Category: Trumpet

After Hours featuring Riley Mulherkar, air date Nov. 20, 2024

On By Charles BinghamIn Arranger, Band leader, composer, educator, Featured guest, TrumpetLeave a comment

Join me at 9 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2024, for the next edition of After Hours on KRBD Rainbird Radio as I’m joined in conversation with jazz trumpet player Riley Mulherkar.

Riley has been recognized as a “smart young trumpet player” by The New York Times, praised by The Wall Street Journal as a “youngster to keep an eye on,” and is a 2020 recipient of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award for his work as “an original bandleader, composer, arranger, educator, community activist and advocate for jazz and the arts.”

Riley is best known as a founding member of The Westerlies, a New York-based brass quartet of (as the name implies) West Coast expats who play a mix of jazz, modern classical and folk compositions, high on tunefulness. This deep admiration for the American songbook can also be heard all over Riley, the solo debut by the 32 year-old Mulherkar.

But love of song is only half of the album’s primary pull. The other is the sonically modern setting for Mulherkar’s vulnerable, melodious interpretation of this rich tradition, a sound design shaped by producers Rafiq Bhatia and Chris Pattishall. Enveloping Mulherkar within a series of textured, intricately-crafted spaces, Bhatia and Pattishall train a cinematographer’s lens on the continuum of great old songs, as well as new Mulherkar pieces which fit right in. It’s a radically bold audio framework for the emotional pronouncements of Riley’s horn.

Click this link to go to Riley’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Ron Wilkins, air date Nov. 24, 2021

On By Charles BinghamIn Band leader, educator, Euphonium, Featured guest, Low brass, Songwriter, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for After Hours Alaska at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 24, on KRBD public radio in Ketchikan, Alaska, as I’m joined in conversation with New York-based musician Ron Wilkins.

Ron has been performing on tenor and bass trombones, euphonium, tuba, bass trumpet, and vocals for over forty years. He has performed at the highest levels touring around the world with his own groups, as well as with other premiere artists. Ron also has an extensive background in music education.

Ron is a member of the Birdland Big Band, Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, and runs his own New York City big band, alongside trombonist Rebecca Patterson, which features their writing and includes some of New York City’s premiere musicians.

Click this link to go to Ron’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Dale Curtis, air date Oct. 20, 2021

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, TrumpetLeave a comment

Join me at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 20, with my very special guest trumpet player and Ketchikan’s own, Dale Curtis, on After Hours Alaska on KRBD-Rainbird Radio in Ketchikan, Alaska. This show also will air from 8-10 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 2, on KCAW-Raven Radio in Sitka.

I’ll be featuring his “Bridge to Nowhere” album that features his talented quintet. We will dive into his music education experience and why he thinks it’s vital for kids to have this valuable education today. We will also discuss his professional music career which he has been immersed in from many different angles.

You won’t want to miss this special edition of After Hours on KRBD in Ketchikan, which I like to call the island of unexpected artists.

Click here to visit Dale’s personal profile on Facebook.

After Hours featuring Ingrid Jensen, air date Jan. 20, 2021

On By Charles BinghamIn educator, Featured guest, TrumpetLeave a comment

Join me for the Jan. 20 edition of After Hours on KRBD Rainbird Radio (and later on KSTK and KCAW Raven Radio) as I’m joined in conversation with Canadian trumpet player, Ingrid Jensen.

Born in Vancouver and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Ingrid has been hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1989, she went on to record three highly acclaimed CDs for the ENJA record label, soon becoming one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the global jazz scene.

After a teaching stint in Europe in her early twenties – as the youngest professor in the history of the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria – Ingrid settled in New York City in the mid-1990s where she joined the innovative jazz orchestras of Maria Schneider (1994-2012) and Darcy James Argue (2002-present). More recently, Ingrid has performed with the Grammy-winning Terri-Lyne Carrington and her Mosaic Project, Helen Sung’s Sung with Words project and the highly acclaimed all-star ensemble, Artemis.

