2016 Brooklyn Bowl Residency with Antibalas

I'll be performing monthly in New York with Antibalas at Brooklyn Bowl on the following dates:

• January 20: guest collaborators: Miguel Zenon, Binky Griptite (Dap Kings), Openers: Holy Forest
• February 11
• March 9
• April 20
• May 18
• June 15

Every week we'll have opening bands from our ever growing family of musicians as well as guest collaborators and lots of musical surprises. Some weeks we'll dig deep into our back catalog. Others, we'll be playing fresh, unreleased material that we'll be taking into the studio this spring.

Tickets HERE

New works with Santigold: Live and On Record

Santigold just came out with a new single from her upcoming album 99ç. I play flutes and saxophones on two songs.

Santi came through to Brooklyn Bowl on 11-11-2015 to play two songs with Antibalas: "Shove It" and "Disparate Youth".

Oct. 1 - NYC - Carnegie Hall: The Music of Bill Withers

Along with the Antibalas horn section, I'll be part of this tribute to one of my favorite singers of all time, Bill Withers. I'm honored to be part of an amazing cast of singers and musicians, including musical director Greg Phillinganes.

I've been working transcribing and arranging horn parts off the "Live at Carnegie"record and "Hits" for the four piece section including my colleagues Jordan McLean, Ray Mason, and Jas Walton.

MORE INFO: http://www.musicof.org/

October 25-26: 2 Panels in Washington DC

I'll be on two panels at two different music / policy conferences this October in Washington, D.C.

At the Music Cities Convention, on Sunday, 10/25, I'll be on a panel titled "The Artist's View" with Joyce Linehan of the City of Boston, Michael Orlove of the National Endowment for the Arts and Ben Herson of Nomadic Wax and Rebel Music. We'll be talking about music, and cultural policy that supports it (or doesn't). I'll be sharing my experiences working as a professional musician (and sometimes educator) in NYC since 1994 and Austin Texas (2005-2013).

The next day, I'll be at the Future of Music Policy Summit at Georgetown University on a panel titled "Music And Education: Advancing The Future". The panel is moderated by Ken Umezaki and includes the panelists:

• Anna Celenza: Georgetown University: Professor of Music
• Martin Perna: founder of Antibalas
• Mario Rossero: SVP Education, The Kennedy Center
• Alex Ruthmann: NYU Professor: Music Education Technology program
• Dave Wish: Little Kids Rock CEO

In this one hour session, we'll be discussing the following three themes:

Rethinking Music Education’s core values: 

• What are some the key ways educators, administrators and foundations are rethinking what music education represents within the educational systems? (examples: STEM vs STEAM, treating music as a language not a skill, catalyst for learning creativity and collaborative skills etc.)  
• Does this translate to preparing students for the creative, global and personalized economy that is more likely to a bigger part of the economy?
• What are the implications for arts education overall?

Change: 

• What is happening that is transformational within the practices of music education?  
• What are some of the important actual initiatives that are taking place in schools and elsewhere? 
• Are these new approaches serving, students, educators, musicians and the music industry better than the traditional systems in place today?
• What are some of the key things you see in the "future" impacting music education?

The Role of Technology: 

• What are some of the important developments in technology as applied to music education to:

1. better educate current and future music makers;
2. create music;
3. market and distribute music. 

•  Is there a technology “renaissance” happening music education?
• What are some of the key initiatives needed to better integrate music ed tech into the hands of students?

Upcoming collab: Fabrizio Cammarata

This September, I'll be headed to Palermo, Sicily to work with singer/songwriter Fabrizio Cammarata on his new album. We met a few years back on my first trip to Palermo and he and I have stayed in loose touch since then.

I'll be bringing some flutes, 1-2 one, some percussion and a few gizmos and we'll see what we come up with.

I am very excited to get back to Sicily. I was able to make a week-long trip after Questlove's Afro-Picks back in 2011. I spent two nights in a grimy hostel in Catania, then took the train across the north side of the island to Palermo, where I met up with Christoph Storbeck, Fabrizio's manager. I spent four or five days there getting to know the town and meeting some musicians and getting lost in the ancient delicious weirdness of Palermo.