Festival “Crypt Stage” and released the album Mystic Radical at a sold out Pizza Express Soho show with the “Shez Raja Collective”.

In 2011 Pascal toured New Zealand with the Shez Raja Collective including spots on “Good Morning” and closing out the Mission Bay Jazz and Blues Street Festival. He has also performed with rising pop star Massad in numerous venues including “The Cloud” for the Rugby World Cup 2011, at festivals and York Street Studios for a music video/live recording session.

During 2012 Pascal returned to Europe for an ongoing series of London events, which has seen him perform with jazz luminaries such as Andy Sheppard, Denys Baptiste and Soweto Kinch. With the Shez Raja Collective he has also headlined the Goerlitz Jazz Festival in Germany.  He also toured USA with the DJ group Sweet Mix Kids in May 2013.

In the past few years he has toured extensively around New Zealand, Australia and Japan with the “Miho’s Jazz Orchestra“, as well as charting top 20 on the official NZ Album Charts several times with Miho Wada’s albums “EXIT 621″ (2013), “Mystery Banana” (2014), "Bumpy Road" (2015) and "Accidental Journey" (2018).  He has also recorded on Miho’s latest EP “Memphis Dreamin'” at the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee alongside with their studio musicians including Dave Roe, who was the bass player for Johnny Cash.

In New Zealand he has also been working with the Albi & the Wolves, Massad, Arli Liberman, Sweet Mix Kids and Jesse Sheehan.  In 2018 he won the Tui Award for the Best Folk Artist with Albi & The Wolves. He has been touring extensively in New Zealand with Miho's Jazz Orchestra and Albi & the Wolves, as well as performing sold out shows across London's top jazz venues and festivals with Shez Raja Collective and touring with them across UK and Europe.