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Tonight, the Eyal Vilner Big Band returns to The Garage Restaurant, in Greenwich Village, NYC. We play 2 sets between 7 & 10pm. Come on out and experience Eyal’s great arrangements played by some of the finest musicians in the city. It’s gonna be swinging!

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Happy Birthday, Dizzy Gillespie!! We’ll be celebrating Dizzy and his music with Mike Longo’s NY State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, this evening, at the Baha’i Center NYC. Featured guests are Jimmy Owens, Annie Ross and Ira Hawkins. Mike was a long time band mate of Dizzy’s, and we’ll be playing music from the Gillespie Big Band book, including some written by Mike and Jimmy Owens, as well as their more recent compositions, written in tribute. We play one long set at 8pm, after which there will be a screening of a film concert featuring Dizzy Gillespie in his prime. $15 cover ($10 students). Hope to see you there!

Happy Birthday to me – 2014 Edition!

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Today, I celebrated my 40th birthday. It’s been a funny build-up, this year; as much as I didn’t want to dwell on “that number” I’ve found it unavoidable. In the event, I had an extremely pleasant day. I was fortunate to receive some very thoughtful gifts from family and friends, and I had the chance to catch up with many of them on the phone or Skype. I spent some time teaching trumpet lessons, and a little doing some website updates at the computer. My wife and I then had a low-key celebration at home, this evening.

This past year has been one of the best of my life so far. I’m lucky to have been involved in some amazing musical situations, both here in NYC and elsewhere in the world, and have made some great new friends in the process. My teaching studio has continued to expand too and I’m now regularly welcoming new students from around the world, on Skype and also as they visit NYC, as well as many folks from in and around the city. The combination of all of these experiences has allowed me to reach a new level of insight and understanding of my own trumpet playing; I’m developing a much clearer concept of how to get to where I want to be, both with the instrument itself and musically…

These first 40 years have been good. Now it’s time to move forward with renewed focus and drive. Time to see what I can achieve before I turn 41!!