Telluride Jazz Festival

brass queens at the telluride jazz festival

Well, we did it. We Tellurode. We played so many amazing shows over the summer and it all led to this.

After playing one of the most fun shows of the year in Omaha, we flew to Denver for a jam packed day. As soon as we picked up our rental car from the airport, we were on our way to KUVO to record a session for future release. Here we picked up drums from Darcy Shaw, a Denver drummer and friend of Brass Queens. He has a DW kit that sounds as beautiful as it looks!

Darcy’s drum kit at kuvo

From there we headed straight to soundcheck to Cervantes, one of the most famous “jamband” venues in the country. I had been there once before in 2019 to hear Goose for the first time while I was in town with The Grinch. If you would like my review of that show, kindly hit me up offline :-) I had no idea they had a patio outside, complete with a mural of Boulders’s famous Flatirons. It was hot as hell on this day and the difference in altitude is real, but playing on this beautiful stage helped for sure.

the patio at cervantes

After a quick trip to the infamous Casa Bonita and a wild show, exhaustion levels were at an all-time high. We headed back to our home for the night, where we were hosted by Friends of BQ Bruce & Tanya who hooked it up with some peach brandy and a good night’s sleep.

i-70, the actual road to telluride

The next morning I awoke and was ready to hit the road to Telluride. It was one of the best drives I’ve ever been on, and I drove the entire 5 hours to the Montrose airport, where we ditched our rental cars and were picked up by the festival to drive the last hour to Telluride.

standing on colorado ave

Telluride is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I kept comparing it in mind to Yosemite, where I visited for the first time in April. When you are on the valley floor you are surrounded by Big Nature in every direction. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen at 8,750ft but I was certainly feeling the Rocky Mountain high while nestled in the San Juan range.

secondlining with nora and caitlin

On the day of our show, we first led everyone in a secondline parade through town to the festival grounds. While marching, there was a gentleman near us the whole time absolutely getting down. Just as I’m thinking to myself “this guy has NOLA Jazzfest vibes,” I look down and see that he’s wearing a pair of Phish socks.

Of course I have to talk to him after the parade and make sure he knew that Phish played Telluride Town Park on that very day in 2010 and of course he was at that show! Turns out he is Tuck Gilett, the music director and faculty advisor of the GSA at the school in town. I think we became instant best friends. It was so refreshing to speak with an educator who is so passionate about his job. I know we will be crossing paths again, either in Telluride or at a Phish show!

Me and Tuck

Then it was time to get serious. I could tell everyone was nervous before the show, as the green room was silent in a way I thought impossible for the ladies of Brass Queens. Once we got on that stage and looked out to see Ally’s amazing family in the audience (thank you for taking the majority of these pictures), we were at ease and ready to do our thing.

The view from the drums

And do our thing we did. We played a fantastic set, if I may say so myself, and received a lot of great feedback from the audience after the show.

yours truly at the kit

After the set my priority was riding the gondola in town, the first and only free public transportation of its kind in the US. The 12 minute ride goes up to 10,000 feet and features stunning views in every direction. Here’s a little video from the San Sophia Station looking down toward the valley floor.

After the gondola, I went back to the festival for Trombone Shorty’s set. I enjoyed the rest of the night and was immediately plotting how I can get back to Telluride, either for more Brass Queens or a ski trip, or ideally both!

Summer Tour: The Road to Telluride

I am thrilled to kick off what I’m calling The Road to Telluride Tour this weekend!

Brass Queens is gearing up for 10 days in the Midwest, followed by a very special hometown show in Cumberland, my triumphant return to FloydFest, and a double-duty show with BQ + Cinco12 in Brooklyn, all leading up to the Telluride Jazz Festival!

Venue and ticketing information can be found here. I hope to see you out there!

NOLA 2025

I returned last week from the annual Brass Queens trip to New Orleans. This is the third time I’ve gone to NOLA with this band, and it has become one of the trips I most look forward to every year. We did two recording sessions, played two concerts, ate well, and saw a ton of great live music.

