Jake Epstein Music Site
Jake Epstein Jazz Ensemble

Jake Epstein Quartet

Jazz spans many genres of music including opera, rock, ragtime, New Orleans/Chicago Traditional, swing, fusion, Brazilian and Latin.

The Jake Epstein Jazz Quartet features musicians who are acclaimed and respected as leading proponents of music in general and Jazz in particular. Members perform, educate, compose and arrange in Connecticut and around the world. They have worked and studied with masters including Max Roach, John Mehegan, Ira Sullivan, Dave Brubeck, Clark Terry and Sheila Jordan.

The Jake Epstein Jazz Ensemble was formed to perform traditional music of artists such as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordan, Duke Ellington, Tom Jobim, Ella Fitzgerald, Wes Montgomery, Max Roach and Ray Brown but also more contemporary and popular styles. The group size can range from solo or duo to 20 piece Jazz Orchestra via partnerships with other groups such as the Harold Zinno Jazz Orchestra.

• Jazz ensembles are available and appropriate for many types of events including:
• House Parties
• Senior Living venues and events
• Corporate Events
• Festivals and outdoor concerts
• High School and College clinics and competitions
• Fundraisers and media events.

Pricing and arrangements are flexible based on location and type of events and are negotiable.

A note on volume:

Smaller venues often are challenged by the volume of music ensembles. Our approach to play to the room and our audence. We normally perform acoustically and amplify those musicians such as vocalist, bass and flute as needed. A listen to our recent "But Beautiful" album provides examples of varying repertoire and sound levels. So that partrons can hear geeat Jazz and Pop selections and carry on a comfortable conversation in a dinner setting.
 

Joe McWilliams: Piano, Keyboards, Educator

Joe McWilliams got his start as a professional pianist in the late 1970s, first performing in his mother's trio and later as a solo pianist at the world famous River Café in Brooklyn and at Greene Street in Soho. Trained classically by Ray Therrien and in Jazz by John Mehegan, Joe spent much of the '80s performing in New York and New Haven. Joe has played in 30 countries and has opened for Dave Brubeck, Cab Calloway, The Yellowjackets and many others. Among the many artists he has played/recorded with are Dickey Myers, Sonny Costanzo, Houston Person, Dee Daniels, Cookie Thomas, The Convertibles, the Marcels, Walt Andrus, Mark Preston, Lisa Donovan, Carmine Leggio, Eddie Burt, Brian Torff and Mike Rabinowitz.

Dave Daddario: Bass, Drums, Educator

David Daddarop is an acclaimed acoustic and electric bass player, drummer, multi-instrumentalist, Music Educator and public school band director.
Dave has experience playing a wide variety of musical styles, and has performed engagements with many local artists, famous musicians and entertainers, playing Jazz, Classical, R & B, Motown, Rock, Gospel, Dixie, and Country in small combos, big bands, pit, show and symphony orchestras, in many different venues throughout CT, NY, the east coast and Florida.
Some of the more notable musicians and performers include his father, Gene Daddario, Donn Trenner, Sonny Costanzo, Joe Cardinale, Gene Bertoncini, Lou Christie, Chubby Clark, Ed Cercone, Chris Coogan, Angela Clemmons, Gary Grippo, Josh Groban, Karen Frisk, Kris Jensen, Ernie Mazza, Clay Aiken, Frankie Avalon, Pete Barbuti, Barnum & Bailey Circus,The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Pat Boone, Joe McWilliams, Victor Borge, Gary Burton, Cab Calloway, Petula Clark, The Coasters, Drifters & the Platters, Judy Collins, Harry Connick Jr., Eddie Daniels, Sylvia Mims, Hartford Jazz Orchestra, Jake Epstein, Fabian,
The Fifth Dimension, Sergio Francie, Four Freshman, Robert Goulet, Kent Hewitt,The Ice Capades, Jerry Lewis, Al Martino, Jerry Vale, Anthony Newley, Nicole Pasternack, Osmond Brothers, Regis Philben, Joe Piscopo, Bernard Purdie, Debby Reynolds, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Barry Reise, Bobby Rydell, George Shearing, Red Skelton, Rocketts, Smothers Brothers, Stars of the Lawrence Welk Show, Cookie Thomas, Rob Zappulla, Harold Zinno & many others.

