Lloyd Hanson

Lloyd Hanson is a Canadian bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, and recording engineer based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. From the late 1980s through the early 2000s, he was a central figure in the province’s independent music scene, both as a recording artist and as the founder and operator of Reel North Recording Studios, one of Atlantic Canada’s most important artist-driven recording facilities of the period.

Hanson briefly attended Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1986 before returning to Fredericton, where he began composing and recording his own material. His debut solo album, The Great Debate (1988), was recorded largely in his parents’ unfinished basement using a Tascam 244 four-track cassette recorder. Hanson performed most of the instruments himself, working within a minimal setup that emphasized composition, arrangement, and texture over studio polish. The album blends bebop, funk, rock, Latin, ambient, and avant-garde elements and received strong critical attention, including top jazz ratings in Toronto-based press. The track “Thrill of the Chase” later appeared on the Showcase New Brunswick compilation (1992) and marked a transition toward more overtly experimental and compositional work.

In 1993, Hanson released A Different Drummer under the project name Lloyd Hanson’s Thrash Peninsula. The album featured a rotating cast of Fredericton musicians including Brent Mason, Debbie Adshade, Geordie Haley, and Chad MacQuarrie, and further established Hanson’s interest in genre hybridization, extended forms, and ensemble writing. Both The Great Debate and A Different Drummer are now regarded as key documents of New Brunswick’s late-20th-century experimental music scene.

Alongside his own recordings, Hanson built an extensive career as a producer and engineer. Through Reel North Recording Studios, he produced and recorded more than 100 albums across jazz, folk, rock, heavy music, and experimental forms. His production work includes Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars’ self-titled album, which received a Juno Award, as well as releases by Bucket Truck, Debbie Adshade, and numerous regional artists. Hanson was also a key collaborator on Brent Mason’s Down to Heaven (1995), where he contributed as producer, arranger, bassist, and multi-instrumentalist, reflecting the depth of his involvement during his most active production years.

In the early 1990s, Hanson produced North American Fiddling Champ by New Brunswick fiddler Ned Landry, a three-time winner of the North American Fiddling Championship. Landry had long been dissatisfied with earlier RCA recordings made in Toronto, and the project was conceived as a definitive artistic statement late in his life. The album documented Landry’s distinctive style and was later recognized for its cultural importance; one track was used as the theme for CBC Halifax’s Weekend Mornings program, and Landry was subsequently awarded the Order of Canada.

As a performer, Hanson appeared at festivals including the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival and the Ottawa Jazz Festival, and was known for his use of extended-range and fretless bass instruments, including a six-string fretless F Bass originally built for Alain Caron. His playing emphasized harmonic movement, counterpoint, and textural support rather than traditional bass roles.

Hanson also worked extensively as an educator, teaching bass, contemporary harmony, and audio production from the early 1980s onward, and mentoring a generation of New Brunswick musicians and engineers. By the late 2000s, he gradually withdrew from professional music production. In 2010, he co-founded a counseling practice specializing in trauma and PTSD support for military personnel, marking a shift away from music as a primary occupation.

Although no longer active as a producer, Hanson’s recordings and productions remain important documents of Canadian independent music, particularly within New Brunswick’s experimental, jazz, and folk-rock communities. His career is distinguished by stylistic range, hands-on production methods, and a sustained commitment to artist-centered recording practices.
-Robert Williston, January 2025; updated January, 2026

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