Ordinary Poems - Jamie Breiwick and Andrew Trim

My most recent collaboration with Milwaukee-based trumpet Jamie Breiwick. This is a Trumpet and Acoustic Guitar duo of original compositions, and one tune by Thelonius Monk. Here is an excerpt of an interview with Andrew Trim about the collaboration:

“The conversation for the album actually started about 10 years ago when Jamie hit me up while I was still living in Chicago,” Trim recalls. “I had shared a solo guitar recording of ‘Monk’s Mood’ that laid the groundwork for getting to know each other and finding lots of musical common ground. Another big influence is a gorgeous album from 2002 called Heaven by Ron Miles and Bill Frisell. I knew Ron when I was coming up as a guitarist in Denver and studied guitar with Frisell’s old guitar teacher Dale Bruning. We wanted to make something that carried the spirit of that encounter.”

Ordinary Poems is available for purchase at:

https://bsiderecordings.bandcamp.com/album/ordinary-poems

Ordinary Poems is available to stream at:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5A8iMrRPaoEIn6xQIckUpS

Nu Trio - Jamie Breiwick with Tim Ipsen and Tim Daisy

My second collaboration with Jamie Breiwick, also recorded at The Prairie School in Windpoint, WI. Here is an excerpt of a review by Kevin Lynch of Shepherd Express about the track titled “Try to Remember”:

“The trumpeter’s work on piano is particularly surprising and gratifying even if relatively modest on only two tracks of an album of originals. On “Try to Remember,” the piano is brooding, laced with blues baubles and dissonant apertures, what I’d call Paul Bley-esque, with traces of Andrew Hill two-handed combination punches. Both were underappreciated jazz titans and Bley’s austere lyricism greatly influenced Keith Jarrett, among others.”

Nu Trio is available for purchase at:

https://bsiderecordings.bandcamp.com/album/nu-trio

Nu Trio is available for streaming at:

https://open.spotify.com/album/383Xo9zUh7cmBG9F1ZPXHl

Awake Vol. 2 - The Music of Don Cherry was a project by Jamie Breiwick that was engineered, mixed, and mastered by myself. It was recorded at The Prairie School in Racine, Wisconsin in the theater there. The album was received a three and a half star from Downbeat as well as the NYC Jazz Jazz Record. Above are a sample of 2 tracks off the album.

Awake Vol. 2 is available for purchase from Shifting Paradigm Records at:

https://shiftingparadigmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/awake-volume-2-the-music-of-don-cherry

Awake Vol. 2 is available for streaming at:

https://open.spotify.com/album/3dyPNR9SsSpu7JOEiAlBFe

Mandarins Virtual Brass - Prayer of Thanksgiving - 2020

I took all the audio files from the members of the 2020 Mandarins Brass Line playing the Prayer of Thanksgiving that they recorded safely at home, and mixed them together to recreate the feeling of standing in front of a DCI hornline. A great challenge as recordings ranged in quality from iPhone mics to home studios, and getting a cohesive ensemble sound with so many room tones took a great bit of work.

Mandarins Virtual Choir - Year of the Dragon - 2020

A similar project to the Prayer of Thanksgiving, but this included members of the entire Drum Corps. Colorgaurd, drum Majors, Percussionists, and the Brass members got together (virtually) to sing our corps song,”Year of the Dragon” as a world premiere of the vocal arrangement. This project was even more challenging than the Prayer because while most of the members are trained musicians, very few are trained singers. Similar challenges with room tone and varying degrees of microphone and recording quality.