Dave Slonaker big band

[Franco]

Hadn't heard of this group before (I'm probably out of touch) but I really like this chart. Killer personnel all around too

[marccromme]

Nice chart. And lovely bass bone solo. Thanks for sharing!

[Bach5G]

Thx. I did not know this band.

[Bach5G]

I’ve been listening to the band’s latest recoding for the past few days. State of the art contemporary LA trombone I thinks. Lots of bone solos, great section work. I’m taken by the guitar work as well.

[dershem]

Dave started out as a trombonist. I went to a live performance a while back and there were subs in the bone section. I had to put up with Alex Iles, Andy martin, Charlie Morillas and Bill Reichenbach as the trombone section! Oh I suffered SO much! (T be able to suffer than much every day!!!)

[AndrewMeronek]

This scene of modern big band getting video studio recordings of tunes - I'm loving it. We need more of this around where I live, Detroit area. We have the musicians to do it, for sure.

[Franco]

Dave started out as a trombonist. I went to a live performance a while back and there were subs in the bone section. I had to put up with Alex Iles, Andy martin, Charlie Morillas and Bill Reichenbach as the trombone section! Oh I suffered SO much! (T be able to suffer than much every day!!!)

Ha, must have been rough. Hope they managed to struggle through ok

[Chiptingle]

[Posaunus]

I’ve been listening to the band’s latest recording for the past few days. State of the art contemporary LA trombone I thinks. Lots of bone solos, great section work. I’m taken by the guitar work as well.

In case anyone's interested, the lineup for this recording session was:
Saxophones: Bob Sheppard, Brian Scanlon, Rob Lockart, Tom Luer, Jay Mason;
Trumpets: Wayne Bergeron, Ryan DeWeese, Clay Jenkins, Ron Stout;
Trombones: Alex Iles, Charlie Morillas, Ido Meshulam, Bill Reichenbach;
Piano: Ed Czach, Bass: Edwin Livingston, Drums: Peter Erskine, Percussion: Brian Kilgore.
No mention (or visible sign) of a guitarist in this track, though!

[Bach5G]

Ido Meshulam is a new name for me.

[Posaunus]

Ido Meshulam is a new name for me.

Ido is a terrific trombonist and multi-instrumentalist, originally from Israel (where his father is a well known trombonist and composer). Since his arrival in Los Angeles ~10 years ago, he has made a big impact, becoming one of the top call players in the area. As you can hear from the Slonaker recordings, he's a fine jazz improviser. (He's the one with the heavy beard.)

https://www.csun.edu/mike-curb-arts-med ... o-Meshulam

Ido is a TromboneChat member and has posted here many times.

[afugate]

I was blessed to see Ido perform last year at ITF. Terrific player and performance.
--Andy in OKC

[IdoMeshulam]

Thank you all for the kind words! Playing with Dave is always a pleasure, terrific writer and the band is just fantastic! Btw, the guitar player on the record is Larry Koonse, he's an absolute monster.

[tbdana]

I was thrilled to hear Ido on Dave's new album. He's a wonderful jazz player. I think he took Bob McChesney's place in the band, who is flashy and plays one of the best solos I've ever heard him play on the band's first album, but Ido has a musicality about his soloing that I truly love. He's such a joy to hear.

Also, Dave writes very well for trombones, and that makes it even more of a pleasure to listen to. Alex, of course, is a wonderful overall player and Bill is "the" studio bass trombonist these days, and solos better than most bass trombonists I've heard.

[dershem]

Dave started out as a trombonist. I went to a live performance a while back and there were subs in the bone section. I had to put up with Alex Iles, Andy martin, Charlie Morillas and Bill Reichenbach as the trombone section! Oh I suffered SO much! (T be able to suffer than much every day!!!)

Ha, must have been rough. Hope they managed to struggle through ok

They did all right, I suppose. Of course I suffered too - I ended up sitting with Andy Martin's folks and his wife, and we had a great time.
Saw Dave's band more recently, and while there were some changes (Reichenbach has mostly retired now, and a guy named Ido was playing third, but damn - that section KICKS!) the band was still great. Performing live a lot more, too. If you get a chance, see them!

[dershem]

Thank you all for the kind words! Playing with Dave is always a pleasure, terrific writer and the band is just fantastic! Btw, the guitar player on the record is Larry Koonse, he's an absolute monster.

Everyone on the band is amazing, present company included.

[dpursel73]

Wow, great chart and musicians!

[KristianR]

This is very, very nice. And that's Bill Reichenbach sitting and playing right there!

[Cmillar]

Yes! Thanks for posting this!

So great to hear some solos that really fit in the spirit of the music and compliment the chart.

Having fantastic musicians to start with really helps!

Gotta here some more of this band for sure.