Jake Epstein (BS, MM): Arranger, Composer, Educator, Author, Sax, Flute, Clarinet, Piano

Jake Epstein is a retired founding member (partner) in RECOL, LLC, a Connecticut based Internet Services (ISP) and Datacenter (Hosting) company but also composes and performs music. After a tour in 1969-1971 with the 113th Army band at Fort Knox, KY where he was chief Composer/Arranger and director of Jazz and Jazz Rock ensembles, he served as the first University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Music and Dance graduate teaching assistant in African Music and Jazz working with Professors Frederick Tillis, Horace Boyer, Max Roach and Archie Shep in the early 1970’s. From 1976 to 1980, Jake served as an assistant Professor of Music at UMass. Jake has served as an adviser and instructor with the “Jazz in July Summer Program" at UMass, Amherst. He has also coached with the Fairfield (CT) Jazz Guild.

Jake has taught, performed, recorded with and composed/arranged music for many ensembles and individuals. A partial list of professional ensembles includes 113th Army Band, Sonny Costanzo Orchestra, Harold Zinno Jazz Orchestra and small ensembles, Hartigan-Epstein-Brown Trio, Fred Ho Green Monster Big Band, Hartford Jazz Orchestra, Springfield Symphony, Valley and Berkshire Big Bands, Cliff Jarvis Quartet, PVR-Jazz Quartet, Bobby Buster Quartet, Amherst Jazz Orchestra, Oakdale Theater (CT), Schubert Theater (New Haven) and Williamstown (MA) Theater Festival.

Jake Epstein’s book, “Jazz Improvisation and Tonal Music” is available as a Kindle eBook at http://amazon.com. Recent recordings include PVR “Reunion” and Jake Epstein Jazz Quartet featuring vocalist Amada Bellitto “But Beautiful” are available at CD Baby, Amazon and other sites.

Barry Ries: Composer, Trumpet/Flugelhorn, Drums, Educator

Ries began trumpet at 11 in elementary school, and developed into a high-note player, “screaming in the marching band, but doing it wrong, which later gave me a lot of problems.” He was impressed by Fats Navarro’s “Ice Freezes Red” (his father’s 78 copy), then his mother (“she’d get me anything with a trumpet on the cover”) brought home Kenny Dorham’s Jazz Contemporary from the Woolworth’s dollar bin. “I started digging how K.D. didn’t do this high note business, but played hip little things,” Ries emphasizes. “At 15 I heard Miles Smiles, a big record; also Love Supreme, Stan Getz’s Sweet Rain, Charles Lloyd. Cincinnati had two or three good radio stations that played jazz, and one presented avant-garde, which I liked, on Friday and Saturday nights — Marion Brown, Don Cherry, late Trane, Pharaoh. At the same time I was playing trumpet on gigs with my father, totally different from what I was listening to, and playing drums in wedding bands. That’s when the music started changing — Weather Report, Bitches Brew, Mahavishnu, Lifetime. I was playing horn in a variety of Rock bands.” In 1977 Ries took a gig in Miami, where he returned to the trumpet and met the multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan. “At that time Ira had really focused all his instruments — the trumpet, flute, soprano, alto and tenor — and he sounded great on all of them,” Ries marvels. “He’d play a set and wouldn’t stop, everything segued. He’s all about vibe and ambiance, which is where I’m at. When I play gigs I’m more into the mood, even if it might not be a perfect performance. I don’t necessarily want people to think only about the trumpet when they listen to me. Ries presently resides in Boston, where he performs and teaches on both instruments. His unique way of telling a story with just the right blend of harmonic-rhythmic flexibility and melodic essence shines throughout Solitude In The Crowd, and dovetails with the sensibility of his superb collaborators.

Amanda Bellitto: Featured Vocalist, Composer, Guitar

Amanda Bellitto is a Jazz vocalist out of Fairfield, Connecticut. She has been singing for 8 years, and performing professionally since the age of 15. She has studied with NEA Master Vocalist Sheila Jordan at the Jazz in July program at UMass, Amherst and the Litchfield Jazz Camp. Amanda has an associates degree from Housatonic Community College and palns to continue her education to persure an advanced degree in Music Therapy.

She performs regularly in a jazz duo with Michaela Coppola on guitar, and a pop/folk duo with Jerome Goosman. She is also part of a quartet with Jake Epstein, Esdras Lubin and Jack Srebnik. She often performs in a Vocal/Piano ensemble with Justin Ried or Joe McWilliamns. Amanda works with larger Jazz Ensembles such as the Harold Zinno Jazz Orchestra.

Amanda can be heard at CD Baby, Soundcloud.com and Reverb Nation.