I'm a composer and trombonist, based in Southern California. I compose music for improvisers and am fortunate to collaborate with many fantastic musicians. Enjoy the site and feel free to get in touch.
NYC in May and June 2012: I'm looking forward to playing with Mark Dresser's quintet at Cornelia St. Cafe on May 15, with Rudresh Mahanthappa, Denman Maroney and Tom Rainey. We record an album for Clean Feed the next day. Then I'll play again at Cornelia with my own trio on June 13 (at 10pm), with the always amazing Chris Tordini and Dan Weiss, and that week I'll also be playing again with Mark's band at the Vision Festival, recording on an album by Marty Ehrlich and passing through Amherst, MA for a quartet gig with Jason Robinson, Bob Weiner and Bruno Raberg. Hope to see many of my east coast friends at some of these concerts!
Pedro Cesar Béas is one of the countless people out there working to keep jazz and creative music alive, in his case in Tijuana through dijazz radio, a great resource. Many thanks to Pedro for his very moving review of my latest trio CD, in the original Spanish here or in English via google.
Jeff Gauthier and Motoko Honda: Looking forward to a trio performance with these two musicians at LA's Beyond Baroque on Saturday, January 28, 2012!
Han Bennink, Mary Oliver and Mark Dresser: I enjoyed starting 2012 with a string of 3 quartet gigs with these amazing musicians. Our San Diego concert was reviewed in the SD Reader, and we also performed to full houses at the Blue Whale in LA and at UC Irvine. Thanks to everyone who came out!
Inspiralings concert review: We had a great time at the Inspiralings concert between San Diego and New York on Nov. 2nd. Thanks to Robert Bush for managing to get a review in the San Diego Reader published the very next day!
MD Trio receives CMA grant: I'm honored that my trio was recently awarded a grant from Chamber Music America through their 2011 New Jazz Works program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. I'll be composing a new concert-length piece, featuring Chris Tordini and Dan Weiss. The music is inspired by abstract paintings by a range of contemporary artists as well as the social, political and aesthetic questions that abstraction has raised in recent history.
New score-video: I have a new score+audio up on YouTube - a 7 min. excerpt from the title track of Forget The Pixel.
Reviews of Forget the Pixel: It's gratifying to get reviews that are not only positive but also contain informed, thoughtful insights on the music. My 2011 trio release on Clean Feed Records is getting some quality press, including a Downbeat review by Bill Meyer and a detailed account in All About Jazz by Robert Bush, who also reviewed our live concert last May in Irvine.
November in NYC, virtual and live: These days I'm working on a new composition for a 9-piece band that will perform a networked concert between NYU and UC San Diego on Nov. 2. It's a privilege to compose for a group that includes some of my longtime musical heroes like Oliver Lake and Ikue Mori, among many others. The following week, my actual body will be in NYC for a couple gigs at the Stone, including one with my trio (with Chris Tordini and Dan Weiss) on Nov. 8.
Video of Telemotions: Mark Dresser, Myra Melford and I collaborated for nearly a year to develop the music for last April's Telemotions concerts. The performances were networked between San Diego and Irvine, CA and produced with a huge crew of other artists and technicians, including scenic designer Victoria Petrovich and intermedia artist John Crawford. You can now watch the whole concert on YouTube, and read more about it here.