Greetings!

I wanted to update you on my recent activities and - as always - also encourage you to feel free to reach out to me if you ever need assistance with any of your projects in my capacity as arranger/composer/producer, performer or educator. My fingers are crossed that the COVID light is at the increasing "near-end of the tunnel", and looking forward to getting out bit by bit back into the “real world”, especially as performer. In the meantime, some recent activities below I wanted to share:
“D.D.’s Bounce” and “Sophisticated Lady” with the
Brooklyn College Big Band

I’ve enjoyed resuming my duties of late directing the Brooklyn College Big Band (this semester online). Most recently we did a remotely recorded “virtual orchestra” version of my composition “D.D.’s Bounce” (with the parts tracked separately and then edited together - both audio and video-wise - by me after the fact). Also featured on the track are guests and longtime colleagues Jay Rodriguez on soprano sax, Tony Lewis on drums and Mark Peterson on bass. You can watch it below:
We also recorded an adaptation I did of Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” featuring graduating Masters student vocalist Samantha Burke:
A quick related note: Brooklyn College has been ranked #1 U.S. News & World Report for campus ethnic diversity (a fact about which they have a legitimate source of pride). However, the Conservatory of Music’s full-time faculty has only a single African American faculty member, and its graduate school student body is only 6.5% Black overall (in a campus student body that is otherwise 24% Black). Jazz (and particularly Global Jazz) can potentially help to overcome these inequities (and I've been trying even just as an Adjunct, especially by embracing diverse guest artists from the surrounding communities with the big band), but without proper support it’s been an uphill battle. I therefore encourage everyone to be as outspoken as they can about the need for greater jazz representation at the Conservatory, and I will in the meantime continue to try and do my job as best as I can (as I've always tried to do)...

On to other news!:
Arrangement for singer/songwriter Jewel as part of Today Show's "Tomorrow's Voices" series

I was excited recently to be asked to help arrange and produce the cover song “Follow the Sun” for a special duet between Jewel and an aspiring singer/songwriter named Jasmine Chesbro. You can see the finished song at the end of the following segment that appeared recently on NBC:
Children's T.V. update
An episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog for which I composed all the episode's music ("Clifford's Valentine's Collection") is now streaming on Amazon Prime. I’m also excited to be premiering my first song on Sesame Street later this Spring (more on this soon), and you can see many of my songs currently featured on Esme & Roy (HBO/Sesame Workshop), a series which recently received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Pre-School Program.
Samantha Burke Masters Recital Concert
Finally, I wanted to encourage everyone to check out Brooklyn College graduating student Samantha Burke’s fascinating Graduate Recital (which I helped her with under the umbrella of the services I offer via my business of: http://remotelyrecordedensembles.com ) You can check out the whole thing here (there’s also an index below the video to jump to various pieces), or you can check out the 3 pieces I was pleased to have helped her with (for which I did arranging, performing, and audio & video editing) by clicking/tapping on the images, below: