Former Massappeal guitarist Ashley Chatto lost his battle with brain cancer on Monday and has passed away. Ash, was one of the two guitarists with Massappeal in the early 90's and played some stuff on The Mechanic and a compilation, "Crack In The Sun, Fade In The Shade".
Ashley Chatto was also a jazz and classical guitarist/composer and arranger/pianist who studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He had played with many of Sydney's leading jazz musicians including James Morrison, Evan Mannell, Casey Greene and Clayton Tomas. As an arranger he had produced music for some of Sydney's leading big bands. As a composer he has scored for short films, orchestra, string quartets and classical guitar.
Massappeal frontman Randy Riemann had this to say...
"We shared some crazy times, both on and off the stage, and yeah, Ashley was a really nice guy. Ashley introduced me to "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane. That kind of thing stays with you forever!. I'll be spinning that record tonight."
Funeral details below...
Ashley Chatto's memorial service will take place on Monday December 3rd at 2.15pm at Easter Suburbs Memorial Park (South Chapel), Military Road, Matraville.
The location of the wake TBA at the service.
Rebecca would like to thank all those who have supported both her and Ash through a difficult year and made his last years special.
Please bring any photos you have of him or other memorabilia to the wake.
For those who haven't had the opportunity to see Ash or feel that seeing him is something they would like to do, there will be a viewing at 2pm on Friday 30/11/2012 at Metropolitan Funerals Cnr of Bestic Street & Princes Hwy Rockdale.
Grant Lawrence has kindly uploaded two Massappeal songs featuring Ashley on guitar. The first is the track, "Adonai" off the compilation "Crack In The Sun, Fade In The Shade" and the second is a previously unheard rehearsal jam, tentatively titled "Neil Young".
Line up on this was:
Randy - vox
Brett - Guitar
Andy - Bass
Ashley - Guitar
Pete - Drums