Saxophonist and composer David Bixler returns with a powerhouse quartet to promote his latest album, BEATitude. Tickets for tonight are $20 each.

This event will also be livestreamed on BOP STOP's Youtube Channel at showtime. Accessing the stream is free but donations are encouraged and directly support the band.

Featuring:

• David Bixler, alto saxophone
• Jon Cowherd, piano
• Ike Sturm, bass
• Rogério Boccato, percussion

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After moving to NYC thirty years ago, saxophonist, composer, and educator David Bixler cut his teeth touring the world with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Toshiko Akioshi. He later joined the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Big Band, with whom he played a decade-long residency of Sunday evenings at Birdland and won a LATIN GRAMMY for the recording, Final Night at Birdland. The passage of time encompassed a twelve year period of managing his son’s health issues which caused a humbling reboot to his priorities in life and the role of music in it. In the summer of 2016, after reevaluating his circumstances he recorded In the Face of Chaos (2019) with Bixler, Boccato, Cowherd, and Sturm, Blended Lineage (2020) with the Bixtet, and Inside the Grief (2020) with trio incognito. His latest project, THE LANGSTON HUGHES PROJECT vol. 1, which PARIS-MOVE describes as "a touch of genius" is a new recording featuring music inspired by the poetry of Langston Hughes..

Bixler is the host of LINER NOTES with David Bixler, a podcast centered on conversations with jazz musicians. He also serves as Director of Jazz Studies at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. As both a Selmer and Vandoren Artist he is active as a clinician and performer throughout the world.

Bixler and his family reside in New York City.

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Although Mercy is Jon Cowherd's first album under his own name, the esteemed pianist/composer/arranger/producer is already firmly established as one of the jazz world's most accomplished, expressive and in-demand young musicians.

The Kentucky-born, New Orleans-schooled, New York-based Cowherd is best known for his long-running partnership with drummer/bandleader Brian Blade, with whom he co-founded the Brian Blade Fellowship, whose acclaimed, influential albums showcase Cowherd's stellar keyboard work and singular compositional skills. When not recording and touring with the Fellowship, Cowherd has worked extensively with a broad array of players and singers from the jazz, pop and rock worlds including Joni Mitchell, Cassandra Wilson, Norah Jones, Glen Hansard, kd lang, Iggy Pop and Lizz Wright.

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Ike Sturm was raised in a musical home in Wisconsin, studying and experimenting with the bass from the age of 9. Ike has performed with Gene Bertoncini, Wynton Marsalis, Donny McCaslin, Bobby McFerrin, Ben Monder, Ingrid Jensen, Steve Lehman, Catherine Russell, Maria Schneider, Kenny Wheeler and many others. In addition to playing with his own ensembles in New York, Ike has performed with Alarm Will Sound and the International Contemporary Ensemble. He has also appeared on several Steve Reich releases on Nonesuch Records.

Ike is the music director for jazz at Saint Peter’s Church in NYC, curating the church’s innovative program. He leads Jazz 4 All, a gathering of musicians of different ages, musical styles and faith backgrounds focusing on improvisation. He has published many works for jazz ensemble and chamber groups and has led music workshops at churches and universities across the U.S. and Europe.

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Brazilian percussionist and educator Rogério Boccato plays in projects led by some of today’s leading jazz players, among them Maria Schneider, John Patitucci, Fred Hersch, Danilo Perez, Ben Allison, Kevin Hays, and many others. He has also collaborated with top-ranking Brazilian artists, such as Toninho Horta, Dori Caymmi, Moacir Santos, and Vinicius Cantuária.

He is featured on two Grammy-award winning albums: “The Thompson Fields“, with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, and on Billy Childs’ “Rebirth”. He is also featured on three Grammy-nominated albums: Kenny Garrett’s “Beyond The Wall”, John Patitucci‘s “Remembrance“ (alongside Joe Lovano and Brian Blade), and on Alan Ferber’s “Jigsaw“.

As a longtime member of the “Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo”, Brazilian percussionist Rogério Boccato has played with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Hermeto Pascoal, Milton Nascimento, Egberto Gismonti, João Bosco, Joe Zawinul, among many others.