May 2025 (pt. 2 - what's going on?)

April recap, looking ahead to summer

Greetings all,

Phew! We made it… I finished submitting my Hartwick grades last night, and barring a few emails I am home free from collegial educating until August. I apologize again for breaking my once-a-month posting rule, however I didn’t want to miss the chance to let you know about some gigs in a timely manner and also fill you in on the other great things happening this month.

As always, thanks for supporting my work through this platform. It’s more important than ever to build communities on independent media sites regardless of the discipline or cultural circle in involves.

Remaining performances for the month:

*New* - Friday 5/16, 8-10pm — Adam Ippolito at The Print House, Fleischmanns NY. Adam Ippolito (keys/vox), Sal Palazolo (bass), Vladimir Smirnoff (drums). No cover, food/drinks required

Saturday 5/17, 8-11pm — Organ Party at The B-Side, Oneonta NY. Funky/jazzy/jammy organ grinding from Conor Murphy, Evan Jagels, and Brian Reynolds. $10 cover charge, 1 drink minimum.

Saturday 5/31, — Killdeer Trio at The Other Side, Utica NY. $15 tickets - check back for advanced tickets next week (5/5/25) at this link

Up first in June ….

Thursday 6/5, noon-1:30pm — Dylan Canterbury Quintet, Jazz on Jay, Schenectady NY. Featuring Dylan Canterbury (tpt), Tyler Giroux (piano), Matt Niedbalski (drums), David Shoudy (bass), me. Free at Jay Square in Schenectady!

What’s going on? … Lots!

As always, the March-May period is one of my most hectic times of year. Between teaching obligations, playing, and other stuff, it’s been a juggling act for sure. However, I’m certainly grateful for all of it… so here are some highlights from the past month-and-a-half I haven’t had the chance to share yet!

SUNY Oswego — The other SUNY “O”

Part of what has been keeping me so busy this spring is some extra teaching at SUNY Oswego. My amazing guitar playing colleague, Luke Franco, had to unexpectedly step down from his teaching duties this spring and asked me to step in for him. Although I couldn’t commit to the weekly 2.5 hour drive out there, I did teach his guitar students virtually over the last 7 weeks. He and the Jazz Studies Director Eric Schmitz are doing great work out there, and it was a pleasure to get to work the students out there.

Kaitlyn Fay Recording Session

This April I had the opportunity to record with vocalist Kaitlyn Fay for her upcoming album. The record features duets — half with guitar, and half with David Gleason on piano. The album is currently undergoing mixing/mastering by Keith Pray, and will be hitting the streets this August. Stay tuned for more details!

Hendrix Tribute

As I said at the gig — many have done this before, and many will do it again, but we’re doing it right now!

Whenever you are presenting a tribute concert — especially for an icon like Jimi Hendrix — it is essential that you find a way to both honor the music, and present it in a new way through the lenses of your own creativity. I am happy to say that I feel we accomplished this. The first tribute we did with Killdeer Trio was much more improvised and impressionistic — we challenged ourselves by having no rehearsal ahead of time, seeing how we could piece together the music in the moment.

The second tribute with Blake Fleming on drums was a bit more refined, while maintaining the sort of “sketches of Hendrix” approach.

Hey Joe became an afro-cuban/Gabor Szabo inspired piece, Fire turned into Coltrane-esque fire music, and my personal favorite — Evan’s atmospheric, dystopian take on the anti-war piece, Machine Gun.

Here’s some video captured and edited by Blake.

The Wind Cries Mary:

Machine Gun:

Postponing the KDT Album

As I mentioned in a previous post — one of the tricky parts of being a fully collaborative trio is making our schedules line up. So, due to some scheduling conflicts we’ve decided to postpone the release of the new Killdeer Trio album until the fall, so we can properly share and celebrate it with as many people as possible. We are really proud of the work we put into the recording and can’t wait for you all to hear it.

With that said, we do have a fun show coming up at one of our favorite venues — The Other Side in Utica! If you are in or near Utica, we would love to come hang with you.

Sara Caswell + KDT: Jazz Fest & the Van Dyck

It was truly an honor to get the chance to perform with the amazing Sara Caswell along with my close friends and collaborators in Killdeer Trio.

When backing up an acclaimed musician without having met before, it can often be a tricky dynamic to work through. You’re both sussing each other out, finding out in the brief rehearsal before the gig what everyone expects and is capable of. Given the limited time you usually have together, there’s not much to do if the connection isn’t there but to hang on and do your best.

For whatever reason, and luckily for all of us, we seemed to have instant chemistry performing with Sara. Both the performance at the Van Dyck in Schenectady and Hartwick Jazz Day were both among the most fun performances I’ve ever had from both a playing and interpersonal perspectice. Playing music is not just about being great on your own — it’s about uplifting the whole group with your musical spirit. Among many things, I would say this is real super power for her.

Both concerts were recorded so clips may surface at some point. But for now, we’ll let it live in the memories of all those who attended in person!

More on Hartwick Jazz Day:

Despite it’s small size, Oneonta and Hartwick College has hosted some of the greatest talents in music over the years. Since I started working at Hartwick, many faculty and community members have told me about the amazing concerts that have taken place on campus including Louis Armstrong, and the Gary Burton Quintet (feat. a young Pat Metheny). Great artists don’t simply end up in small towns like Oneonta — people work to raise funds and organize events so that our rural community can experience the highest forms of musical performance in the world without having to drive to a city.

I am humbled, honored, and grateful to be able to continue building on this legacy. I hope that we can continue connecting our students and community members with top-level music for many years to come.

Thank you all for your support, and making this work possible.

The End!

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