Hello. As the year changes I thought I’d send out a brief 2015 recap and 2016 preview of my doings. Thanks in advance for reading!

In June I was awarded a Doris Duke Impact Award. Along with many other services, the award consists of up to $80,000 of funds for various purposes including retirement funds, audience development, and flexible and unrestricted usage. My fellow awardees in jazz this year were Kris Davis, Mark Dresser, Milford Graves, Tyshawn Sorey, Henry Threadgill, and Reggie Workman. It was a huge honor for me to receive this award and to be included among these musicians.

In October I released on Pi Recordings my most recent album as a leader, a double album called Vista Accumulation. This album features 8 of my compositions for my quartet featuring Chris Speed, Chris Tordini, and Dan Weiss. I’ve been fortunate that it has received great reviews and has appeared on many year-end best-of lists, including placing 20th on the annual NPR list aggregated from the lists of 147 participating jazz writers.

This band will play two sets at the Jazz Standard in NYC on January 6, 2016. If you’re local and have been thinking of just the perfect time to come see me play, this is a perfect start. Sets at 7:30 and 9:30. We’re also planning our first European tour for October/November 2016.

I also was fortunate to continue my associations with many fantastic bandleaders. Lots of touring with and records from Tim Berne, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and Dave Douglas; records with Darius Jones, Mario Pavone, and To Live and Shave in LA; and performances with Ches Smith, John Hollenbeck, Anna Webber, Clarence Penn, Chris Lightcap, Jon Irabagon, Jonathan Finlayson, Michael Attias, and Ohad Talmor. A couple particular highlights included a premiere of 9 of John Zorn’s new Bagatelles with Jon Irabagon, Drew Gress, and Tom Rainey in September, and a week with Dave Douglas, Linda Oh, Ches Smith, and the legend Lee Konitz [!] at the Jazz Standard in March.

Finally, this coming March 1-6 I’m excited to be presenting my first residency at The Stone in NYC. I’ve been planning this for a while and things are falling into place nicely. I’ll update everyone more specifically about this closer to the week in question, but I’ll say now that I’ll be presenting 9 bands over 12 sets, 3 of which will be the premieres of new bands, 30 musicians in total participating.

Thank you very much for reading this, and for listening to records and coming to shows, and special thanks to all the musicians with whom I have been fortunate to perform. Much more is to come in 2016!

Happy New Year.

-m