Fall is here - busy, busy, busy!

Greetings all!

I hope the start of the new school year is treating everyone well! I know it's been a busy fall so far here in New York!

I'm excited to get underway once again this year with the Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra! The second week of auditions are this weekend October 13th and the season kicks off promptly October 20th! This is a free program for students in middle and high school - please send interested students our way! It's an amazing opportunity to perform each week at the Jazz Standard! Not to mention all of the amazing guest artists David O'Rourke brings in!

This fall has also given me the opportunity to share the music from my January release Exposition with Arizona! I will be at the Nash in Phoenix on Saturday October 26th, giving a master class the day before at Arizona state university, and on Sunday I'll be a guest of the Tucson Jazz Institute! Can't wait for these performances!

Additionally I'll be able to present my own groups in the coming months here in New York! November 3rd we return to The National for "The National Sessions", and my trio with Jimmy Macbride and Clovis Nicolas will be back at the Bar Next Door on December 2nd!

The Institute for Creative Music makes it's return to Montana this November thanks to another grant award from the plum creek foundation, from the 17th - 24th, this time in Missoula! The week prior, November 11-16th the Ifcm will be I residence in Buffalo and Rochester. Really looking forward to expanding on the programming we began last year!

Whew! And last but not least I am excited to share with you all that I am a video blogger for the new website by the Eastman school of Music's Institute for Music Leadership, polyphonic.org.  We are three posts in so far, and can't wait to continue this collaboration! You can check out the videos at polyphonic.org and by subscribing to my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/nickfinzer

A lot of news to share! And more to come I'm sure!

Thanks for supporting the music, looking forward to seeing some of you out at some gigs!

Until next time,

             -  Nick

Reflections from Trombonanza 2013

Two weeks ago (Aug 5 - 10th, 2013) I spent some time in Santa Fe, Argentina as a guest artist of the Trombonanza Festival. Trombonanza is in its 14th year and is run by an incredible visionary trombonist named Ruben Carughi. His festival is truly changing the low brass landscape of Argentina, and the entire continent of South America. The festival is an immersive experience where the participants and faculty engage in masterclasses, workshops, rehearsals and performances each day. We spent the days chatting, playing and learning from each other. It was such an inspiring experience to see all these passionate people eager to learn about music and the trombone - one young man even traveled five days by bus to be there! 

I was lucky enough to have twenty three students who had decided to take the "jazz/popular music" track. These guys were in for it! My spanish was quite rusty (which I later discovered was pretty much comparable to the language skills of a three year old) and I had never taught through a translator before - a new challenge for sure! I never realized how often we speak in metaphor, slang, etc., that doesn't really have a direct translation to another language (not to mention jokes...). But I am truly thankful for the people who volunteered to help translate for me! (Muchas gracias Alex, Pablo, Heini, Jonah, et al!) 

We spent our time talking about trombone technique, sound development, musical concept development, learning about how to navigate improvising over harmony, listening to music, and playing together. The jazz group worked really hard to get together two arrangements for the participant concert on Thursday - Horace Silver's "Song for my Father" and Hoagy Carmichael's classic "Stardust" (not to mention the time we spent playing probably my favorite arrangement for trombone ensemble - Slide Hampton's arrangement of "Lament" by JJ Johnson). 

Outside of the teaching, there was no short of inspiration from the other faculty members, I mean wow - sometimes I forget the realm of sonic possibilities that the trombone has. From such power to such beauty, what a great instrument. These guys were all masters of their craft, something I won't forget and will inspire me to get back in the shed starting yesterday! You can check out the Trombonanza website at www.trombonanza.com.ar to see the list of all the faculty. Thank you all!!! 

During the week I had the chance to perform twice - once with a small group of local Santa Fe musicians where we played music from my January '13 release "Exposition" (if you don't have a copy yet, you can get it on iTunes, CD Baby, and Amazon!). And the second performance was the conclusory concert of Trombonanza with the Santa Fe Jazz Ensemble (big band) - we played three original big band arrangements of mine! It was thrilling to get the chance to perform my own big band charts, all three of which hadn't been performed yet. We also played one of my favorite trombonists' original - JJ's "Say When". The concert was an absolute blast! 

I think the most unexpected part of the week occurred when during the whole group rehearsal (yes, 150 participants - trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, and tubas), Ruben handed me a score to an arrangement of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" (thanks Conrad Herwig for the arrangement!) and said "OK you're up" and I conducted the mass ensemble! WOW - now THAT is a lot of brass. Having to play over the whole ensemble, I was immediately thankful for the time I spent with Wycliffe Gordon - learning how to belt out over such a big group! 

Full of twists and turns, this week at Trombonanza is one that I won't soon forget. From the first day to the last, everyone was eager and open to learning new things, and working hard. I feel lucky to have met everyone there, and to have had the chance to experience the trombone in a new way. Thank you to Ruben and Heini for the invitation, I can only hope to come back again to see how this festival has continued to evolve and flourish!

