News

News updates on Earl’s professional activities are posted here, as they happen.

  • Earl produced the recording sessions for Sean Nelson’s New London Big Band on August 11th and 12th, 2023, at Power Station New England. The ensemble featured distinguished guest musicians John Riley and Wayne Bergeron. Earl played a crucial role in overseeing and guiding the creative and technical aspects of the album, ensuring a seamless and high-quality musical production.
  • An album was recorded with the Brenan Brothers Septet in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In addition to playing piano, Earl contributed an arrangement of McCoy Tyner’s “Fly With The Wind.” This powerhouse, all-Canadian session will be released this coming spring.
  • In May 2023, Earl departed from the Hartford Jazz Orchestra due to a misalignment in artistic vision. The orchestra prioritized honoring their past and playing old repertoire, diverging from Earl’s aspiration for artistic progress. Earl chose to move on.
  • The University of Connecticut now offers a Bachelor of Music in Jazz degree! It was officially approved in April, 2023. Much time and effort went into it’s planning and Earl owes considerable credit to his dear colleague, John Mastroianni. It was a great team effort!
  • Earl was honored as “Jazz Artist of the Year” at the 42nd Covenant Awards, which were presented by GMA Canada on Nov. 19th, 2022. The award comes as the latest accolade for his album, “Consecrated.”
  • The Hartford Jazz Orchestra graciously asked Earl to succeed their late band director/pianist, Donn Trenner, who passed away in 2020. Earl enthusiastically accepted and has begun playing with the band regularly, and contributing new arrangements. The band performs weekly at Elicit Brewing in Manchester, CT.
  • “Consecrated,” Earl’s seventh full-length studio album, is now out! It was released on Friday, September 24th, 2021. Order your copy today!
  • Earl is thrilled to join forces with Outside in Music, a record label committed to distributing his music worldwide!
  • The "By Our Love" cover image. A large, intimidating fish is about to eat a little fish, illustrating an imbalance in power.“By Our Love” was released on Friday, January 22nd, 2021. It is available at BandCamp, Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Tidal, Amazon and all the other major online music platforms. In addition to the music single, a corresponding animated short video was released at http://by-our-love.com. This project explores political tribalism as it relates to Christian faith and intends to stimulate discussion regarding the incongruities between faith and politics. The music was written for an 11-piece ensemble consisting of 2 trumpets, French horn, trombone, 3 saxophones, piano, string bass, drums and vocalist. Logos for the various online music streaming and downloading companies.
  • The Arrangers Podcast (a show dedicated to insightful discussion about the art, craft, and business of music arranging and composition) posted a recent interview with Earl.
  • Jazz-In-July was offered online this summer, from July 20-24. Earl taught piano master classes, theory, improvisation sessions. Go to their website…jazzinjuly.com, for more information about this annual summer program.
  • The Connecticut Office of the Arts honored Earl with a 2020 Artistic Excellence Award.  An announcement was made in the Hartford Courant on Feb. 11, 2020. Earl was the only musician singled out for this top-tier distinction.CT Office of the Arts
  • Independent Music Awards' "Winner" logoEarl was selected as Jazz Music Producer of the Year at the 17th annual Independent Music Awards in New York City on June 22, 2019.

 

 

 

  • At the onset of 2019, Earl made some difficult decisions to open up more time for composing. This included stepping down from playing piano with the New London Big Band each month.  The band will continue performing some of his music, including “Cow Tippin.” https://youtu.be/U59UqJzoByw
  • The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra recently released “Suite 150,” a CD recording to commemorate Canada’s 150th anniversary. Earl was one of eleven Canadian big band jazz composers commissioned to write music reflecting some aspect of Canada or being Canadian. His piece, “Cirrus” is his musical depiction of the vast prairie skyline. “On the prairies, with no buildings or trees blocking the view, one is struck by the immensity of the blue sky we all share, and how disproportionately small we are beneath it.”  The recording is available at http://suite150.ca/suite150/.
  • A half-dozen previously unpublished big band charts have been added to Earl’s eJazzLines online catalog, and are now available for purchase.
  • Earl is planning to compose a new series of educational jazz band charts for high school and middle school groups.

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