I knew the trip was off to an auspicious start when I was randomly assigned the Baby Dodds room in our hotel. Dodds was an early 20th century New Orleans drummer who pushed the boundaries of what a drummer could do in a band. He laid the foundation for big band swing and brought New Orleans drumming to the spotlight.

In his autobiography he writes, "It was my job to study each musician and give a different background for each instrument. When a man is playing it's up to the drummer to give him something to make him feel the music and make him work. That's the drummer's job."

at music box studios. thanks ricky from caesar brothers band for lending me a kit for the week.

The next day, we recorded at the Music Box Recording Studio with Keanon Battiste. It was a small studio, and for the first time ever we recorded in small groups instead of as a full ensemble. Nora (Sousaphone) and I went first and the rest of the band played over what we tracked.

typical night on frenchmen

That night, we popped over to Frenchmen Street to hear one of our favorite NOLA Brass Bands, New Breed, at Blue Nile. Here’s a picture of Nora playing with some of our New Orleans brethren on the corner of Frenchmen and Chartres.

The next day, we played a set at Howlin’ Wolf. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures whilst there, but it was a vibe. Shouts to NY homies Bryan and Collin for coming to the show with 15 or so guys who were in town for a bachelor party. And congrats to Dan on his upcoming wedding!

yamaha oak custom and one hundred mics at esplanade studios

On Friday, we recorded at Esplanade Studios, one of the best rooms I have ever recorded in. The engineers, staff, equipment, and vibe were all top notch. There was even a pool table in the basement! I really I hope I get to return to this space for more recording in the future.

the stage at preservation hall

The highlight of the entire week was on Saturday, when Nora and I got to sit on the stage for a set at Preservation Hall. The band was full of musical assassins, with my new friend Shawn King on drums. This is it. This is hot jazz. It does not get better than this. The pinnacle. It was so good I had to go back for another set the next day.

The stage at favela chic

Our last band obligation was Sunday night, where we played our yearly late night set at Favela Chic. This one is a mental challenge, as we play from 10pm-2am, but it is always a blast. There is no cover at the door, so patrons walk in and out throughout the night and hopefully leave a tip in the bucket or buy a drink at the bar. The band crushed it again this year, and we left that show exhausted but fulfilled.

my wife and i outside of tips with a free venue-provided banana

I saw so much great music that I can’t even mention it all here. The highlights were the Headhunters at the Civic Theatre, NY’s own Red Baraat at Blue Nile, Cha Wa at the Gallatain Street Festival, and of course Galactic at Tipitinia’s.

tiki drinks at Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29

I would be remiss to not mention some of the great food and drink we had.

Top 3 Food
Pork Belly at Mister Mao
Avocado Chaat at Mister Mao
Red Snapper Ceviche at Pêche

Top 3 Drinks
The above Pandan Painkiller from Lattitude 29
Mid-afternoon draft Abita Amber at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop
Obviously a Hurricane from Pat O’Briens.

I’m already daydreaming about going back next year. Perhaps we will get to play an official slot at Jazzfest :-)

Hot Tub Sessions Vol. I

Last week, Brass Queens released our newest album, Hot Tub Sessions Vol. I, a collection of all-original music. We recorded it over two sessions at Atlantic Records with engineer Joseph Pomarico with mixing by Ian Kagey at Renaissance Recording.

Stream the record below or wherever you get your music. If you like what you hear, please consider buying the album, available on CD and vinyl here (it takes 230 streams for an artist to make $1 on Spotify).

Here are some pics and a video from the Atlantic Sessions:

arriving at atlantc

the dw house kit

me with the greatest to ever do it, mr. john bonham

The Midwest

The Grand theater in wasssau, wi

Brass Queens just returned from our first ever trip to the Midwest. We had the best time. Man, Midwesterners are just so dang nice!

on david byrne’s reasons to be cheerful at town hall

We sort of kicked off the tour here in NYC at Town Hall, where we played David Byrne’s Reason’s to Be Cheerful live show. It’s been an entire week and I still don’t have the words to say how much this show meant to me. I was starting to get in to the Talking Heads in high school, but when I saw Byrne perform at Bonnaroo in 2004 I sort of became obsessed. The man is the embodiment of ART and to be on his radar is simply a dream. Here’s the link to the video of every artist at the show (including Byrne, Thao, and Fred Armisen) performing our arrangement of Just the Two of Us.

