It all started with a pick-up band that came together to focus on the music of Django Reinhardt. The band went through several permutations of name, including the unwieldy “Hot Club of the Southwest” and the even more unpronounceable “Djangology,” which was finally shorted to simply “Django.” The group was somewhat unusual to say the least. It featured Steve Smith, mandolin; Gordon Butler, violin; Joseph Mancilla, acoustic rhythm guitar; Curt Warren, electric arch-top guitar; and Jim Shearer, tuba and vocals.

You’ll hear it all: Funk and Jams, Latin standards, Italian and Vocal Classics…This Project is a new side of Monaco’s music that explores his latest passions with an incredible band! You’ll hear meticulous playing from drummer Tony McClung and guitarist Derek DiCenzo – the chemistry from playing together often is obvious! This is a real band that knows each other well!

Directed by Chuck Bergeron, the return of the 20+ member SFJO performing w/ exquisite vocalists on the first full big band recording of tunes from Gary Lindsay’s (a University of Miami Music School legend) composing and arranging vault in over 40 years of vast experiences. Led by jazz veteran, Chuck Bergeron, an amazing mix of “out of towners” joined members of the SFJO.

Jay Vonada – Trombone
Kirk Reese – Keyboard
Bob Hart – Bass
Kevin Lowe – Drums

Hailed as “one of the foremost performers and teachers in the USA and Canada” and ” one of the greatest trumpet players of our time,” reviewers have called his trumpet playing “virtuosic and lyrical”, “fluid and liquid like tone,” with “a bel canto style that gave this reviewer chills.”

“Pianist Roger Kellaway’s playing is technically perfect and pleasurable melodic, with  playful prestidigitation…  -Fred Bouchard, DOWNBEAT

RED HOT!!

Craig Fraedrich – trumpet and flugelhorn

“…Hetzler is so good…one of the world’s great trombone players…” -American Record Guide

Bringing a college big band from Cincinnati together with a notorious downtown New York composer-arranger-trumpeter to perform expanded and decidedly tweaked renditions of John Barry’s sumptuous soundtrack music for several James Bond movies may seem like an audacious over-reach on the surface. But that was precisely what Scott Belck had in mind when the musical director for the College-Conservatory of Music Jazz Orchestra first contacted Sex Mob’s ringleader, trumpeter-composer-arranger Steven Bernstein about this unlikely collaboration. Bernstein, who has previously arranged large ensembles for Portugal’s Orchestra de Jazz Matosinhos (OJM), Arturo O’Farril’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and for Robert Altman’s 1996 movie Kansas City, explained his modus operandi for Nobody Does It Better. “I tend to write very physical, demanding arrangements. I try to get that kind of intensity that I like. And the thing is, these guys are young, and they know extreme music — trumpet parts that are really high and trombone parts that are really low…all these extreme things that are super physical that as you get older become harder to play. But young guys love to tackle that stuff.”  Things did indeed happen on this unlikely collaboration between jazz renegade Bernstein and Belck’s pro-sounding college big band. And the results are scintillating. Nobody Does It Better is throbbing with energy and brimming with the sound of surprise. (from the liner notes by Bill Milkowski)

Tom Marko is a drum set player and composer currently serving as Director of Jazz Studies at Illinois State University in Normal, IL where he directs two jazz big bands, coordinates jazz combos and teaches improvisation, and private drum set lessons.  Dr. Marko is also the coordinator of ISU’s annual Jazz Festival that has featured guest artists such as Randy Brecker, Marshall Gilkes, Dave Pietro, Wayne Bergeron, Ernie Watts, Marvin Stamm, Steve Wiest, Eric Marienthal and many more.  Very active in central Illinois and the mid-West as a performer and adjudicator, Marko can often be heard with “Kevin Hart and the Vibe Tribe,” “The Brazilionaires,” “The Todd Kelly Quintet,” “David Hoffman,” “The Travis Wesley Trio,” and his own group “Tom Marko and the Inner Light.”  He holds the Bachelor of Music degree in percussion performance from Washington State University, the Master of Music degree in jazz performance from the University of South Florida and the Doctor of Arts degree in theory and composition from the University of Northern Colorado, where he played drums in the award winning “UNC Jazz Lab Band I,” and “Combo I.”  He has studied percussion and drum set with David Jarvis, Dave Hardman, David Via, Gray Barrier and Steve Davis.  He has also studied theory and improvisation with Greg Yasinitsky and Jack Wilkins and jazz composition and arranging with Chuck Owen.  In the summer of 2001 Tom was one of twenty-three students from across the U.S. selected to attend “Jazz Aspen Snowmass” in Aspen, Colorado under the artistic direction of Christian McBride.  His drum set playing can be heard on Algo Diferente (2015) by The Brazilionaires, The Travis Wesley Trio’s recent recordings Cycle by Three (now playing on Pandora Internet Radio) and Natural Diversion (2012), The David Hoffman Sextet Live (2004), Alive XVII: For the Last Time (2000) by UNC Jazz Lab Band I, Greenwich Blue’s When Our Time Comes (1997), and Fireshaker (1997) by The Dan McMillion Groovin’ High Big Band.  “Inner Light” is Marko’s first album as a composer/leader and features the great Scott Wendholt on trumpet, Doug Stone on saxophone, Harold Greene on guitar, Kevin Hart on piano, keyboard and vibraphone, Mike Stryker on piano, Andy Crawford on bass, and Manny Bedi on Tabla.