Born: March 26, 1947
Ottawa ON
Current home: North Vancouver BC

Gregg Simpson was trained at an early age in classical piano (age 6-11). He was in the Hillside Secondary band and the West Vancouver Community band and Dance Band. He then studied percussion at the Jim Blackeley Drum Village in Vancouver.

His performing career in jazz began with a the New Dimension Jazz Trio at local clubs in Vancouver, such as the Flat Five and the Pilot House. In 1964 he went to the Banff Summer School Jazz class and performed at a club there with Frank Foster. Back in Vancouver he sat in on sessions with LA pianists Jack Wilson and Flip Nunez and local stars like P.J. Perry, Glenn MacDonald and Don Thompson at the Blue Horn. Then he joined the Al Neil Trio (with bassist Richard Anstey) and went on until 1971 with the pioneering group. In 1972 he joined Anstey and Neil again in the Al Neil Jazz Probe.

Through the 1970's he played with a variety of small groups including The New Atlantis Houseband, Apex, Sunship Ensemble, Musique Par Coeur, Vancouver Sound Ensemble and Rio Bumba, before helping form the New Orchestra Quintet in 1977. This was followed by several other small groups such as E.S.B., the Paul Cram Quartet and Trio, Motion, Lunar Adventures, The Vancouver Art Trio, Paul Plimley Trio and his own group Tribal Dynamics. In recent years he played with the Ralph Eppel Quintet and the Henry Boudin Trio in addition to appearing with stars like John Tchcai, Karl Berger, Vinny Golia, Marilyn Crispell and Peter Brotzmann. He is on several recordings beginning in 1975.

Ken Pickering, writing in Coda Magazine, called Simpson "simply one of the finest drummers in Canada".