Born and raised in San Francisco, now based in NYC, Gabriel showcases a catalogue of original music, jazz standards, and arrangements of works by Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Cedar Walton, and Keith Jarrett. Gabriel honors the history of these master pianists with performances that are both soulful and hard-hitting. You’ll find him performing almost every night with distinguished jazz musicians at household New York City jazz venues including The Django, Ornithology, The Harlem Jazz Museum, Chelsea Table and Stage, Cellar Dog, and more.
Ben is a unique jazz guitarist. Fluent in the classic jazz tradition of Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, and George Benson, Ben also draws from the rich Brazilian guitar tradition of Baden Powell, Raphael Rabello and Joao Gilberto. Ben combines standard jazz plectrum technique, with classical fingerstyle, to create a wide range of sounds and textures.
Led by veteran trumpeter Simon Wettenhall and Grammy winning pianist Conal Fowkes, The Seneca Serenaders are a New Orleans style Jazz band which for decades have been Woody Allen’s band of choice for his movies, concert tours and weekly pertormances.
The band have appeared on all the premiere concert stages of Europe and the United States. Band members have appeared in and provided music for Woody Allen movies including: Wild Man Blues, Sweet and Lowdown, Midnight in Paris, Blue Jasmine, Cafe Society, Magic In The Moonlight, and A Rainy Day In New York.
Their driving sound is a testament to the ongoing relevance of New Orleans Jazz and they have an international fan base to prove it. Loved by critics and jazz aficionados alike, they have attracted Jazz icons like Chick Corea, Marian McPartland, Diana Krall and many others who sat in with the band during its twenty year residency at the Cafe Carlyle.
Rahul Shah is a saxophonist and a woodwind doubler from Birmingham, Alabama. Having
graduated in May of 2022 from Eastman School of Music, he is currently pursuing his graduate
degree in Jazz Performance, as a student of Vincent Herring, at the Manhattan School of Music.
Rahul has participated in programs such as the award-winning First Edition Jazz Band, who have
competed in competitions such as the Savannah Swing Central competition and Essentially
Ellington.
Rahul has had the opportunity to play alongside distinguished musicians such as John Clayton,
Clay Jenkins, and Jeff Cambell just to name a few. He has studied with his role models such as
Vincent Herring, Charles Pillow, Gary Versace, Melissa Aldana, Sam Dillon, Bill Dobbins,
Wycliffe Gordon, Marcus Printup, amongst others.
Hot Hand Band is a Brooklyn-Based multi-genre brass band formed in 2016. They honed their chops around a few restaurant/bar gigs and residencies around New York City and have been a staple of the NYC brass band scene ever since. Hot Hand Band plays party and dance music from New Orleans jazz to soul, funk, jazz, hiphop, and everything in between. They have performed all over the globe, from Brooklyn beer gardens to private events overseas to big stages in front of thousands of people.
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AMOS ROSE is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. He is a founding member of Mama Juke, a roots rock and country blues band. He also performs hot jazz and Brazilian music under his own name and as a sideman with numerous bands around the city.
Amos has performed in various renowned venues, such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Blue Note Jazz Festival, B.B. King’s Blues Club, the Iridium Jazz Club, the 92nd Street YMCA, the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian Museum, Rockwood Music Hall, Webster Hall, the Manderley Bar at the McKittrick Hotel, The Gansevoort Park Ave Rooftop, the St. Regis Hotel., and many more.
Amos Rose has had the pleasure of collaborating with Tatiana Eva-Marie, Cyrille Aimee, Sasha Masakowski, Keita Ogawa, Clarice Assad, Dominic Farinacci, Matt Munisteri, Sam Dillon, Bernard Purdie, Christine Cherry, Spiral Jetty Club, the Ben Kogan Band, Joanna Sternberg, Megg Farrell, and Adrian DiMatteo.
“I am music” was one of April’s first proclamations as a very young child and it holds true to this day. Since singing her first notes as a four-year-old, inspired by none other than the Disney Princess movies, her journey toward growing as a musician began. In fact, April has spent the majority of her life performing and competing in the arts.