Until then, I'll be in the practice room playing long tones! 

Ciao!

- Nick

New services!

Greetings from NYC!

I'm excited to say that I've recently partnered with Zaarly.com to offer my services to the New York community! You can check them out here, at my Zaarly.com storefront! I hope to see you all soon. Heading to Argentina this Saturday, looking forward to working with all the musicians at Trombonanza 2013!


- Nick

Summer!

Summer has arrived here in NYC in full force, and it's been an exciting first few weeks for me.

I spent two weeks in West Palm Beach Florida with Juilliard Jazz teaching at their Summer Jazz Camp at the Oxbridge Academy. It's always inspiring to spend time with enthusiastic young musicians who want to learn about jazz! Thanks to Mr. Cleve Maloon and Oxbridge Academy for being such great hosts! Hope to make it back to work with the students again next summer!

The following week brought two performances at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, it was great to make it back to perform for the hometown crowd!

As for the coming weeks, I'll be back at the Bar Next Door with my trio on Monday July 22nd featuring Clovis Nicolas and Bryan Carter - 630PM. Tuesday July 30th at Smalls with Lucas Pino's No Net Nonet - 10PM.

I'm very excited to be making my first trip to Argentina for the Trombonanza festival in Santa Fe! Looking forward to working with trombonists from all over the world!

Back at the Bar Next Door on Monday August 29th - 630PM!

Hope to see you around!

 - Nick

Miami - May 2013

What a whirlwind three day trip to Miami! And it was a great few days. A great hit at the Van Dyke Cafe thanks to the musicians who put in the time to learn my music! THANK YOU Mike Piolet, Alex Weitz, Nick Hetko and Gary Thomas. 

Had a GREAT time working with some VERY talented students at three Miami area high schools: New World School of the Arts, South Dade High School, and closed out the trip at Michael Krop High School. Thanks to all involved in bringing me in to work with the students, I had a blast and I think the students learned a few things, too!

We closed out the three day run with a great performance at Avenue D Jazz. Always fun to have an opportunity to play my music with new musicians, and especially to be able to hear the music evolve through multiple performances. 

Hope to be back to Miami and to perform soon! I'll be back in South Florida for two weeks in June to teach at the Juilliard Jazz Workshop at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach. 

Next stop for the band with the music from Exposition: Sunday, June 2nd at Twins Jazz in Washington DC. See you there!

 - Nick

Exposition Continued - Florida and Washington DC!

Happy Easter All -

Just wanted to take a moment to share some upcoming events! April and May (and June!) are shaping up to be quite eventful - hope to see you out and about!

April 7th - Nick Finzer 5tet at The National 6-10PM  ** Free!
April 18th - Nick Finzer Trio (featuring Dave Baron and Carmen Intorre) at the Bar Next Door Emerging Artist Series  630PM ** Free!

May 1 - Van Dyke Cafe - Miami Beach, FL
May 3 - Avenue D Jazz - Miami, FL
Workshops at South Dade High School, New World School for the Arts, and others.

May 14th, 15th and 19th - Jazz Standard with Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project!


Looking Further into the future...

June 2nd - NF 5tet at Twins Jazz - Washington, DC
June 5th - NF Trio at Bar Next Door Emerging Artist Series 630PM
June 9th - 22nd Teaching at Juilliard Jazz Camp at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, FL.
June 25th - NF Trio at Rochester International Jazz Festival - Rochester, NY

Stay tuned here on the website for more dates, and follow me on twitter and instagram @nickfinzer to keep up to date! If you haven't picked up your copy of Exposition yet, please do so at Amazon, iTunes, or CD Baby!

Have a great Spring!

- Nick

Exposition - Continued...

Hey All!

I'm excited to say that since Exposition's release back on January 22nd, it has been in the top 50 of the JazzWeek charts for the past five consecutive weeks! Mitchell Feldman of MFA has been hard at work spreading the good word about my release, and I'm very glad for the results.

In other news, I recorded an interview with Joe Dimino of Neon Jazz radio in Kansas City two weeks ago! Really enjoyed talking to Joe about Exposition, you can check it out here.

Moving forward I am pleased to have three upcoming dates to celebrate the music from Exposition!

First is next Sunday - March 24 at ShapeShifter Lab at 7PM on a double bill with Lucas Pino and his No Net Nonet. More details HERE.

April 7th will bring my group back to The National for their National Sessions for the first time since the album release show at the beginning of February. We'll play 6-10PM and it is free! (50th and Lexington in Manhattan)

Third is another exciting gig, my first gig at the Bar Next Door in the Village. I'll be performing as part of the Emerging Artist Series on Thursday April 18th - 630PM!

Thanks again for your continued support! Hope to see you at one of the upcoming gigs!

 - Nick

It has already been a MONTH!

Wow! Already a month has gone by since the release of Exposition! January 22nd was the official release date and here we are at the end of February already. What a whirlwind of activity. I will try and give a little bit of recap here about the various events that took place celebrating Exposition's release!