I booked it home after the show because we had 7am flight to Chciago. We went directly from O’Hare to WGN9 to play their Midday Show. It was so cool to be in the studio of a major news network! Check out our performance here.

The house kit at wgn, home of bozo the clown

After a little nap, we loaded in at the Hideaway to play what was probably my favorite show of the tour. We had a great turn out and the crowd was into it. I haven’t played in Chicago in almost 15 years and I hope we can get back ASAP.

At the hideout | credit: janet M. Takayama

From Chicago, we traveled up to Wausau, WI to play a sold out concert at the Grand Theater’s 10 x 10 series. The show was a blast and afterwards we traveled a few miles out of the city to get a look at the aurora.

The aurora borealis from Wasusa, wi

From Wausau, we traveled down to Madison for a radio spot at WSUM before we co-billed the High Noon Saloon with one of our absolute favorite brass bands, Mama Digdown’s! We got to play their song Mojito with them at the end of their set. Here’s what that was like from my view:

Next up was Ludington, MI for a performance at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts, another lovely show. We stayed right on Lake Michigan and I got to spend a little bit of time by the water in the morning before heading off to Detroit.

lake Michigan

And finally, we arrived in Detroit for a sold out show at the legendary Cliff Bell’s. Prior to the show, we checked out the Motown Museum. Simply put, I was verklempt. Here’s a picture from Studio A. All of this gear was used on those original Motown Records.

motown’s studio A

The next day, we played at Detroit’s Fox 2 (here’s the vid) before having brunch and heading home exhausted but grateful. Tomorrow we play an album release show at Brooklyn Bowl. We hope to see you there for a hometown show!

The Western Slope

I had an amazing time in Colorado this past weekend with @brassqueensnyc. We played shows in Durango and Mancos, enjoyed the hot springs, and explored the towns. I’d never been this far west in CO, “where the west lives.” Special thanks to @allyinmusic’s parents, Mark and Jody, for hosting us on their absolutely stunning property. I hope we get to go back soon!

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Out Now: Black & Gold by Brass Queens

The first full length album from Brass Queens is officially here! We recorded Black & Gold back in May at the Bunker in Brooklyn with engineers Alex Conroy and Megan Mishkin. The album contains 5 BQ originals, 10 covers, and features the following personnel:

Trumpet: Alex Joseph, Stephanie King, Minerva Johnson
Alto Sax: Ally Chapel
Tenor Sax: Jenna Murdoch
Trombone: Elizabeth Arce, Stephanie Young
Sousaphone: Nora Nalepka, Heather Ewer
Percussion: Caitlin Cawley
Drum set: Yours Truly

The Bunker has a lot of great vintage kits but I wanted the drums on this to sound as modern as BQ does so I brought in my Yamaha Tour Custom. To say I’m thrilled about the way the drums sound would be an understatement. I mean, listen to that 14” tom. It sounds MASSIVE! My Ludwig Supraphonic really cuts through the band and my Zildjian As blend nicely.

Here’s a short video of three drum clips: The first is an excerpt of Titi’s Kawa where I try to sneak in some licks inspired by two of my favorite drummers - John Bonham and Stanton Moore. Next is the halftime breakdown of Lady Marmalade. And finally, here’s some uninterrupted drum footage of Vision Quest. I don’t have video of the take that we used for the album, but I’m really happy with the drums throughout this song so I wanted to feature it anyway:

As always, Brass Queens has a jam packed schedule coming up, but I invite you to join us for an official release show for the album on November 18th at Littlefield. I hope to see you there!