Spring Update: Quintet+1 at the Sound Room, Bryan Bowman Album, Big Bands

Hello Folks! I wanted to let you know about some exciting musical stuff coming up that I'm glad to be a part of.Firstly, the Ian Carey Quintet+1's next album, Interview Music, was recorded this past weekend at the legendary Fantasy Studios in Berkeley (in the same room as "Don't Stop Believin'", if you can believe that). The band put a herculean effort into a very long day (and my pain in the @#$ compositions) and I couldn't be happier with the result. The album is on track for a fall release.Speaking of which: the Quintet+1 (Kasey Knudsen, alto sax; Sheldon Brown, bass clarinet; Adam Shulman, piano; Fred Randolph, bass; Jon Arkin, drums; and me) will be returning next month to the great downtown Oakland venue The Sound Room. The show is on Saturday, May 16th, so please save the date for what should be a very exciting show.I'm also excited about a new album I was fortunate to record with the great local drummer and composer Bryan Bowman and his quintet (with saxophonist Bob Kenmotsu, pianist Matt Clark and bassist Doug Miller). The album, titled Like Minds, features many of Bryan's beautiful compositions. The CD release show for the album will be held Thursday, May 7 at 8pm at Bird & Beckett Books in SF.I've also been playing quite a bit with two very interesting big bands, both dedicated to original arrangements--which is especially great since just a couple of years ago the Bay Area seemed to be becoming a big band dead zone.  The first is guitarist/composer Tony Corman's Morchestra, which will be playing this Friday, April 24 at 8pm at the California Jazz Conservatory (aka the Jazzschool) in Berkeley. In addition to Tony's beautiful charts, we'll be joined by a special guest vocalist, the great Ed Reed.The other big band is the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra (led by trumpeter/composer Erik Jekabson), which features a who's who of local heavies and only performs arrangements written by members of the group. I was lucky enough to play on several tunes of their upcoming album Cheap Rent and have been playing fairly often with the group (and they've been gracious enough to play one of my compositions). I'll be joining them at their regular (free!) Sunday night residency at Doc's Lab in SF on the following Sundays: 4/26, 5/3. 5/24, 6/7, 6/21 (all shows from 6:30-9pm).And later on in the summer, I'm excited to be playing for the first time with one of my compositional and bandleading idols, Nathan Clevenger, so stay tuned for details.Finally, I'm planning on expanding both my musical instruction and graphic design business in the next year, so please don't hesitate to reach out if you know someone interested in trumpet, improvisation, or composition lessons, or who is in need of graphic design assistance.Thanks and hope to see you at a show soon!