Wow! So many cool things have been happening in my music world, it’s been amazing! I’ve been too busy to post an update on here!

Taking most of my time and brain power has been touring with Deltron 3030! All of the Canada shows were great, and now we’re in the middle of the Rock the Bells Festival. Last weekend we played in San Bernardino to a very energetic crowd, despite the sweltering heat! I was so excited to finally bring along my friends in Jazz Mafia to fill out the orchestra. The same crew will perform this Sunday at Shoreline Amphitheater! Then I’ll head to NY to rehearse a different set of orchestra friends for our show in New Jersey on 9/2.

Other recent performances have included: Jazz Mafia All Stars in Union Square, Realistic Orchestra at Treat Street Social Club, Sarah Wilson’s Off the Walls at Z Space, Dynamic at Oakland City Center, Michael Feinstein at Davies Symphony Hall, and the Tommy Igoe Big Band at the Rrazz Room! I also did a quick recording session for Victoria Theodore’s sweet-sounding & upcoming EP ! Not only is she an amazing pianist, but her vocals are over-the-top beautiful: chills!

What’s next? Planning on writing some new music as soon as I get back from NY! And also looking forward to a super fun show coming up 10/5 with The Uptones!

A lot has happened since my last update!!! I just got back from Canada where I played the Luminato Festival with Deltron 3030! They hired me not only as a trombonist, but also to write out orchestra charts & manage a 16 piece orchestra that will be performing at a bunch of concerts this summer. The first show was great enough for the audience to stick it out while being drenched from a huge rainstorm during our entire set! Here’s some photos from the show and our soundcheck:

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We will be performing more shows in Canada as well as the US, so check my calendar!

I feel so lucky to be able to perform with 2 amazing groups at the Montreal Jazz Festival in July;  Lyrics Born & Deltron 3030, 2 days apart! It’s also special for me since we will be using my chart arrangements, in both groups! The Lyrics Born set will include lots of fun tunes by James Brown and will surely be a funky good time.

Also in July is a special concert with Michael Feinstein & jazz orchestra at Davies Symphony Hall and will be my first time performing there!

Sorry that this update came later than I had planned, I’ve been busy! Another cool project I was involved with was Realistic Orchestra @ Treat Street Social Club. We performed a special concert of original pieces composed for short silent films! I composed a piece using the film “Neighbours” by Norman McLaren, and was very pleased with how it turned out; I hope we can perform it again soon!

Some other fun recent gigs have included Jazz Mafia Allstars, CSU East Bay Jazz Ensemble Alumni band, Lord Loves a Working Man, Fungo Mungo, Dynamic, Brass Mafia, Tommy Igoe’s big band, and a super fun show in Berkeley with The Uptones!

More gigs coming, and I’ll be uploading some more photos, videos, and mp3′s soon.

OK! Well things are sure busy these days! I just played a bunch of really cool shows including the grand opening of Treat Street Social Club with Realistic Orchestra; this intimate space allowed us to project video onto a huge wall behind us, and also showcased an areal dancer! This was the first of an ongoing monthly series which will feature new works involving all kinds of creative media. Super fun stuff! I even think I’ll be writing something for the next one on 5/1!

I also played a super awesome show with Lyrics Born to a sold-out crowd at the Hopmunk in Sebastopol! Here’s a video from the show!

I also just rehearsed with one of THE most amazing big bands I have ever had the opportunity to play with; one of NY’s finest drummers Tommy Igoe has just started a weekly residency at the Razz Room in SF, where I’ll be joining them 4/9 and possibly more dates. Super excited!

I updated my calendar with lots of fun shows you can come check out, and soon will also be adding some new music clips! Till then… <3

Hope everyone’s new year is going great! There’s been lots of cool stuff going on in my world, I’ll try to cover everything:

Performance-wise highlights:

My concert with the CSUEB Jazz Ensemble was really special! It felt great to be back at the school that has given me so much, and I feel honored to have the opportunity to give back to future students. I was also happy to join forces with Jazz Mafia and Judah Nagler of The Velvet Teen for a special concert paying tribute to Nick Drake’s album “Pink Moon” at the Rickshaw Stop. Jazz Mafia’s anniversary party happened at Brick & Morter where I performed with Brass Mafia. I also performed at SF City Church for a special holiday service with members of Marcus Shelby’s Jazz Orchestra.

The past month has been busy as well! Jazz Mafia All Stars played a great show at Kuumbwa Jazz in Santa Cruz; we even performed a few songs from the Symphony’s book, (including Love Riot which I had to condense the arrangement from a 30 piece orchestra down to 10!) I had an incredible time celebrating Mardi Gras SF-style, with a 2nd-line parade through the streets and then a sold-out show with Brass Mafia at Brick & Morter! Here’s a video of the parade:

Just the other night I performed with Here Here to a sold-out crowd at the Great American Music Hall for the final night of SF’s Noise Pop festival. I’ll also be helping them out in the studio real soon to finish their new record.

