If you guessed that I play saxophone, well, congratulations, you win a cookie. Sometimes I run it through a bunch of effects out of deep-rooted rock n' roll envy. I also sing and play keyboards, guitar, electric bass, flute and clarinet (the last two more out of obligation than anything else). Any style of music is fair game as long as it's good, but as the sounds above show, I have a strong leaning towards R&B, soul, blues. things that groove. Songs are particularly interesting to me these days too, whether penned by outlaw country singers, indie songsters, bluesmen, or Brill building legends. Strange to think that ten years ago lyrics barely showed on my radar, and now I'm trying to write them. Not an unnatural trajectory of a reformed jazzoholic, I suppose.
Onward to gigs and such. As of June 2010, I'm rehearsing with Meat Loaf and band in anticipation of the Hang Cool Teddy Bear world tour. I've been part of his band since fall 2006, playing saxophone, keys, and guitar, and have been fortunate to travel and perform all over the world, plus make a number of radio and television appearances throughout . Over the course of the last year, I've also had the pleasure of touring occasionally with the dub-reggae band Easy Star All-Stars. Last fall, I played sax and keyboards for Katy Perry on her MTV Unplugged appearance. Throughout previous years, I've appeared with Dr. Lonnie Smith, Reuben Wilson, Jimmy McGriff, Bettye Lavette, The Temptations Revue feat. Dennis Edwards, Johnny Bassett, Clarence Clemmons, and have occasionally subbed on Broadway in NYC.
I am especially proud of and happy to be playing with my original music band, The Dirty Urchins, a collaboration with bassist Bennett Miller and songwriter/guitarists Freddie Stevenson and Julia Haltigan. It took over five years of living in New York City to find that one special project, and here it is. We released out first album, Late As Usual, in June of 2009, and will be recording our second this fall. We play out as much as possible when we're all in NYC, both indoors and out.
Check out and buy our album, physical or digital:
.or you can just grab it from the iTunes store.
We also have a Facebook Fan Page, and you can follow us on Twitter. Enjoy!
