Clarinet with Matt L.

The Wilky

I was hired as the bandleader for the jazz jam session at the Wilky, Brooklyn's newest fully dedicated jazz venue, in early 2020. We managed to have a few great months with an amazing weekly turnout of local NYC musicians as well as international visitors. Unfortunately, it was short lived due to the Covid-19 Pandemic shutdown. When the bar opened up for outdoor service in the late summer of 2020, we began holding the jam session on the sidewalk outside of the venue. We were able to keep it going until it got too cold to perform outdoors in November, but during those few months we were able to bring a sense of normalcy back to the local NYC jazz community. The outpouring of support from the local community who visited the bar to be an audience was overwhelming, and served to remind us that the NYC/Brooklyn jazz community is alive and well, despite popular national figures falsely describing New York City as a ghost town. We look forward to bringing the outdoor performances back by the spring of 2021 and also the night in the hopefully not too distant future when we are able to perform safely indoors again. https://www.facebook.com/TheWilkyBackRoomJazz

Marian's

I was hired as the bandleader for the jazz jam session at the Wilky, a Brooklyn jazz venue, in early 2020. Shortly after that, the Covid-19 lockdown happened, and the bar was closed for a few months. We would be brought back to perform on the sidewalk throughout the summer and early fall months, but then go on hiatus for the winter. After the lockdown restrictions were changed, the bar re-opened and was rebranded as Marian’s. To this day I’ve led the jazz jam session every Thursday night there and it has become a Brooklyn staple, and we’ve had the gig for almost 5 years!! Talent from all over NYC as well as international players make Thursday nights at Marian’s a regular stopover. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/TheJazzSessionAtMarians

Bā'sik

I've been the host and bandleader at The Bā'sik Jazz Jam Session in Williamsburg Brooklyn since August 2012. This is one of NYC's longest running jazz jam sessions and has been visited by musicians from all over the world. https://www.facebook.com/BasikJazzJamSession

Full length album entitled "Found" as bandleader, as well as other records as contributing composer and arranger

In addition to being a freelance jazz musician in NYC, dedicated to performing music from the standard jazz repertoire, I've also actively worked to write, record, and perform my own compositions and have been a contributing composer and arranger on other's albums, in a range of different genres. My most recent album of original modern jazz features me as a bandleader and composer and came out in 2018 https://mattlavon.bandcamp.com/album/found Previously, I wrote and recorded all of the horn parts (saxophones, flutes, and clarinets) for the Rock 'n Roll band The Bushwick Hotel's most recent record, Hard Times that came out in 2017 https://soundcloud.com/thebushwickhotel/sets/hard-times Over a decade ago, I was a contributing composer and arranger for the Fusion Jazz group EGOM's record entitled Cydonia https://open.spotify.com/album/1cNLN0UVEYVyxO20CJZvXv

The University of the Arts in Philadelphia