Josh Shpak Band with Special Guests, Jason Palmer, Billy Buss and more! at David Friend Recital Hall

For his senior recital, Josh Shpak and his band, with featured special guest trumpeters, Jason Palmer and Billy Buss, will showcase Shpak's original music, some of it from his 2015 debut EP, "Astatic", which brings together a wide range of influences including jazz, rock, electronica, soul, film music, and world music. Other special guests will include vocalists Robbie Wulfsohn and Debó Ray, and Ethan Heyenga on alto sax and FX.

Josh has collected a group of some of the brightest young talents in music today, creating an ensemble steeped in the history of jazz, that – following in the footsteps of pioneers like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny – creates a sonic palette more accessible to young listeners. “I have often found that the main reason people of my generation steer away from jazz is not that the music is too complex, too angular, too tense…it’s because the very sounds that the musicians are using sound old or outdated to them,” says Shpak. “I’d like to bring my music to these people in a way that makes their own favorite artists (whether they be Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar or The Beatles), be as relevant a part of our culture’s musical history as John Coltrane”....

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For his senior recital, Josh Shpak and his band, with featured special guest trumpeters, Jason Palmer and Billy Buss, will showcase Shpak's original music, some of it from his 2015 debut EP, "Astatic", which brings together a wide range of influences including jazz, rock, electronica, soul, film music, and world music. Other special guests will include vocalists Robbie Wulfsohn and Debó Ray, and Ethan Heyenga on alto sax and FX.

Josh has collected a group of some of the brightest young talents in music today, creating an ensemble steeped in the history of jazz, that – following in the footsteps of pioneers like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny – creates a sonic palette more accessible to young listeners. “I have often found that the main reason people of my generation steer away from jazz is not that the music is too complex, too angular, too tense…it’s because the very sounds that the musicians are using sound old or outdated to them,” says Shpak. “I’d like to bring my music to these people in a way that makes their own favorite artists (whether they be Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar or The Beatles), be as relevant a part of our culture’s musical history as John Coltrane”.

That’s a high statement for someone so young, but as a protégé of jazz trumpet/flugelhorn legend, Clark Terry, this statement comes from a place of deep respect for the past. “Every great musician in history has been completely present in his or her own time period, while using their knowledge of the tradition to drive their creative forces”.

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