Rob Campbell was born and raised in Thetford Mines, Quebec and showed interest in music at an early age. His aunt, American Music Educator Isabel McNeill Carley, who had studied with Carl Orff in Europe, recognized the spark and gave Rob music books from which he taught himself guitar and piano. In his early teenage years, Rob’s family moved to Montreal and Rob, like many his age, was drawn to playing rock guitar. In the hopes of broadening his son’s musical scope, Rob’s father gave him two LP’s - one by Django Reinhardt and the other by Andres Segovia. From that point on, Rob’s music started moving in other directions.

Rob began taking classical guitar lessons in Montreal and because jazz guitar instruction was unheard of at the time, he taught himself Django Reinhardt solos by ear. Rob soon discovered live jazz at the renowned Montreal jazz club, Rockhead’s Paradise where he became enthralled by Montreal jazz guitarists Ivan and Nelson Symonds. Rob spent many a night not just listening to their music but also to Nelson and his stories of performing at carnivals and clubs across the US and Canada. Rob became a die-hard fan and was deeply inspired by the legendary musician whose playing influences him to this day.

Rob attended Queen’s University in Kingston, his family’s alma mater, studying classical performance. Playing classical music by day and jazz by night, Rob became part of the Chris McCann Quartet (along with schoolmates Rob Frayne and Dave Barton) where Rob was given the task of doing the quartet arrangements. Through his university years, Rob also expanded his jazz education listening to Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane and guitarists such as Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall.

Rob graduated with honours from Queens in 1980.

Mentored through his university years by Toronto-based classical educator Eli Kassner (Liona Boyd), Eli gave Rob a leg-up when he moved to Toronto by giving him a job and the opportunity to perform. Rob began teaching at the Eli Kassner Guitar Institute in 1979 and played in some of the first jazz concerts The Toronto Guitar Society produced. Though these performance opportunities, Rob met bassist Brian Quebec and other Toronto-based jazz musicians. Rob immersed himself in the Toronto jazz scene through regular jam sessions with the likes of George McFetridge, Norman Marshall Villeneuve and Reg Schwager and began a long time musical association with saxophonist Doug Watson.

Rob has performed with and alongside some of Toronto’s finest jazz musicians performing at The Senator, The Guitar Bar, Georges, The Montreal Bistro, The Rex and and in his 8 year stint at the Bermuda Onion/Bloor St. Diner to name just some venues.

He has performed regularly at the Toronto Jazz festival, and at several Ontario Science Centre “Sound of Toronto Jazz” concerts. He has conducted workshops at the University of Toronto and Laurentian University and composed and performed the soundtrack for the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s “Opus” Exhibit in Ottawa.

A Quebecer by birth and a Torontonian by choice, Rob’s sound has been formed by the experience of living in both provinces. The Globe and Mail’s Mark Miller has described Rob’s playing as “adventurous, inventive,…technically precise and melodically graceful…an effective reworking of the Montreal and Toronto jazz guitar traditions”.

Rob continues to compose and play in clubs and concert halls in and around the Toronto area. He teaches privately in Toronto passing along to his students his high musical standards while infusing lessons with the sense of joy music has always given him.