Happy New Year!  I am so thrilled that this past year, 2018, my bands album, “African Skies”, made Andrew Gilbert’s (prominent jazz advocate and correspondent for all jazz music being made and produced in the greater San Francisco Bay Area) best of the Bay Area albums by Jazz Musicians.  I rarely consider myself a jazz musician, because I have always considered myself a musician without specific genre attachment.

I grew up in the band programs of Merced, CA, where there is still a strong and active Concert Band and Marching Band foundation that feeds into the Jazz Bands at the High Schools in Merced–particularly at Golden Valley High School.

I am thrilled to see that we also made the 2018 year in review, of albums that received 4 or more stars in Downbeat magazine, a premiere jazz publication.

Currently, I am finishing up mixes of over 30 recorded tracks collected over the past year with my band.  We have tunes recorded with the entire band, several quintet recordings, several quartet recordings and this time even a few trio recordings.  Onward and upward!

Sincerely,

Jemal