It’s hard to believe that summer is already coming to a close.
Musically, it has been a fairly active season here in the northeast US. I was lucky enough to play concerts with some of my favorite acts/groups: Natalie Merchant (NYC), the Maria Schneider Orchestra (Newport Jazz Festival), the Jared Schonig Big Band (Jazz Gallery), Remy Le Bouef’s Assembly of Shadows (Birdland), the Philadelphia Orchestra – featuring Ledisi (Philadelphia, Saratoga), as well as playing in the orchestra for the 74th annual Tony Awards (Radio City Music Hall), and teaching at the NYU Summer Brass Camp as part of Manhattan Brass.

Some recent recording projects have included time with Barry Manilow, Matchbox Twenty, and the Charles Pillow Large Ensemble. In addition, I’m pleased that our own new big band project will finally see the light of day in the coming months. It came out quite nicely and I look forward to having it out there!

Upcoming this fall: I’ll be bringing a small group into Silvana (300 W. 116th St., NYC) on September 22, so I’m very excited about that. Also, the big bands of John Fedchock, Pete McGuinness, and Maria Schneider have some dates this fall, and those are always fun. The New York Pops will have a full season at Carnegie Hall starting in October, and things start up for us at Purchase College in September.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that after a 5 year hiatus, the big band went back into the studio in late August to record a brand new project! I arranged 8 songs for big band (music by Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bill Withers, The Beatles, and others) and one song (by Joni Mitchell) for jazz quartet, strings, alto flutes, and french horn. We are currently in the process of mixing, and hope to have it out in early 2019. Soloists include Mike Rodriguez, Marshall Gilkes, Marvin Stamm, Greg Gisbert, Jason Rigby, and many others.