Greetings all!
This summer has been filled with adventures already, including two weeks at BAK Middle School for the Juilliard Jazz residency there, a week on the Queen Mary 2 with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, I graduated from Juilliard with my Masters degree, and recorded my CD of all original material! The summer is only half way through, and there's a bunch of exciting things coming up.
The last two weeks I have led my quintet at a great restaurant on the east side, called The National (inside the Hotel Benjamin). They have started a weekly Sunday music series there called "The National Sessions" with jazz groups performing each week! I'm excited to be a part of the rotation there, look out for more dates there this summer!
This week I'll be off to Nashua, NH for a private event with a band I've worked with for a long time (when I was living in Rochester), the Po Boys Brass Band. Additionally I'll be starting the work of mixing/mastering the CD project!
Most exciting I think is going to be co-leading a quartet with a great friend of mine form here in the city, Lucas Pino, out in his hometown (and where my parents currently live) of Phoenix, AZ. We have four performances lined up over the course of the week we will be there (8/2-8/8) check out the event page over on Facebook, or the calendar widget on the webpage for more detailed info about the performances! The feature performance there will be at JazzinAZ.org 's new venue called The Nash! We are grateful for the support of Joel and the whole organization at JazzinAZ.
Directly after, I'll be headed to Indianapolis for a gig with the great trumpeter Al Chez and his Brothers of Funk big band! We're headlining the official after party for Drum Corps International's 40th reunion there in Indy!
Lastly, I'll be in my hometown of Rochester, NY on Thursday August 16th at Tala Vera for a concert of my original music from the new CD! I hope to see all of my Rochester friends and fellow musicians that night. It's always great to come back to play for the hometown crowd. And during all of this, I'll hopefully get the album completed and sent out to all of the Kickstarter Backers before the summer is up!
Thanks again for all your support! I look forward to seeing you all around soon!
- Nick Finzer
