Kessler Douglas - Bassist, Composer, Sound Artist, Improvisor, Music Scholar.
Fueled by a deep well of creative energy and a love for musical dialogue, Douglas creates, interprets, and improvises in a variety of styles and settings.
His sound draws from both his individual musicality and varied influences, which include Ray Brown, Sun Ra, Claude Debussy, Squarepusher, Alfa Mist. Kessler has recently delved into digital music-making with his album Hellas, combining traditional/acoustic music-making techniques with digital sound design and looping. He currently attends Carleton University’s Master of Arts in Music and Culture program in Ottawa, having recently completed MacEwan University’s Bachelor of Music program in double-bass performance.
Kessler has played in venues and arts events across Edmonton and Alberta including the Yardbird Suite, the Edmonton Jazz Festival, and the Flying Canoe Festival. His principal creative project, the Kelso Pentagonal Group, explores the bounds of improvisation, combining soulful melodies and innovative new sounds. Kessler has worked extensively as a sideman, including with the MacEwan Jazz Combo and Big Band, the Cunningham Family Band, Baker Electrical, John Sweenie, and the Downlow Project. Kessler helped create the ToneArt Multi-Arts Collective in 2021, a community for young, experimental multidisciplinary artists in Alberta. He has taught guitar, bass, and ukulele lessons for over ten, the last three of which at Visionary Centre for the Performing Arts in Edmonton.
Kessler grew up in the Old Strathcona neighborhood of Edmonton, Alberta, close to the vibrant arts scene around Whyte Ave, many of the province’s most renowned festivals, and Edmonton’s Francophone quarter. He developed a love for live music early on in his life, and many of his earliest and best memories are from the hours spent on the Edmonton Folk Music Festival’s famous hill. Kessler took up guitar lessons at age seven, and was writing his own songs by age ten, soon going on to join U22, a local organization which helped young artists to perform, learn new skills, and collaborate. By high school, he had found two new interests: jazz and the double-bass. Kessler participated in the Little Birds, Edmonton’s Allstar Youth jazz ensemble, and began to make funk, blues, and jazz music with his group, the MPC. This encouraged him to continue his musical journey and Kessler began his studies at MacEwan University soon after.