Radio Play:
Thanks to Mitchell Feldman of MFA, Exposition is up to #27 on the JazzWeek charts! It has been on JazzWeek for the last three weeks including as a Top Add prior to breaking into the top 50. In addition, Exposition was featured for two weeks in the CMJ jazz charts! Lots of great radio play happening, I'm looking forward to even more in the coming weeks.

NYC Release Party:
Thanks to The National and everyone involved with Exposition's NYC Release Party! There was a great turnout, it was great to see so many friendly faces in the audience. We'll be back at the National for Round 2 on April 7th. Thanks to Lucas, Samora, Alex, Dave and Jimmy for bringing their fantastic musicianship to the performance!

Rochester Release:
Now this was exciting, too! The Rochester release of Exposition featured two parts: first an hour set at Rochester's jazz station www.jaz901.org, and then set two at Lovincup! It was great to be able to play the tunes a few times with the guys and see where we could take the music. The surprise of the night was seeing my long time mentor, Wycliffe Gordon in attendance! Mr. Gordon and I played a concert out at my old middle school in Hilton, NY on Friday 2/15 just a few days later. Thanks Wycliffe! And an even bigger thank you to the guys in that band: Chris, Danny, Gabe, and Dave!

More news:
Now that we've officially launched the CD, we'll be having another night here in New York City to share the music. My sextet will be performing at Shapeshifter Labs in Brooklyn on Sunday March 24th. That set will start at 7PM and will feature all the guys from the record (Lucas Pino, Alex Wintz, Dave Baron, Samora Pinderhughes, and Jimmy Macbride). We'll be co-billing that night with Lucas' No Net Net, a collaboration not to be missed!

Just prior to that I am VERY excited to be participating in the 2013 Neshaminy High School Jazz Festival outside of Philadelphia on Friday March 22nd! It will be great to work with some passionate young students as a guest clinician there. I am really looking forward to this one.

In April my trio with Carmen Intorre on drums and Dave Baron on bass will make its debut at the Bar Next Door as a part of their Emerging Artists Series. We'll be playing some brand new arrangements for this gig on April 18th! Be sure to keep on eye on my calendar for more upcoming engagements.

And lastly, if you haven't gotten a copy of Exposition yet you can pick it up right HERE or download it in just about no time RIGHT HERE!

Thanks for your continued support! Can't wait to see you again soon.

- Nick

Exposition Released Today!

Nick's Debut Album Exposition is Released Today!

Greetings Friends, Fans, and Family,

Happy New Year! I hope your year is off to a great start. Things are picking up for me here in New York, and today is especially exciting. Today marks the release of my first album as a leader, Exposition. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out, and I hope you all will be too.

The band features some great colleagues that I attended The Juilliard School with:
Lucas Pino - Tenor Saxophone
Alex Wintz - Guitar
Samora Pinderhughes - Piano
Dave Baron - Bass
Jimmy Macbride - Drums

This release marks the culmination of this project which started in April of 2012 with a Kickstarter campaign. Thank you again, to all of the people who backed the project! The success of that Kickstarter campaign really got the ball rolling. Thank you backers! There is a great Video Preview of Exposition by Marie LeClaire on YouTube HERE.

Starting today, you will be able to find Exposition for sale online at CDBaby.com, iTunes, Amazon, and some limited edition copies for sale through the online store on my website. It will also be available to stream on services like Pandora and Spotify. Please visit my website at www.nickfinzermusic.com for links to these retailers.

I will be celebrating the release of Exposition with two official CD release events. Here in NYC it will be held Sunday, February 10th at The National, and a two part CD Release event in Rochester on Wednesday February 13th. See the listing information below:

NYC Release:

Sunday, February 10th, 2013
The National (50th St and Lexington Ave)
Sets at 7 & 830PM
No Cover Charge or Minimum

Rochester Release:

Part I
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
Live Radio Broadcast at Jazz 90.1 FM (Online stream available worldwide at www.jazz901.org)
7 - 8PM
Featuring compositions commissioned through Exposition's Kickstarter Campaign. 

Part II
930PM
Lovin' Cup
300 Park Pointe Dr.
Rochester, NY 14623
$5 Cover

I certainly hope you might be able to join us for one of these performances! You can connect to the official facebook event pages by clicking HERE for NYC or HERE for ROCHESTER. 

New Gigs of Note:
Sunday March 24th at Shapeshifter Lab - Double Bill with Lucas Pino's No Net Nonet
Thursday April 11th at Bar Next Door Emerging Artist Series - with Dave Baron and Jimmy Macbride


Thank you all for taking the time to read this note, and for your continued interest in me and my music! 

Best wishes for a prosperous 2013!

- Nick

One Week Until Exposition is Released!

Greetings All!

Exposition will be released next week on 1.22.13! Please check back here at www.nickfinzermusic.com to purchase my debut album on Tuesday, January 22nd!

Can't wait to share this music with you all!

Best,

Nick