[Franco]

Looks like there's a new album out.



very tasty valve trombone solo in there from Mr. Meshulam

[mgladdish]

Thank you all for the kind words! Playing with Dave is always a pleasure, terrific writer and the band is just fantastic! Btw, the guitar player on the record is Larry Koonse, he's an absolute monster.

Wonderful solo Ido. Have you released anything of your own?

[mgladdish]

On a complete tangent, I at first misread the video title as "Here Is The News" and thought you were linking to this:

[henrysa]

Celebrating release of new record, at Catalina Jazz in Hollywood on March 18th. Gonna be a barn burner. Let's fill the place SOCAL!

[tbdana]

Dave is a great writer. A mature, fully formed artist, and his charts reflect that. Darn good band, too, though it's largely the same guys who play in all the good bands. Sure would be nice to hear some other people. L.A. has a shit ton of great players. While I love guys like Alex, Wayne, Bob Shepard, and Reichenbach, I love to hear younger players under 45 who are just as good as these guys, and there are lots. Some of those folks actually post in this forum. Ido is one of those younger guys. I'm a big Ido fan. Would love to hear more of those guys.

Of course, I don't know if anyone does what Wayne does as well as Wayne, so there are exceptions. But Wayne was the young guy once, and isn't it great that he got his shot. Would be nice if younger guys these days would get called now and then. Then again, these are all guys Dave Slonaker worked with when he was writing for the studios. I met Dave doing Warner Bros Tiny Toons, which he coordinated and wrote for. So he's just using the guys he knows.

I love Dave's band and his albums, and he's a great writer and a great guy.

I just wanna see younger, hungrier guys sitting there. Except for Ido, all the bone players are roughly my age, and I'm old as dirt. Like, for instance, Gordon Goodwin hired trumpeter Mike Rocha. No one knew Mike. He wasn't getting gigs. But he's a great player. Gordon gave him a shot in his Phat Band, and Mike took advantage of the opportunity and has made a nice career for himself. More of that, please!

[Franco]

Celebrating release of new record, at Catalina Jazz in Hollywood on March 18th. Gonna be a barn burner. Let's fill the place SOCAL!

Nice! I had no idea. Wish I could make the trip to see this.

[Finetales]

Of course, I don't know if anyone does what Wayne does as well as Wayne, so there are exceptions. But Wayne was the young guy once, and isn't it great that he got his shot. Would be nice if younger guys these days would get called now and then. Then again, these are all guys Dave Slonaker worked with when he was writing for the studios. I met Dave doing Warner Bros Tiny Toons, which he coordinated and wrote for. So he's just using the guys he knows.

There are quite a few younger people working regularly in LA, myself included. The Slonaker band is actually kind of the exception nowadays, most gigging big bands in town tend to have more younger players than that. A friend of mine keeps a running list of all the big bands in LA, and there are dozens! ...Even though they are 90% the same players in all of them, just different books.

The Pacific Jazz Orchestra and Irvine-Barclay Jazz & Beyond Orchestra are a healthy mix of young and old. The Jacob Mann Big Band, Jon Hatamiya Big Band, Corbin Jones Big Band, and quite a few others are young across the board. Wayne himself, along with stalwart saxophonist Sal Lozano, both regularly hire young players for the groups they lead and contract. Tom Kubis has plenty of young players in his band these days, and Gordon Goodwin often did too before he passed.

We have some fabulous younger players on every instrument, who I fully believe will one day be revered the same way Wayne and the other LA legends are now. There is not NEARLY as much work now as there was when those guys were starting out, but we're trying our best!

[tbdana]

There are quite a few younger people working regularly in LA, myself included. The Slonaker band is actually kind of the exception nowadays, most gigging big bands in town tend to have more younger players than that. A friend of mine keeps a running list of all the big bands in LA, and there are dozens! ...Even though they are 90% the same players in all of them, just different books.

...

I am THRILLED to hear that, except for the less work part, of course, which is why I want younger players to get the gigs.

Sorry. Didn't mean to derail the thread. Back to talking about Dave's band and new album.

[dershem]

Looks like there's a new album out.



very tasty valve trombone solo in there from Mr. Meshulam

Oh yeah. I was there at the CD release concert, and the band is KICKIN'! Ido was fantastic, of course.

I ended up sitting next to a woman and her son, and the son is a high school senior who plays trombone, and is a Big fan of Ido. He said he plays some valve bone (which allowed me to tell a Brookmeyer story), and then Ido played a kick-ass valve bone solo.

Those who have not heard the band, do so - it's very very good.

[Franco]

I'm jealous! I bet they sound great live. Was it the same (or mostly the same) line up as the video? Can't imagine it's easy getting that many first call studio musicals in the same room at the same time.

[Posaunus]

If you liked that, try this - featuring four trombone soloists (Charlie Morillas, Ido Meshulam, Bill Reichenbach, Alex Iles)! [Recorded October 2021]