I've gathered here a small collection of recordings I've been lucky enough to make over the years. These tracks were chosen specifically to showcase my diversity as a musician, as well as highlight some of my experience as a recording artist and freelancer.
From 2011 to 2016 I had the pleasure of touring and recording with the Brooklyn-based musical collective known as the Hungry March Band. I can be heard on their 2018 album, Running Through with the Sadness. I was lucky enough to record for every song, and I even took a few solos, one of which can be heard in this fun track written by the talented Emily Fairey. Other soloists include John Waters, Sasha Sumner, Jason Candler, Kris Anton, and the composer. Their music is fun for all ages, and they perform everywhere, so check them out wherever they end up next, and tell them I sent you!
A particularly interesting track from the Hungry March Band catalog, Ataraxia has a name with Greek roots (a- not, tarassein- disturb) meaning a state of serene calmness, but has musical roots in contemporary Latin America. Full of lush chords, clean melodies, and sophisticated rhythms, this under-appreciated work by Sebastian Isler was always a hit wherever we played it. The trombone section is featured prominently on this track following a short intro, and my solo playing can be found between that of (once again) Emily Fairey and Kris Anton.
Eric Frisch is an indie-pop musician from New York. He teamed up with Grammy Award-nominated record producer and songwriter Felix McTeigue to make his recent EP, One Way to Find Out, on which I play on the title track. I was delighted to get to work with such an esteemed group of studio musicians, and of course I was excited I got to collaborate once again with Julie Desbordes, who played the trumpet on this track. I've always thought Julie and I sounded great together, and with Felix's magic touch we've never sounded better!
Ron O. Nahass is a multi-talented member of the New York artistic community. With credits ranging from appearances on Broadway stages, orchestral performances playing the trumpet, and providing instruction in NYC's elite private schools, it should be no surprise that he could also compose a piece as stunning and profound as G'day, Captain Moonlight for chamber orchestra. Using an unconventional orchestration Mr. Nahass achieves exceptionally rich and dark timbres at times, but surrounds those moments with a moving and dynamic framework that leads to passages expressing the sublime joy of youthful and loving vigor. G'day Captain Moonlight tells the story of 19th-century Australian bushranger and folk figure Andrew George Scott, otherwise known as Captain Moonlight.
Here you will find an old recording of a performance I gave with the Brass Standard back in 2011. Here we are playing Escape by Kevin McKee. This group only played together for a short while, but it included some very talented musicians who have each gone on to enjoy illustrious international performance careers, and with whom it was an absolute joy to play some terrific and challenging brass quintet repertoire.
Dean Kervin Boursiquot is a bay area composer with whom I collaborated as a part of The Brass Standard. In fact, he first approached me about premiering Urban Landscapes in the days before the Brass Standard, and his request served as the primary impetus for the formation of the quintet. The Urban Landscapes premier not only marked the quintet's debut, but was also the beginning of a fruitful relationship between composer and performers that was to last for years. Here you can listen to the fiery finale of this challenging piece played in concert.
The Hot Shim Sham Orchestra was founded in 2012 by Jessie Bunting and a handful of seasoned NYC jazz musicians aiming to help preserve a portion of our city's and our country's swing band musical heritage. Landing a residency at DanceSport studios, the HSSO gave weekly shows from 2012 to 2017, and quickly became a popular group through which professional and amateur musicians alike could meet, test their mettle with some difficult sight-reading, and show off for the dancers in attendance. White Heat is just one of the fifteen tracks recorded by the HSSO in one ten-hour session at Three Egg Studios, so please pardon us if we sound a little tired! In addition to myself, the soloists in this recording include Ryan DeWeese on trumpet, Evan Francis on tenor saxophone, and Andrew Grau on double bass.
While digging around on my computer looking for samples to put on this website, I found an old recording made in a rehearsal back in May of 2012. I got my start here in New York playing in salsa bands around the city, and through the many congenial salseros to be found in that scene I was oftentimes invited to join a rehearsal to read some charts, audition for the band, or sometimes even to join in on a fun time full of music, dancing, and lots of food! And although I can't recall which band I was playing with or the circumstances surrounding that evening, I guess I thought the trombones were sounding pretty good that night, and so I made a little recording of us. The song is entitled La Cura (the Cure), was written by Catalino "Tite" Curet Alonso, and was made popular by Frankie Ruiz.
The very first of its kind, the musical yearbook project I started in 2016 was my first serious attempt at creating a new way to capture a communal experience through digital music production. Similar to how the yearbooks found in schools, universities, and businesses often contain photographs of the events which took place within a certain timeframe or the names of the people who were there for them, my musical yearbook project is designed to create a sense of nostalgia through the use of field recordings collected by me in a place in time. Swapping signatures with catchphrases and photos with soundbites, a musical yearbook can serve a similar purpose while remaining as unique as the collection of people it aims to serve. This yearbook made its debut in August of 2016 at Badger Sports Camp, where for that summer I was employed as the music specialist. What is heard on this track may seem mildly interesting at best to the average listener, but just imagine the response these voices and sounds may illicit from people who were in attendance that summer!
Also from my summer at Badger Day Camp, LionBadgerTiger was a quick job for the camp's field day competitions. The camp was divided into two teams, the Lions and the Tigers, which competed for victory across multiple athletic and intellectual competitions. This was the theme song for the day. It samples heavily from an iconic scene from the 1939 Fantasy/Adventure blockbuster, The Wizard of Oz.