Welcome to my website! This page is a home base for my solo work outside of my americana, swing & rock 'n' roll revival band Birch Pereira & The Gin Joints (where I am the lead singer and bassist) and my ukulele duo with Jenny Littlefield. This site will cover all the various ways I’m involved with the music industry listed below:
BASS:
Upright and electric bassist for live performance, session work and remote recording.
COMPOSER:
Original jazz/hip hop/electronic/folk music for soundtracks to film/video game/commercials or co-writing with other artists.
PRODUCER/ENGINEER:
Mix, edit, overdub, remix, studio consultation.
TEACHER:
Upright/Electric Bass, Piano, Guitar and Ukulele
WRITER:
A music blog featuring my experience as a player and teacher.
About Me:
I've been a freelance gigging upright and electric bassist in Seattle now for two decades. I'm just as comfortable playing jazz in a hotel lobby to touring with a hip hop artist or a singer songwriter. Although I grew up a classical cellist, after a year in orchestra at the University of Washington I switched over to the jazz department and never looked back. Studying under the department's direction of pianist Marc Seales and bassist Doug Miller and Phil Sparks, I graduated with a B.A. in Jazz Bass Performance in 2005. I've also worked hard to gig and study with experts outside of academia including Latin Jazz bassist Joe Santiago, Senegalese percussionist Ibrahama Camara and Seattle's funkiest guitarist Thaddeus Turner.
In 2015 I started the band Birch Pereira & the Gin Joints where i stepped out to the front of the stage as a the lead singer/bassist, playing originals and new arrangements of covers in a 1950s americana/soul/jazz style. The band has toured the US & Canada playing jazz, blues and folk festivals and concerts and received glowing reviews in No Depression, Jazziz, Pop Matters and more. As a freelance musician, highlights in my gigging history include multiple performances at the Sasquatch and Bumbershoot festivals with Theoretics, tours across the US with 60s retro band Prom Queen and singer songwriter Jenn Grinels, European and Canadian adventures with the celtic pop band The Paperboys and performing with jazz trumpeter Bria Skonberg and the amazing Cajun soul artist Marc Broussard. As a composer I've written music for every band I've been a part of and scored several short films, and performed songs i co-wrote with the electronica-hip hop group Theoretics live on KEXP 90.3 FM.