Composing/Arranging life:

I spent s few days at Sharkbite studios recording horns with The Reckless Kind. Everyone was so great to work with, and I had fun arranging horn parts on the spot! I finished composing my violin duet for Double Take to perform at Rythmix Cultural Works in Alameda. We also spent a day recording in the studio at Ex’pression College; I’ll have that track posted very soon! I arranged horn charts for Brother Ayouba, and then headed into the studio with Chris Cortez to record the horn section for Ayouba’s new album.

Up and Coming!

Lots of cool things are happening in the near future! I’ve got shows coming up with Jazz Mafia All Stars, Realistic Orchestra, The Uptones, and more! Check my calendar page for super fun shows, and I’ll do my best to keep it updated.

The leaves are turning orange, the sun is setting earlier, it’s finally warm in the bay area, and kids are back in school… Autumn!!! The time of year that is the most inspiring to me, and always seems to be filled with new possibilities.

On that note, I have just been asked to join my alma mater CSU East Bay as  instructor for Jazz Trombone! I will be performing with the jazz ensemble at the end of November as part of my new residency there, which will feature a few of my compositions as well.

What else? Jazz Mafia is currently working on finishing our Emperor Norton Suite full length album, which will be completed soon. We will also be performing at Yoshi’s SF in November for 3 dates with 2 shows each night.

I am also beginning work on a new composition for the violin duet Double Take which will be premiered in December. Other than that, just busy playing gigs and staying healthy!

OKAY, I can’t believe a month went by without a post on here! SORRY!   ^-^  Well what did you expect? I’ve been playing my a$$ off, working a ton, and just got back from spending a week in the desert at Black Rock City!!

Yes, I just went to Burning Man for the first time and had an incredible experience,, words cannot adequately describe the intense feelings that engulfed my heart while I was out there. I took the journey by myself without much of a plan of finding anyone, and luckily found all of my friends at camp Crossroads! The musicians included a bunch of Jazz Mafians, and we did our thang like we DO! It was amazing, we played a show every night in front of TONS of people who absolutely loved our music! I am still in a daze from the whole experience, the amount of love and energy that 60,000 people put into creating the city out of dust is just mind-blowing. It’s true what they say, you HAVE to go to experience it for yourself! And I do believe that everyone has truly unique and life changing moments that will forever bless your heart. … and make you addicted to going back again!!!

So what’s going on now in the meantime??!! Well I’ve got some fun shows coming up including a guest appearance with Oona at the Independent this Friday! And I have a couple of arranging projects involving strings that I will be working on in the next few weeks, stay tuned for more details.

Hey there! I’m going to try to be better about updating you on my happenings, there sure have been a lot lately!!

Played a really great show last night with Realistic Orchestra at Yoshi’s SF; in the set we got to play my original composition “Reactance” as well as a brand new arrangement I did (this past weekend, whew!), which was commissioned by dear friend Bill Evans as a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron & the British jazz group Loose Tubes.

Also recently played a great show at Bottom of the Hill with Lord Loves a Working Man! We had an amazing audience that came for their record release party, and I was super happy to get to play with them.

Earier that same day I had driven up to Grass Valley to perform with Brass Mafia at the CA Worldfest! We played two different fun sets on two different stages there, and then led a parade of people & kids of all ages throughout the festival grounds. It was a really great day filled with lots of positive energy from the staff as well as the festival attendees. The band loved it!

Let’s see… tomorrow I’m playing on the rooftop of Oakland Kaiser with Dynamic, which should be super fun. I’m also finishing some horn arrangements for a recording session with Renee Asteria, then more private & public gigs this coming month.. Also Jazz Mafia Symphony in LA!! I will do my best to keep my calendar up to date with stuff you can check out!

Well I just got back from an exciting and jam-packed week in New York City with Jazz Mafia Symphony! We got to perform on Summerstage with the legendary Roy Ayers along with 30 young musicians from the Harlem School of the Arts! Here’s a video of us performing one of the songs I arranged for the group:

I didn’t really want to advertise this fact, but I actually arranged this tune in an insanely short amount of time: I basically started on the plane to NY, and after I arrived at my accommodations, stayed up all night to finish in time for our first rehearsal!  (It’s a long story, but basically we ended up in a position to arrange most of Roy’s music for our group on very short notice.) I also did an arrangement of Roy’s soundtrack theme to “Coffy” which is one of my all time favorite movies, so that was also super special!!

The week was filled with rehearsals, clinics with the HSA kids, club performances from Shotgun Wedding Quintet & Jazz Mafia String Quartet, and a bunch of schlepping on mass transit! We somehow also managed to fit in some hang-time! I had my little camera with me, and luckily remembered to whip it out and capture some special moments, which I compiled them into a little video!

AND! we played a huge AMAZING show at Stern Grove days before flying over there!!! We premiered our new Emperor Norton Suite to a very friendly and energetic SF crowd. We lucked out with amazing weather, and a packed audience! We also were joined by special guests Martin Luther, Chali 2na, and Lyrics Born; AND we also brought up 60~ music students from SF schools to perform with us on a song. It was so inspiring to work with them the days leading up to the concert (trombone section was ROCKIN!!!) Here’s a video from the show!