Biography
Mike Vax is a Summit Records recording artist. He has played lead and solo trumpet with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Clark Terry Big Bad Band, and the US Navy Show Band. Mike has also performed and/or recorded with such greats as Art Pepper, Gene Krupa, Cab Calloway, Freddy Hubbard, Don Ellis, Don Jacoby, Louie Bellson, Joe Williams, Anita O’Day, June Christy, the Four Freshmen, Glenn Miller, Harry James, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestras, Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band, and the Dukes of Dixieland in New Orleans.
As a recording musician, Mike has performed on more than 80 albums, including 30 under his own name. He is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Friends of Big Band Jazz, a 501c3 nonprofit corporation that has given over $65,000 in scholarships to jazz camps and donations to school music departments. Currently, he is leading his own groups: The Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra, TRPTS (Trumpets), The Great American Jazz Band, The Vax-Romm Combo, and the Mike Vax Quintet and Sextet.
Vax has given workshops and concerts at over 3000 high schools, colleges and universities all around the world during the past 60 years. He has presented clinics at many state music conventions as well as national conventions such as MENC, ITG, IAJE, JEN and others. He is very active as a clinician and soloist in both the classical and jazz idioms.
SPECIALTIES:
Trumpet embouchure
Breathing
Trumpet design
Performance anxiety
Jazz improvisation
Efficient practice
Positive mental approach
Stylistic vibrato
Lead trumpet
Trad jazz
Big band playing
LANGUAGES:
English
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.