NYC-based jazz vocalist with the curly red hair from Toledo, Ohio, April Varner is a name you won’t soon forget. She began taking voice lessons at the University of Toledo as a classical vocalist at age 8 and began studying piano from her grandmother at age 6. No stranger to the stage, April began displaying vocal, musical theatre, drama, and piano talents at the local, regional, national, and international levels at a young age. This includes being a guest vocalist at the Toledo Symphony Orchestra Pops Concert, a 2-time All-National Honors Ensemble member in Nashville, TN, and a National Finalist at the Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Academy in Carmel, IN. By age 16, April had made her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Hall following a first-place award by the American Protégé International Vocal Competition, and had traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland as part of a drama group to share the stage with world actors at the renowned Edinburgh Arts Fringe Festival.
April began her musical transition into jazz after discovering a deep passion for it following her freshman year at Indiana University. April soon after became the director of the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, ResoluSHion, within the Grammy-nominated show choir, The Singing Hoosiers. During her final semester at IU, April was the vocalist in the Du Vido Septet, a Brazilian Jazz Ensemble led by Brazilian composer, arranger and pianist, Guilherme Ribeiro. The group was chosen as one of three finalists within the famed Detroit Jazz Festival’s Collegiate Combo Competition. In the spring of 2020, April graduated with her undergraduate degree in Jazz Studies (Voice).
At the age of 27, April has immersed herself deeply into the jazz tradition and has performed/studied with a multitude of legendary artists and jazz luminaries such as Tierney Sutton, Russell Malone, Sachal Vasandani, Jane Monheit, Kurt Elling, Walter Smith III and others.
April has performed/will be performing at some of the most notable venues in the Northeast, such as Chris’s Jazz Cafe (Philadelphia), Blues Alley (Washington D.C), Con Alma (Pittsburgh), 54 Below (NYC), Birdland Jazz Club (NYC, sold out debut show), and Mezzrow Jazz Club (NYC, sold out debut show). She also recently made her International Debut, headlining the Longjumeau Jazz Festival (Longjumeau, France) in celebration of the great Ella Fitzgerald, along with two full shows at Sunset Sunside in Paris. In October, April will be an invited featured artist in the Jazz For All Ages Festival (Hilton Head, SC), alongside some of the most notable figures in jazz, such as Kurt Elling, Catherine Russell, John Pizzarelli and Emmet Cohen.
She was awarded the 2023 Winner of the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition and most recently received a 2024 Honorable Mention Award in the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Competition. She excitedly just released her debut full-length album, entitled “April by April Varner”, on Cellar Live Record Label. This genre-busting collection of all April-titled songs was produced by Grammy-Award winning drummer, producer and educator, Ulysses Owens Jr.
“he can focus the intensity in a tune as well as any pianist in mainstream jazz.”
– New York Times
“Weiss’ shrewd writing and arranging skills are as clearly in view as his sleek piano work”
– The New Yorker
“An energy and irrepressible inventiveness… The nimbleness of Weiss’ technique was
matched by the intellectual heft of his ideas.” – Chicago Tribune
“Weiss’ compositions take on different shapes, great complexity and fresh perspectives”
– Washington Post
“One of the most fluent and flexible pianists of his generation.” – BMI Music World
“Combines the wonder of spontaneity with a workmanlike acknowledgment of his
materials: art and craft in delightful balance.” – Chicago Reader
You can tell a lot about a musician by the company he keeps. The star-studded resume
that pianist and composer Michael Weiss has quietly assembled over the past 40 years
proves that some of the greatest names in jazz have long considered Weiss one of the best
in the business. Since arriving in New York in 1982, the Dallas native has forged a
formidable career working in the bands of jazz legends Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer,
Benny Golson, Slide Hampton, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath and the Heath Brothers,
George Coleman, Charles McPherson, Jon Hendricks, Lou Donaldson, Junior Cook/Bill
Hardman Quintet, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and Mingus Epitaph Orchestra. Weiss’
fifteen year association with Griffin, yielded four recordings and annual tours in the USA
and around the world. He has also performed with Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Clark
Terry, Clifford Jordan, Gary Bartz, Phil Woods, Pepper Adams, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter,
David Newman, Gerry Mulligan, Nancy Wilson, Randy Brecker, Tom Harrell, Gerry
Mulligan, Wynton Marsalis, and numerous other jazz greats.
