Since 2015, I’ve been collaborating on concerts and events within the Tele-Espacios Activos series that Mario Humberto Valencia directs each year within the Festival Internacional de la Imagen in Manizales, Colombia. I’m excited to share that for the festival this year, I’ll be traveling to Colombia – my first time returning there since before the … Read more
I always enjoy working with students and teachers in the Santa Ana High School music program, especially the Puentes Telemáticos / Telematic Bridges program that I co-direct in summers. This year, I also did some workshops with their jazz big band and performed with them on their spring concert, which featured some UCI students playing … Read more
It was a powerful experience performing a soundscape for this recent durational performance created by artist Mariángeles Soto-Díaz at Grand Central Arts Center in Santa Ana, CA. I created an algorithmic sonic collage based on her direction, which included audio samples from marches that were part of the #niunamenos movement protesting femicide in Latin America, … Read more
I recently had the privilege to co-direct two telematic concerts recently from the black box theatre at UC San Diego, with wonderful collaborators in New York and Korea. On Feb. 2nd, we performed with Fay Victor, Ingrid Laubrock, and Patricia Brennan at Roulette in NYC, with Mark Dresser, Gerald Cleaver, Joshua White and myself performing … Read more
I had a great time playing yesterday in Tijuana with an 8-piece band led by the wonderful creative trumpeter Iván Trujillo, who was invited by the Centro Cultural Tijuana to present a “Binational Jazz” concert as part of a series of events celebrating the bicentennial anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the US. In … Read more
Since 2015, I have enjoyed participating in Mario Valencia’s “Tele-Espacios Activos” series within the Festival Internacional de la Imagen, sometimes in person in Manizales, Colombia and in other years performing remotely from California. I missed being there in person this year but it was still a pleasure to perform on the concert, this time improvising … Read more
I recently collaborated on sound for this excellent new project by artist Mariángeles Soto-Díaz at Grand Central Arts Center in Santa Ana, CA. Soto-Díaz composed and directed a unique performance that took place within her art installation and featured four black belt judokas, two art performers, and original sounds including texts she wrote along with … Read more
I’m happy to share that this collective album is now released by Infrequent Seams! In spring 2021, the final quarter of the year when we were still in COVID lockdown and holding classes entirely remotely, I was teaching a seminar on improvisation as part of our PhD program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology (ICIT), … Read more
I’m excited to share this new video about Puentes Telemáticos / Telematic Bridges, a telepresent, intercultural music course linking students from Santa Ana High School in CA and the Fundación Batuta in Manizales, Colombia. I made it for a showcase at the online Connected Learning Summit, which I’m looking forward to attending later this month. … Read more
Three years ago, I posted here about playing in the premieres of Central Park Five, the brilliant and moving opera by Anthony Davis. I am fortunate to have studied with Anthony in the ’90s and as I wrote in that tribute, Anthony deepened my understanding of Duke Ellington’s music (among so many other topics) by … Read more
In summer 2021, I was invited by Mark Lomanno, the media review editor for Jazz Perspectives, to write a short piece for that journal about the impact of the pandemic on jazz. I did discuss some musicians’ creative responses to lockdown, but rather than do a traditional media review of specific concerts or recordings, I … Read more
Mark Dresser gave an incredible recital recently at UCSD, sharing his wide creative range as both an improviser and composer. I enjoyed playing as a guest performer on a couple of his compositions that we performed as a duo, “Gloaming” and “Hobby Lobby Horse.” These are pieces we originally developed and recorded with the Mark … Read more