I’m very excited about an upcoming show at Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts on Thursday, October 11th. This concert will feature graphic score works by four great musicians/composers: Vinny Golia, Motoko Honda, Karlton Hester and Garrett Wingfield. I will be performing in a sax trio with Vinny and Garrett, as well as playing with Karlton and Motoko on her composition Entanglement. Free admission, and open to the public! It will be held in the Lois Chiles Theater at the Rice Moody Center for the Arts.

There will also be a masterclass given by all four composers in the Shepherd School of Music, Lecture Room 1401.

Just as exciting is that Garrett, Vinny and I will take the sax trio on a regional tour of Texas following the Moody Concert. Here are the dates:

10/12- Masterclass at University of North Texas, Denton

10/12- Excessive Saxophone Music feat. Vinny Golia at Midway Craft House, Denton

10/14- Further Jazz w/ Vinny Golia, Garrett Wingfield, Danny Kamins at Wild Detectives, Dallas

10/15- MeMerMo Monday Series, Austin

10/16- Lowcountry Cocktail Bar, San Antonio

As if there wasn’t enough to do this fall, one more show has been added to the list. This will feature Ben Roidl-Ward, a great improvising bassoonist, along with some veteran local acts.

This past July, I went on a tour of the West Coast with CARL (Andrew Durham-electric bass, me- sax). We played the Wayward Music Series in Seattle, HumanFleshBodyWorld in Portland, Old Nick’s Pub in Eugene, VAMP records and a house show in Oakland, and Coaxial Arts in LA. Huge thanks to Alex Cohen, Neil Welch, Steve Peters, Reese Lopez, Joshua Isaac Finch, Alex Cohen, Max Nordile, and Lucas Gorham and Zoe Knutsen-Bradac for making it all happen.

Here are some upcoming fall gigs I’ll be playing/directing. All are open to the public and are in Houston, TX unless otherwise stated:

September 15th- Khon’s, with Pearson/Kamins/Dodds/Hernandez quartet and more TBA

September 17th- Rice University Shepherd School Recital with Ben Kamins

September 29th- Archway Gallery, Rice Jazz Combo

October 10th- Christmas Island- Sexual Jeremy, CARL, and more TBA

October 11th- Harrisburg Graphic Score Concert at Rice University Moody Center for the Arts, with Karlton Hester, Motoko Honda, Vinny Golia, and Garrett Wingfield

October 15th- MeMerMo improvised music series (Austin) with Golia/Wingfield/Kamins Sax Trio

October 16th- Contemporary Whatever series (San Antonio), with Golia/Wingfield/Kamins Sax Trio

November 16th- Rice University Big Band Fall Concert

December 3rd- Bushwick Improvised Music Series (NYC) with David Leon, Joe Hertenstein

I’m going on a small East Coast tour in late April. Here’s where I’ll be playing:

April 18th- The Pharmacy, Philadelphia

April 19th- The Outpost, Boston

April 22nd- The Legion, NYC

April 23rd- Spectrum, NYC (still yet to be confirmed)

Big thanks to Josiah Reibstein, Leo Suarez, Michael Foster, Yoni Kretzmer, and Zack Clarke for helping to set all this up!

On December 4th, I booked an incredible show at AvantGarden in Houston. It was a duo between Michael Foster (sax) and Ben Bennett (drums). If you haven’t heard these two check them out- some of the best music I’ve heard in awhile. They were joined by a trio consisting of three beloved TX improvisers- Chase Gardner (voice), Karl Roeling (sax) and Megan Easely (amplified water).

I’m very pleased to announce that After Effects, my album with Damon Smith (bass), Alvin Fielder (drums), and Joe Hertenstein (drums) made the best of 2017 in FreeJazzBlog! It’s an honor to be listed next to Peter Evans and Mats Gustafsson, two huge influences on the music I currently make.

Much more to come in 2018!

November has been a solid month for shows so far. On the 3rd, I booked a great electroacoustic musician named Tim Kaiser (from Duluth, MN) at Sound Exchange, one of Houston’s beloved record shops. And on November 6th Jack Wright, a phenomenal veteran of improvised music and saxophone extended technique, came through and played a killer set at AvantGarden with his trio, Roughhousing (based out of Philadelphia, PA). It featured him as well as Evan Lipson on bass and Zach Darrup on guitar, both of whom are excellent.

Late November and early December is going to be great, too: Rice Big Big Band Fall Concert (11/17), Rice Jazz Combo at Khon’s (11/19), Rice Jazz Combo at Rice Coffeehouse (11/3). December 4th will be the amazing duo of Michael Foster (sax) and Ben Bennett (percussion) + a first time trio of Denton improvisors Karl Roeling (sax), Chase Gardner (electronics), and Megan Easely (amplified water) upstairs at AvantGarden.

Come on out!