Dean Mongerio

Dean has cultivated his passionate and commanding playing style through a vast range of experience in Jazz, R&B, Rock, Pop, Funk, and Gospel, as well as producing and arranging numerous projects and leading several of his own groups in various musical genres.

On the more traditional side, Dean has performed with jazz artists Rufus Reid, Marcus Printup, Sam Rivers, and Danny Gottlieb, as well as contemporary artists such as Chieli Minucci, Marc Antoine, Ed Calle, Chris Standring, Mike Phillips, Craig Chaquico, Will Donato, and Blake Aaron. He’s also performed and/or recorded with a diverse array of mainstream artists including The Temptations, The O’Jays, Steve Cropper, The Drifters, Ryan Shaw, Khristian Dentley (Take 6), and Tony Battaglia (Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Mandy Moore, Shinedown). He has also been featured on recordings alongside Brandon Fields, Mike Miller, and David Sanborn.

Dean produced, arranged, and performed on the debut album for Gospel Artist Manny Luster, which was nominated for the 2009 NIGMA Rhythm of Gospel award for “Traditional Album of the Year”, and won the award for “Traditional Male Vocalist of the Year”. In 2010, his contemporary jazz group The Groovemasters released their eponymous EP, and their original song “Brown Rice” (featuring Dean’s “fiercely funky saxophone playing” as stated by one reviewer) was the Top Jazz Song of 2010 chosen by Indie-Music.com.

In 2011 Dean moved to London and immediately got to work with his own groups, performing at several famous venues including Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, and Charlie Wright’s. In January of 2013 he joined the two-year European tour of the production New Jersey Nights, where he was the featured soloist. The show performed in A-list venues all over the UK and Europe – including the Edinburgh Playhouse and Liverpool’s Echo arena – with Dean garnering consistently rave reviews for his performance.

2015 sees the release of Dean’s solo album debut. This album includes 10 tracks of all original compositions in a wide range of styles, along with Dean’s unique and inventive approach to using effects pedals with the saxophone, and features the talents of guest stars Khristian Dentley (Take 6), John Turville (Gilad Atzmon, Tim Garland), Anton “TC” Castillo (Akon, Jeff Kashiwa), and many others.

The first single to radio from the album is “In the Bag”, which has landed in the top 25 on the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart, and the top 15 on Smoothjazz.com’s radio chart. It continues to see consistently high rotation on radio stations across the US, including SiriusXM’s Watercolors channel 66.

Awards

2009 NIGMA Rhythm of Gospel nomination as producer for “Traditional Album of the Year” Top Jazz Song of 2010 by Indie-Music.com for "Brown Rice"

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