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Wil Swindler
Composer and saxophonist, Wil Swindler currently resides near Denver, CO where he leads Wil Swindler's Elevenet, the modern bop quintet GoodRattle, and the Wil Swindler Quartet. In addition to his own bands, he is an active performer with the Peter Sommer Septet, Al Hood’s H2 Big Band, Colorado Symphony, the Ben Markley Big Band, the Colorado Jazz Orchestra, the Adam Bartzcak Republic, and many more. In addition to receiving IAJE's Gil Evans Fellowship in 2008, Wil has completed numerous commissions from jazz ensembles, military bands, and symphony orchestras around the world. Wil has three CDs available under his own name, Universe B (OA2 Records 2010), the Right Riot (2014) with GoodRqattle, and Chamber Jazz Ensemble (NohJoh Music 2006), and can be heard on numerous other albums including Ingrid Michaelson’s Songs for the Season, Steve Owen's Stand Up Eight, Peter Sommer’s Happy-Go-Lucky-Locals, Al Hood/Dave Hansen's You're It, Bob Washut’s Journey to Knowhere, and David Caffey’s Enter Autumn and All in One.
Originally from Central Texas, Wil began studying music at age five, and picked up the saxophone at age nine. He earned a B.M. in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas in 2001 where he played in, composed for, and recorded with the 1:00 Lab Band. While at North Texas, he studied with Jim Riggs, Paris Rutherford, Neil Slater, and others. In 2000 he attended the Henry Mancini Institute on a full scholarship from BMI, and received a commission the following year from HMI for a piece premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In 2001, Wil relocated to New York City, where he played with Toshiko Akiyoshi and Bill Warfield's NY Fusion Ensemble, among others. During his time in N.Y., Wil studied saxophone with Dave Pietro and composition with Michael Abene and Jim McNeely as a member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. In 2003, he returned to his hometown of Austin, Texas, where he co-founded the 10-pc Chamber Jazz Ensemble and served as musical director for vocalist Kevin Ahart. Mr. Swindler has lived in Colorado since 2006 with his wife April Johannesen and daughter Annika.
As an educator, Wil is in demand as a saxophone and jazz clinician and joined the music faculty at Colorado State University as an adjunct Jazz instructor in the fall of 2009. He is a frequent adjudicator for high school and college jazz festivals around the country and maintains a private saxophone/composition studio in the Denver area.
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Ben Markley: Ari's Funhouse
by Angelo Leonardi
Accade spesso nel jazz che dagli incontri estemporanei nascano le cose migliori. Il bandleader e arrangiatore Ben Markley e il batterista Ari Hoenig si sono conosciuti nel 2019 in un jazz festival del Texas. Da quell'incontro è nato questo progetto discografico, che ha visto Markley orchestrare le composizioni di Hoenig per la big band che guida a Denver. Il batterista è ospite dell'ensemble e dà il suo contributo con un vivace e articolato sostegno ritmico. L'album è stato registrato nel ...
read moreInterview With Jazz Saxophonist Wil Swindler
by Steven Roby
Composer and saxophonist Wil Swindler currently resides near Denver, CO, where he leads Wil Swindler's Elevenet, the modern bop quintet GoodRattle, and the Wil Swindler Quartet. In addition to his own bands, he is an active performer with the Peter Sommer Septet, Al Hood's H2 Big Band, the Colorado Symphony, the Ben Markley Big Band , the Colorado Jazz Orchestra, the Adam Bartczak Republic, and many more. In addition to receiving IAJE's Gil Evans Fellowship in 2008, Wil ...
read moreTed Piltzecker: Vibes on a Breath
by Jack Bowers
Even though Ted Piltzecker is a splendid vibraphonist and ushers a group of Colorado's leading jazz musicians through its paces on Vibes on a Breath, it is his sparkling arrangements that carry the day on this delightful new album. Several members of Piltzecker's septet double, and he makes the most of that versatility, writing charts that bring to the fore John Gunther's bass clarinet, Wil Swindler's baritone sax and (on the closing number) Judith Leclair's bassoon and Javier Diaz's percussion. ...
read moreWil Swindler: Space Bugs
by Jack Bowers
Space Bugs is essentially multi-layered yet readily accessible chamber jazz admirably performed by saxophonist/composer Wil Swindler's Colorado-based Eleventeta finely woven banquet for the ears that was handsomely recorded in May 2022 before an appreciative audience at Denver's Mighty Fine Productions. Gil Evans springs to mind when listening, as do Pete Rugolo and late- career Bob Brookmeyer. As a composer, Swindler writes that he has always been between worlds," loving the pristine intervals and warm timbres of orchestral ...
read moreBen Markley Big Band: Ari's Funhouse
by Jack Bowers
Ari's Funhouse, recorded in July 2021, sprang from a chance encounter at a Texas jazz festival in 2019 between New York-based drummer & composer Ari Hoenig and Denver-based pianist & arranger Ben Markley. After performing with Hoenig in a small group, Markley asked if he might score some of Hoenig's songs for a big band. Hoenig readily agreed, and after a lengthy Covid-induced pause, he and Markley's band finally met face-to-face in Denver to record the album. Two things are ...
read moreMusic
If I Only Had a Brain
From: Vibes on a BreathBy Wil Swindler
Passage
From: Space BugsBy Wil Swindler
Birdless
From: Ari's FunhouseBy Wil Swindler
Universe B
From: Universe BBy Wil Swindler