Bullettes Little Big Band to Perform March 13 at Westminster!

square_500Many thanks to Amy Bormet for having us back again for the Washington Women in Jazz Festival! I love this particular time of year because we get to see so many fantastic and talented women come out to perform. Amy has really built the WWJF into an amazing and high quality festival that everyone is still talking about throughout the year. I’m very thankful to get to play for the amazing audience at Westminster Church, one of the best venues in town. This year it will be the Bullettes Little Big Band with guests! I’m taking this opportunity to bring to light some of the amazing composition and arranging talent we have in this town. I’m also interested in promoting large ensemble music; too often, budget constraints keep people from putting large instrumental groups together. We’ll be premiering my arrangement of “Knives Out” (woo hoo Radiohead fans!) as well as the United States Premiere of “Wine Glass Perspective” by the great Australian composer Mace Francis. We’ll also be playing new original tunes by Todd Simon as well as Doug Pierce, and band members Anita Thomas,Leigh Pilzer, and Amy Bormet. We’ll be featuring Jessica Boykin-Settles on vocals as well. Rumor has it we may do something from her Abbey Lincoln library… stay tuned and see!

Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes
Little Big Band (LBB)
As part of Amy K. Bormet’s Washington Women in Jazz Festival
Westminster Church
400 I St SW, WDC
Friday, March 13, 2015
6 – 9 PM
$5 at the door
Personnel…
Michelle Acton, Bari
Savannah Harris, Drums
Angel Bethea, Congas and Percussion
Special Guest: Nicole Connelly, trombone
Possible additional special guests, possible additional originals from local composers
We will play some Ellington mixed in with our own original and new arrangements, including music from Australia and beyond! We will also feature local up-and-coming female jazz talent.
To jazz!
Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes

 

JazzCast Episode 13: Bria Skonberg!

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Hi everyone! I am extremely excited to bring you this interview with the amazing Bria Skonberg!! I was able to catch her in between shows and appointments on this past Tuesday and wanted to put up her interview quickly so I could let you all know she is in the DC metro area on Thursday, June 19th, at the Bethesda Jazz and Blues Club! 

I met Bria about 4 years ago as I sat in with a band at the DCLX Lindy Hop Competition. I was impressed with her lead chops and her familiarity with the repertoire of that era. Then, I noticed she was playing with her band at the Takoma Park Jazz Festival as part of their “jazzy women” theme this year (2014.) My all-female big band “Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes” was also playing the time slot before hers, so I went ahead and asked if she might sit in with us on a tune. To my surprise, she said “yes!” She sang “All of Me” and then took a smokin’ trumpet solo. It was so much fun to work with her! Eventually the footage from that festival will be available on the Takoma Park station, from what I understand.

Anyway, this is the first interview I’ve had with a signed artist. I am so humbled that she agreed to get on the phone with me and allowed us the opportunity to hear portions of her new album. If you want to hear the whole song, please buy her album from Random Act Records, iTunes, or download it from her website at http://briaskonberg.com. I encourage everyone to support indie artists and boutique record labels so that they can continue to make the music we all love! My favorite is her “mash-up” of Sir Duke and Three Little Words. Genius arrangement! I hope you enjoy!

Also, you might notice I will be putting up new podcasts more regularly now. My job as a teacher just got a LOT easier so be ready for a new episode every Tuesday over the summer! Or more!

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JazzCast Ep7: Interview with Amy Bormet

AMY_rectangle***Update*** So sorry everyone, I had accidentally turned down the volume of the second song on the original version – audio has been fixed, and hopefully is better quality now – thanks for checking by!!  sorry for the inconvenience! ****  Welcome to Episode 7 of the JazzCast, the podcast dedicated to curated listening sessions by jazz musicians! Today’s episode is an interview with Amy K. Bormet, who is a DC-based-but-transplanted-to-LA pianist, composer, educator, and leader of the Washington Women in Jazz Festival! March 15 – 22 will mark the fourth year of the festival and I wanted to give everyone a sneak peak at some of the amazing music that will be featured. There are quite a few phenomenal musicians who are mentioned in this podcast, so please feel free to check out their links below! I have also posted a link to the sponsorship site. Get your brand in front of thousands in a personable way!

