I am, and will always be, a student of music. I love to learn and I love to show other players of all ages what I have learned when it comes to jazz. Starting at a very young age, I spent time with saxophone greats including: Sonny Stitt, Joe Henderson, Bunky Green, Dave Liebman, and that’s just naming a few. . I began to understand what separated these great players from everyone else . I also gained invaluable information from the Jamey Aebersold summer Jazz Camps I attended when I was 13,14, 15, and16 years old . I broke it down to the most important things someone needs to do to become a great player. I came up with simple ways to convey this information. It works. I take the guess work out of learning how to play jazz. Sure, you can play ”what you feel”, but only after you learn how to play! I will put a blast of positive energy and inspiration into your program. I am truly inspired to work with young people and love to communicate the language of jazz while taking the myth out of learning how to do it. I have always related learning jazz to learning a foreign a language. Everyone can play it with the right guidance! The better you play, the more fun you have, and this will last a lifetime! Working with young people is also about giving them life lessons aside from the music aspect. Music is the catalyst.
I have a variety of Big Band charts to play with bands of all levels. Below are just a few of the songs, to give you an idea of some of the music to choose from. I recorded “Vans Joint “ with the world renowned WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany. Drummer Dave Weckl and bassist Mark Egan were guests. Mike Abene did an amazing job arranging my original compositions which we can use at the clinic/concert.
I also have another 10 charts arranged for the Scottish National Big band led by Tommy Smith that are a lot of fun to play. Arrangers Tommy Smith, Gil Goldstein, etc wrote some amazing arrangements of “Dixie Hop”, “Eyes of a Child”, “Dennis the Menace” and others.