David Weiss Sextet – Side Door Jazz Club | January 26 | 7:30 pm

David Weiss – trumpet
Tim Green – alto sax
Sam Dillon – tenor sax
Eric Wheeler – bass
E.J. Strickland – drums

Moving jazz forward has been David Weiss’s modus operandi ever since he appeared on the scene in the late eighties when he established himself in New York by touring and/or recording with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Charles Tolliver, Billy Harper, Bobby Hutcherson, Slide Hampton, James Moody, Tom Harrell, Louis Hayes, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Billy Hart, among many others. Weiss was born and raised in Queens, New York and began taking piano lessons when he was ten years old. He added trumpet to his arsenal when he was 13. The music in his neighborhood was rock-n-roll and the favorites were the likes of Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath, which he embraced. His tastes soon evolved to more progressive rock like King Crimson and Gentle Giant and then to further out European rock groups like Magma, Area and Henry Cow. In high school, he began playing keyboards (and also a little trumpet through effects) in some local rock bands and right before leaving for college began to play in a band that eventually morphed into the group Material featuring future producers Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn. While in art school, Weiss became more exposed to free jazz and began to focus primarily on trumpet again. He also got the opportunity to perform with Fred Frith, Chris Cutler and Henry Kaiser. Weiss then left art school to attend Karl Berger’s Creative Music Studio studying with George Lewis, Jimmy Giuffre, Leo Smith, Pauline Oliveros, Gerry Hemmingway and John Zorn among many others. At the suggestion of Mr. Giuffre, Weiss sought out a more fully rounded music education and transferred to North Texas State University. Upon graduating, Weiss returned to New York and soon found work with Jaki Byard, Frank Foster and Jimmy Heath and began to study with fellow trumpeters Tommy Turrentine and Bill Hardman.. He also became a mainstay in New York’s thriving Salsa scene, playing with many of the legends of the music. He also played in many of the top Haitian and Soca bands in New York and toured extensively throughout the Carribean with these groups. Weiss also did a short stint with Ray Charles and assisted in scoring the music for the TV show “The Cosby Mysteries” starring Bill Cosby.

In 2000, Weiss formed the David Weiss Sextet to explore new compositional concepts and styles he was developing that did not fit the sound of his previous work for octet. The Sextet also introduced to the jazz world two extraordinary new young talents, twin brothers Marcus and E.J. Strickland who were still in college when the group was formed. The group released their first album (and Weiss’ first as a leader) Breathing Room (Fresh Sound Records) in 2002. The CD also featured Craig Handy, Xavier Davis, and Dwayne Burno. The CD received great critical acclaim from JazzWise (4 stars, recommended, their highest rating), Down Beat (4 stars) and 52nd Street (4 1/2 stars) among many others. He followed his debut with The Mirror (Fresh Sound Records) which was hailed as a masterpiece by AllAboutJazz and was voted the # 2 CD of the year (2004) by JazzWise Magazine. The group recently reconvened to record their third CD and their first in ten years entitled When Words Fail which was released on Motema Music in 2014.

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