June 5-7 at the Jazz Standard with Dr. Lonnie Smith. Buy tickets here!

June 9th at Smalls and then Mexico tour June 10-15 with Joe Sanders Group featuring Rodney Green and Eden Ladin

June 18th guest artist in Charlotte, NC at the JazzArts Initiative Summer Workshop

June 20th I’ll be playing for the first time at a great venue in Durham called the Sharp 9 Gallery Jazz Club with special guest Alan Ferber on trombone

Then June 21st I’m happy to be bringing Double-Wide to the Poplar Knight Spot in Aberdeen, NC. Moore County!

On June 24th I’ll be at Rockwood 3 with an incredible band featuring Kevin Hays on piano, Kendrick Scott on drums, and Matt Penman on bass. One set at 7pm. Tickets here.

Then June 26-28 I’ll be at Smoke with Helen Sung’s group featuring Reuben Rogers on bass and Donald Edwards on drums.

Our May residency with Double-Wide starts this Wednesday the 13th at Bar LunAtico in Bed Stuy. This week’s incarnation of Double-Wide features Eric Miller on trombone, Glenn Patscha on organ/piano, Jon Lampley on sousaphone, and Joe Dyson playing drums. Sets start at 8:30pm. Joining us on May 20th will be trombonist Alan Ferber. Kenny Bentley will hold down the sousaphone chair on the 20th and 27th. We might even have secret copies of the new record available – just saying…

My friends are running this great organization in Charlotte, NC, and I’m proud to be the guest artist for this year’s summer workshop. For more information check out The Jazz Arts Music Camp.

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s a little recap of all the records I played on as a sideman that came out last year. Of course MOBRO came out last May, as well. 2014 was a pretty good year for recording as it turns out.

Otis Brown – “The Thought Of You”
Miguel Zenon – “Identities Are Changeable”
Fabio Gouvea – “Escolha”
Emilio Solla Y La Inestable De Brooklyn – “Second Half” (Nominated for a Grammy!)
Edward Simon – “Venezuelan Suite” (bass clarinet only)
Craig Brenan – “Autonomic Robots”
Madison Rast – “Madison Rast Quintet”
Brian Charette – “The Question That Drives Us” (bass clarinet only)
Anne Mette Iversen and Double Life – “So Many Roads”
Helen Sung – “Anthem For A New Day” (very small cameo appearance on bass clarinet)
The Holmes Brothers – “Brotherhood”
Alon Nechushtan – “Venture Bound”
Dara Tucker – “The Sun Season”

Honored to be in such distinguished company: http://www.wonderingsound.com/list/best-jazz-albums-of-2014/

http://www.birdistheworm.com/john-ellis-andy-bragen-mobro/

Just a few days ago I posted a MOBRO sampler on Soundcloud. If you haven’t listened yet, it just got a lot easier! This 15-minute sampler gives an overview of the journey, and you can read the program notes in the description. Don’t forget to buy a copy if you like what you hear.

I’m thrilled to be presenting some new music next weekend at Smalls with a new group featuring Kevin Hays, Mike Moreno, Matt Clohesy and Kendrick Scott. We’ll mostly be playing material composed during my time as a resident at the 18th St Arts Center in Santa Monica, where I was the 2014 Make Jazz Fellow. Two sets starting at 10:30pm.

I’m so honored to have been a part of “The Thought Of You”, Otis Brown III’s new release on Blue Note/Revive. Otis is an old friend from back in the New School days, and this record is like a family reunion of sorts. Pick up your copy here.

I had a great conversation with my friend Leo Sidran the other day for his podcast called The Third Story. You can listen here. Enjoy!