Ingrid is a featured soloist on the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra’s Juno-award-winning album, Treelines (2011), and its successor, Habitat (2013). She has performed with a multi-generational cast of jazz legends ranging from Clark Terry to Esperanza Spalding; Ingrid has also performed alongside British R&B artist Corrine Bailey Rae on Saturday Night Live, and recorded with Canadian pop icon Sarah McLachlan. In addition to her busy sideman and featured soloist schedule, Jensen leads her own quintet, quartet and organ trio. Her own bands have garnered glowing reviews and earned her a loyal fan base around the globe.

Jensen is also a dedicated jazz educator, having taught trumpet at the University of Michigan and Peabody Conservatory, performing and lecturing as a guest artist with the Thelonious Monk Institute High School group featuring Herbie Hancock, and performing and teaching at the Centrum Jazz Workshop, The Dave Brubeck Institute, the Banff Centre Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music and the Stanford Jazz Camp and the Geri Allen Jazz Camp for young women. She is currently on faculty at both Purchase College, and is serving as Interim Associate Dean and Director of Jazz Arts at Manhattan School of Music.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Ingrid Jensen, originally broadcast on Jan. 20, 2021. Click here to visit Ingrid’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Bobby Shew, air date Aug. 31, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, TrumpetLeave a comment

Join me for the Aug. 31, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with Grammy-nominated trumpet player Bobby Shew.

Bobby has played with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Woody Herman’s band. He’s also spent time with the groups of Art Pepper, Bud Shank and the Horace Silver Quintet.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Bobby Shew, originally broadcast on Aug. 31, 2020. Click here to visit Bobby’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Arturo Sandoval, air date Aug. 10, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, Piano, Songwriter, TrumpetLeave a comment

Join me for the Aug. 10, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with Cuban-born trumpet player Arturo Sandoval.

Arturo is one of the most dynamic and vivacious live performers of our time, and has been seen by millions at the Oscars, at the Grammy Awards, and the Billboard Awards. Sandoval is a protégé of legendary jazz trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie. He began studying classical trumpet at the age of twelve, but it didn’t take him long to catch the excitement of the jazz world. He has since evolved into one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as a renowned classical artist, pianist and composer.

He has been awarded 10 Grammy Awards, and nominated 19 times and he also has received six Billboard Awards and an Emmy Award. The latter award was for his composing work on the entire underscore of the HBO movie based on his life, “For Love or Country,” that starred Andy Garcia as Sandoval. He was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by Barack Obama.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Arturo Sandoval, originally broadcast on Aug. 10, 2020. Click here to visit Arturo’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Benny Benack III, air date March 2, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, Piano, Trumpet, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the March 2, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with with Benny Benack lll.

Benny has proven to be a rare talent: not only a fiery trumpet player with a stirring command of the post-bop trumpet vernacular in the vein of Kenny Dorham and Blue Mitchell, but also a singer with a sly, mature, naturally expressive delivery in the post-Sinatra mold, performing standards and his own astute songs with a thrilling sense of showmanship. His superb intonation and bracing virtuosity enable him to handle astounding feats of originally composed vocalese (complex solos with written lyrics). And he’s a highly capable pianist as well.

Benny performs widely as a frontman for Postmodern Jukebox, the vintage music collective famed for canny old-school covers of modern pop.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Benny Benack III, originally broadcast on March 2, 2020. Click here to visit Benny’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Bria Skonberg, air date Feb. 10, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, Songwriter, Trumpet, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the Feb. 10, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as  I’m joined in conversation with New York City jazz trumpeter, singer and songwriter Bria Skonberg.

Originally from Canada, Bria is described as “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation” (Wall Street Journal). She recently sang the music of Aretha Franklin alongside Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child, played with U2 at the Apollo, sat in with the Dave Matthews Band, and was a featured guest with Jon Batiste.

A bandleader since her teens, Bria has performed festivals and stages the world over, including New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Montreal Jazz Festival, and more than a hundred more.

In 2016 Bria released her debut LP on Sony Masterworks which won a Canadian JUNO award and made the Top 5 on Billboard jazz charts. A six-time Downbeat Rising Star, further accolades include the jazz at Lincoln Center Swing Award, Best Vocal and Best Trumpet from Hot House Jazz Magazine and Outstanding Jazz Artist at the Bistro Awards.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Bria Skonberg, originally broadcast on Feb. 10, 2020. Click here to visit Bria’s personal website.