As a band leader, Weiss has headlined at the Village Vanguard, Detroit Jazz Festival,
Detroit Symphony Hall, Smithsonian Institution, and major New York venues such as the
Blue Note, Jazz Standard, Birdland, Bradley’s, Iridium, Sweet Basil, Smoke and Merkin
Concert Hall. Reviewing his Vanguard debut, the New York Times wrote that Weiss
“demonstrated a strong sense of leadership and organization” exhibiting “sensitivity and
logic, along with crisp control.” Television appearances include CBS-TV’s Nightwatch
and PBS’ Live From Lincoln Center: The City of Jazz. NPR radio appearances include
PianoJazz with Marion McPartland, Making the Music with Wynton Marsalis, Jazzset, and
the Jazz Piano Christmas Special. Weiss was the 1989 second prizewinner in the
Thelonious Monk Institute’s International Piano Competition.
Weiss has also been recognized for his writing. He was the grand prize winner of the
2000 BMI/Thelonious Monk Institute’s Composition Competition presented to him by
Wayne Shorter, and is a two-time Chamber Music America New Works grant recipient.
Weiss’ compositions reveal eclectic influences from the worlds of jazz, 20th Century
classical and popular music. Weiss focuses on extended forms, thematic development and
attention to detail.
In 2022 Weiss celebrates the release of his fifth recording as a leader, Persistence (Cellar
Live). His previous recordings on the CrissCross, SteepleChase, DIW and Sintra labels
have been hailed by the critics:
“Weiss has a rich palette of composing devices at his command” – Downbeat
“Weiss’ original compositions conjured a distinct world of sound, a testament to the
nature of Weiss’ imagination.” – Chicago Tribune
“Warmth, integrity and above all, originality. Weiss’ originals are formful and dynamic
enough to sound as if they were standards of the genre.” – JazzTimes
“the songs simply smoke” – Detroit Free Press
“Weiss is a vital talent with something important to say” – All About Jazz
“About as close to perfection as a recording can get….If there is truly justice in our
world, this should be a Grammy nominee.” – Jazz Improv
“A prodigious bop-and-beyond pianist and composer…. consummate musicianship and
alluring improvisations” – The Star Ledger
“This music lives and breathes freshness and exhilarating originality. The individual
selections are strong and attractive enough, to still be played as jazz vehicles in 10, 20,
or even 50 year’s time.” – Jazz Journal
“a masterwork. Soul Journey is terrific. The work is majestic, brash and dynamic
throughout.” – Jazzwax.com
As a sideman Weiss appears on recordings of Johnny Griffin, Frank Wess, Charles
McPherson, Steve Grossman, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Ronnie Cuber, Louis Smith,
Dick Oatts, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and others.
Weiss is deeply committed to jazz education. He has held faculty positions at Indiana
University, Hartt College of Music, Queens College. In master classes and residencies
throughout the world Weiss aims to relay his bandstand experience through a host of
topics that directly address the standards and performance practices required of a
professional jazz musician.
Visit www.michaelweiss.info
TrumpeterDanny Tobias brings beautiful swing and individuality to his jazz performances.
Danny has enjoyed performing and recording with artists such as Warren Vaché, Scott Robinson, RossanoSportiello, Mark Shane, Vince Giordano, David Ostwald, Gordon Webster, Terry Waldo, Jon-Erik Kellso, Kevin Dorn, the Midiri Brothers, and Marty Grosz. He can be seen performingat Birdland,Mezzrow, the Ear Inn, and Zinc Bar, and at jazz festivals/parties across the USA and Canada.
Danny has recorded a number of albums as a leader. His most recent album “Silver Linings” was recorded on Ride Symbol Records.
Danny also mentors musicians of all ages in person, or remotely.
