Jeff Asselin hails from Ottawa, Ontario. He began playing drums in high school, taking lessons with Larry Graves (a popular Ottawa drummer) and Peter Beaudoin (Drummers Collective). Jeff also began performing with the Confederation Jazz Connection (while in high school), The Ottawa Youth Orchestra (a University of Ottawa orchestra) and the Nepean All-City Jazz Band (following high school), and has played nationally with both groups at various band competitions, particularly Musicfest Canada. He was awarded the Best Young Drummer Award at Musicfest Canada in Vancouver in 1999, which included a scholarship to Humber College. He has also performed with the Yamaha All-Star Band during the closing ceremonies at Musicfest in Vancouver in front of 10,000 people.Jeff is a much-demanded musician on the Ottawa music scene. He has been a member of Comfortably Numb (a Pink Floyd Tribute act), the Tammy Raybould Band, The Groovebug (formerly Daddy Cool and the Groovebug), The Josée Deschênes Group, Organix, The Kathy Grant Mahon Gospel Band, Intuition, The Inertia Project, The KD Trio, Jacob Two-Two, The Trevor Finlay Band, Peter Voith, Quarterlife, the JW Jones Blues Band, The Kelly Craig Sextet, The Joshua Morin Band, the Jeff Rogers Band, the Anders Drerup Project and the Brian Asselin Quartet . His amazing talent and facility on the drums has also made him a first-call drummer to fill in with other groups. His live experience includes an uncountable number of club dates around the Ottawa area, Ontario, Quebec, as well as nationally and internationally.
During his career, Jeff has had the pleasure to share the stage with Alex Dean (Juno Award Winner), Mike Tremblay, Chase Sandborn, David Braid (Juno Award Winner), Bob Mintzer (Grammy Award Winner), Randy Brecker (Grammy Award Winner), Paul Deslauriers (guitarist for Amanda Marshall), Kelly Craig (horn player for the Funk Brothers), Parliament, Trevor Finlay (Maple Blues Nominee), JW Jones Blues Band (Maple Blues Award Winner), Brian Browne, Mark Cassius (the Nylons), the Texas Horns, Sue Foley (Juno Award Winner), Roxanne Potvin (Juno Nominee), KellyLee Evans (Juno Nominee), Jeff Jarvis, Pat Labarbera, Denny Christianson. He performed with several other Ottawa drummers with Shania Twain at the Corel Centre in 2003, at the Lilith Fair Music Festival in Ottawa in 1998, and has also opened for Pat Travers, KC and The Sunshine Band, Kentucky Headhunters, Kid Rock, Fred Eaglesmith, The Sky Diggers, Kathleen Edwards, The Jim Cuddy Band (of Blue Rodeo fame), Jonas, Simple Plan, Sarah Sedgeman, Sarah Harmer, Pat the White, Sonny Landreth, Shemekia Copeland, and Wave.