King Canoe

King Canoe is a new instrumental collaboration featuring eight stalwarts of the Melbourne soul and reggae music scene.
Focusing on all-original instrumental reggae and taking influences from the 1960s Jamaican music scene, King Canoe is bringing
a fresh sound to a classic genre.

King Canoe is an eight-piece curation of the finest instrumental musicians in Australia. The reggae and soul band members have played with the world’s biggest names in this genre from The Congos to Mavis Staples, Prince Alla to Maceo Parker and Syl Johnson, and individually they perform across many Melbourne soul and funk ensembles including The Putbacks, The Meltdown, The Bamboos and Joelistics.

Tom Martin on guitar (The Putbacks, Bombay Royale, The Meltdown, The Congos). On piano/organ is classically trained pianist Dan Marsh (The Red Eyes), Steve Allingham on drums/percussion (The Red Eyes, Blue King Brown), Rohan Sherlock on bass (The Congos, The Red Eyes, Prince Alla), Rory McDougall on drums (The Putbacks, T.Z.U, Mavis Staples, The Bamboos, Syl Johnson), Ben Gillespie on trombone (Gotye, The Cat Empire, C.W. Stoneking), Lachlan McLean on saxophone (The Meltdown, Maceo Parker, Femi Kuti), and produced by award-winning composer Tom ‘Soup’ Campbell (Joelistics).