Stephen Saxon

Stephen Saxon (trumpet, bass voice, countertenor) released is first solo jazz album, "Better Than Anything" (Saxonotes), in 1999. It features Sheldon Brown on saxophones along with pianist Mark Little, bassist Bill Douglass, and Wally Schnalle on drums.

His second solo release, "How Can I Keep From Singing" is due out in the third quarter of 2005, and will feature guitarist Mark Sganga, bassist Gerald Watts, Jr., and Chris Wabich on drums and hand percussion.

Stephen arranges music and sings for the a cappella jazz quintet, Clockwork (www.clockworksingers.com). Clockwork's latest release is Tesseract, and you can find either of their albums for sale at the Clockwork web site.

He performs regularly with the San Francisco Klezmer Experience (trumpet and voice), and has performed on three CDs with that band, "Maximum Freilach", "Zing!", and their latest release, "Harbst".

For 8 years, Stephen served as Cantor at Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland. From 1998 through 2004, he served as Cantor for High Holy Day services of congregation Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California.

Stephen has been performing professionally since 1978. During the past two decades he has performed or recorded with (in alphabetical order): The American Conservatory Theater, The Aspen Music Festival, The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Chet Baker, Michael Brecker, Shlomo Carlebach, Chanticleer, Richie Cole, The Euterpe Opera Company, Jose Feliciano, Dave Gruisin, David Grisman, James Horner, Kitka, The Klezmorim, The Los Angeles Yiddish Folk Choir, The Lyric Brass Quintet (leader), The Lyric Singers (leader), Bobby McFerrin, The Miribai Ensemble, Zalmen Mlotek, Barbara Morrison, Amenata Moseka (Abby Lincoln), Mark Murphy, Phil Mattson, The Phil Mattson Vocal Jazz Workshops (teacher), The PM Singers, The San Fransicso Bach Choir, The San Francisco Choral Artists, The San Francisco Jewish Folk Chorus (conductor), The San Francisco Klezmer Experience, The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, A cast of San Quentin inmates, Gunther Schuller, Mark Sganga, Don Shelton, Kirby Shaw, The Spokane Opera Company, The Spokane Symphony Orchestra (vocal soloist, extra trumpet), Buddy Tate, Michael Tilson Thomas, Mal Waldron, Jerry Watts, Andy Williams, John Williams, Frank Zappa, and in various radio spots, movie soundtracks, blah, blah, blah... You get the idea.