Mentioned in this podcast:

Thanks for stopping by! Come back next week on Tuesday and we’ll have a new episode up.

JazzCast Ep 6: John Kocur Part 2

Kokur post pic 2Welcome to Episode 6 of the JazzCast, the podcast dedicated to curated listening sessions with jazz musicians! This is the second in a two part series of my interview with John Kocur, jazz saxophonist from Washington DC. On this podcast you will hear a little more about his influences as well as four more of his original songs from his albums “Fortitude” and “The Smoker.” I hope you enjoy his wonderful music and thank you for listening! I have to make one correction: the song played as an intro is actually called “Requiem” not “The Year of the Dragon” and was a tribute to some of the people who passed away that were close to him. Please join my email list or check back next Tuesday for additional episodes. Also please check out the links below to his songs that are available on iTunes and CDBaby.

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Mentioned in this podcast (including part 1):

 

JazzCast Ep 5: John Kocur part 1

Kokur post pic 1 finalWelcome to the 5th episode of the JazzCast, the only jazz podcast dedicated to curated listening sessions by jazz musicians! Today you will hear an interview with John Kocur, jazz saxophonist and professor of music at Northern Virginia Community College. I decided to split the interview up into two parts, both of which will be posted today but in separate posts. I just wanted to have smaller file sizes for people to download and I also wanted to make each episode about a half hour long. I really enjoyed recording this interview, and his song “Requiem” is a very fitting song to listen to in retrospect. Thank you John Kocur for generously giving your time and talents! You can purchase his albums from CDBaby and all the typical online outlets, as seen below. John Kocur can also be found at his website at http://johnkocur.com. Thanks again for listening, and please also check out part 2!

Songs featured in this podcast:

Mentioned in this podcast:

This sunday – DC Jazz Loft – Tribute to Carl Fontana/Al Cohn collab

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Hi everyone! I’m really excited to get the opportunity to give a tribute to one of my favorite trombone players, Carl Fontana and to specifically highlight his work with Al Cohn from “The Great Fontana” album. I am super privileged to be joined by Leigh Pilzer this Sunday night at the DC Jazz Loft performance at Union Arts DC (411 NY Ave NE). This is a great hang and always has a jazzm at the end. That’s a jazz jam btw. If you are looking for some underground and artistic music in the District this weekend, come on by, it’s friendly and you can BYOwhatever. There is a donation suggested. I want to thank Gio and Luke of the CapitalBop blog for having me on. I really appreciate it!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0O4Omj_Drg]

JazzCast Ep2: Interview with Billy Wolfe

JazzCast_Ep2_BillyWolfe***UPDATED! I added new songs by Billy Wolfe and leveled out the volumes a bit.*** Finally got this up! A little late, unfortunately. But the music is good, so here it is. I hope you enjoy this second episode of the JazzCast which includes an interview with saxophonist Billy Wolfe.

Billy plays saxophone(s) in the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra as well as teaches private lessons and puts concerts together for his band, “Billy Wolfe and the Composer’s TetraDectet.” He pulls people from all over the midwest, east coast, and west coast to play new music by himself and guitarist Aaron Quinn. I was really happy to hear his bootleg recording; I had never heard any of his band’s music before. We listened to a recording of a piece by Aaron Quinn titled “The Thing About Tomorrow…” as well as a piece by Billy titled “Amethyst.” At the end we had a mini-curated-listening-session with a piece called Understandable by Fields and Planes, an indie rock band from Columbus. It’s always fun to hear new music and I hope you enjoy this episode! Thanks for stopping by!