.. .. I grew up in Melbourne Australia, studied there with local guitarist Bruce Clarke, and cut my teeth in the business playing with The Australian Show Band and The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 1992, I set sail for New York where I made my home for 10 years. In New York I had the chance to study at various times with Jim Hall, Bucky Pizzarelli, Billy Bauer, Peter Leitch and Rodney Jones. All were accomplished players who had taken their craft in different directions in the music business. I wanted to do the same, and make my mark (no pun intended) on the New York scene.
It was a strange set of circumstances then that led me to join "The Flying Neutrinos", a New Orleans style band led by Ingrid Lucia. What was I doing playing Dixieland in New York, the very heart of modern jazz? I was making a living, that's what, and in hindsight, learning a heck of a lot about playing guitar, and leaving me with some of my most cherished memories. I recorded their first CD "I'd Rather Be In New Orleans" with them on a cold snowy day in 1993, and the band became a local phenomenon with lines around the block at our regular sunday night gig at The Rodeo Bar on 3rd Ave and 27th St. It was with The Neutrinos that I wrote the song "Mr. Zoot Suit" after seeing "The Mask" with a bunch of guys called Royal Crown Revue playing their crazy swing number "Hey Pachuco." The irony of this is not lost on me as years later, I found myself a member of that very band. Anyway, Ingrid recorded "Mr. Zoot Suit", it became one of the swing hits of the late nineties, and was featured in the movies "Blast From The Past" with Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone and "Three To Tango" with Matthew Perry and Neve Campbell, as well as the hit TV show "Sex and the City."
After my stint with The Neutrinos, I played all over New York with various musicians including jazz heavyweights Doc Cheatham, Eric Alexander, Vincent Herring and Brian Blade. I started my own band with singer Greg Mangus called "Set 'Em Up Joe" and toured the east coast with our self titled first CD release. I wrote most of the music for that album and was lucky enough to have some really terrific musicians in the band to do it all justice. Among many stellar gigs, we had the opportunity to open for the mellifluous Tony Bennett.
2001 rolled around, the world changed, and for my part, it was time to get the hell out of dodge, well, New York actually. I moved to Los Angeles, spent a year in culture shock ( "but where is the City?") and hooked up with a band I'd seen years earlier in a little known movie called "The Mask" with a little known actor named Jim Carrey. From then until now, I've had the chance to be onstage with icons such as Barry Manilow, Michael Feintsein, Jack Jones, Jon Hendricks, Bernadette Peters and Keeley Smith. With RCR I've opened for Sugar Ray, Chris Isaac and Brian Setzer. We appeared on three episodes of "Family Jewels," the reality show about KISS bassist Gene Simmons, playing a show with him in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Casino. The band has toured Europe every year gathering steam each time we return, and toured Australia four times. This gave me the opportunity to return to my home town in style, an experience I'll never forget.
Since arriving in Los Angeles, I also happened across a young guy named Tim Davies, another expat Aussie living in LA. Tim plays drums, has his own big band and invited me to join. Tim is also a very sought after arranger and I've been his side man for the last few years putting together music for movies like Sony's "When A Stranger Calls" and "Daddy Day Camp," "Pathfinder" for Fox, and "First Flight" for Dreamworks. TV shows "Invasion," "Pushing Daisies," "Battlestar Galactica," "Caprica," "Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "Eureka" and Videogames "SOCOM 2," "SOCOM 3," "GI Joe," "Dark Void," "God of War II" and "God Of War III." I've also worked with legend Wayne Shorter on his orchestral pieces as well as pianist Bill Cunliffe for his many orchestral projects.