This is a poster I did for a jazz/wind ensemble concert that featured the new tenor saxophone concerto GO! by Bob Mintzer with Vince Gnojek on saxophone. The concert also featured a new Dan Gailey arrangement of Radiohead’s Knives Out as well as one of my all-time favorite pieces of music, Hang Gliding by Maria Schneider.

My loose inspiration for the poster was the artwork for Dexter Gordon’s incredible jazz album Go . That album, besides being one of the great jazz recordings in history, was designed by Reid Miles who did several classic album designs for Blue Note records. I hope at least a couple of people picked up on the “Go” connection!

Design by Reid Miles

Below is the premier performance of GO! (3rd mvt.) featuring Bob Mintzer with the University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble. It’s a difficult piece that is a nice blend of jazz elements with wind ensemble writing. It contains some altissimo lines that are crazy hard!

(That’s me in college.)

Skip to post-graduation . . . as you might imagine, there isn’t a ton of opportunities to play in big bands outside of school. There are some good ones in the area, but it’s just not quite the same and they’re hard to get into. This weekend, I was able to sub on lead alto with the Jazzhaus Big Band at the American Legion here in Lawrence. This is a band that gets together twice a month and just reads tunes that they’ve compiled over the last 20-30 years and . . . it’s old school. That certainly doesn’t mean that it’s bad at all, but it’s definitely a different style of big band playing that I am used to. So, it’s a lot of fun to sit in with these guys, hear their stories, get to practice my sight reading and lead a sax section again.

There were a handful of people there to listen and dance, since it’s mostly dance music. Seeing people moving around and having fun to the music you’re playing is pretty cool!

The band is basically run by this man, Clyde Bysom. Clyde is a Lawrence musician who has been playing music almost his entire life. This is particularly impressive since he just celebrated his 90th birthday this year! He told me today that he’s still playing in two big bands, and clarinet quartet and a saxophone quartet. If I even get close to Clyde’s age and am still able to play music, I’ll consider myself extremely lucky!

As a side note, if you EVER have a chance to hear the Maria Schneider Orchestra, DO IT! Don’t ask questions . . . just buy tickets and enjoy. She’s amazing!