Join us for an evening of modern music by an exciting new nonet: MW9. Co-directed by Billy Wolfe and Leo Maxey, the evening will be an eclectic program consisting of modern jazz and arrangements by Alex Norris featuring the music of Woody Shaw, George Colligan, and Gary Thomas.
Leo Maxey is a Baltimore area trumpeter. Reared in Augusta, GA, he began his musical studies under the tutelage of his father Leonard Maxey, Sr. and Darian Washington and studied with local greats John Bradley, Michael Katterjohn, and Todd Jenkins. He holds tenure with the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra and has performed with artist such as the David Murray Big Band, Miho Hizama, the Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra, the Whitt Williams Big Band, Kurt Carr, Hector Tricoche, Frankie Ruiz, The Four Tops, The Impressions, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and and others. He has studied with Alex Norris, Tim Murphy, Gary Thomas, Michael Formankek, Paul Bollenback, Greg Gisbert, Blake Meister, Russell Thomas, Robert Blaine, and Darcie Bishop. Leo can be seen haunting the Baltimore/DC Metro area with his small groups of varying sizes and his “Maximal Winds”. He attended Brevard College, Jackson State University, and is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute....
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Join us for an evening of modern music by an exciting new nonet: MW9. Co-directed by Billy Wolfe and Leo Maxey, the evening will be an eclectic program consisting of modern jazz and arrangements by Alex Norris featuring the music of Woody Shaw, George Colligan, and Gary Thomas.
Leo Maxey is a Baltimore area trumpeter. Reared in Augusta, GA, he began his musical studies under the tutelage of his father Leonard Maxey, Sr. and Darian Washington and studied with local greats John Bradley, Michael Katterjohn, and Todd Jenkins. He holds tenure with the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra and has performed with artist such as the David Murray Big Band, Miho Hizama, the Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra, the Whitt Williams Big Band, Kurt Carr, Hector Tricoche, Frankie Ruiz, The Four Tops, The Impressions, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and and others. He has studied with Alex Norris, Tim Murphy, Gary Thomas, Michael Formankek, Paul Bollenback, Greg Gisbert, Blake Meister, Russell Thomas, Robert Blaine, and Darcie Bishop. Leo can be seen haunting the Baltimore/DC Metro area with his small groups of varying sizes and his “Maximal Winds”. He attended Brevard College, Jackson State University, and is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute.
Born and raised north of Chicago, Billy Wolfe began playing piano at the age of 5 and saxophone at the age of 10. Billy earned a bachelor of music degree from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where he began his professional career playing with bands such as Vaughn Wiester’s Famous Jazz Orchestra, the Dayton Jazz Orchestra, and his own quartet. He then returned to Chicago and in 2011 obtained his master of music de gree from DePaul University. It was during this period that he first began exploring the creative possibilities of contemporary large ensemble music, an interest inspired by his studies with Tom Matta and experiences performing with several Chicago area new music groups. Billy is currently based out of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area where he leads the Billy Wolfe Octet, Composers’ Tetradectet, and the Tristano School project. He co-leads the nine piece MW9 ensemble with Baltimore based trumpeter, Leo Maxey and is also is a member of the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, the Brad Linde Expanded Ensemble, The District Brass, Ishmael Ali Zghoul's "Zebec" and the avant-garde quartet/quintet, "Team Players”. Some venues he has performed at over the years include: Andy's (Chicago), Atlas Performing Arts Center (DC), Blues Alley (DC), Bohemian Caverns (DC), Bop Stop (Cleveland), Cliff Bell's (Detroit) Drawing Room (NYC), Hamilton (DC), Hungry Brain (Chicago), Kennedy Center (DC), IBeam (NYC), Jazz Gallery (NYC), Jazz Showcase (Chicago), Library of Congress (DC), Merriman's Playhouse (South Bend), Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC),
Billy has had the pleasure of performing alongside many leading practitioners of his craft. Lee Konitz,
Phil Woods, Oliver Lake, Jon Irabagon, Steve Wilson, Richie Cole, Caroline Davis, Oran Etkin, Seneca Black, Marquis Hill, Jim Powell, Ryan Keberle, Warren Wolf, Florian Weber, Cory Christiansen, Michael Formanek, Matt Ulery, Matt Wilson, and Jeff Hamilton are all musicians he has had the pleasure of creating music with. Being attracted to large scale projects, Billy has had the good fortune of having worked with several esteemed large ensemble composer.
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