Triumph Brewery Sept. 4

The Sustainable Jazz Duo with Phil Orr on piano and Steve Hiltner on sax/clarinet returns to Triumph Brewery in Princeton on Friday, September 4, from 6-9. Great beer and food, and a beautiful space for performing our all-original latin and jazz. 
 

Performance at the Veblen Birthday Bash--Saturday, July 25

The Sustainable Jazz Duo will perform July 25 (raindate July 26) outdoors at Herrontown Woods as part of an annual celebration of the birthdays of Oswald and Elizabeth Veblen, original donors of the first nature preserve in Princeton. The event runs from 4-8pm. Our all-original jazz and latin, featuring Steve Hiltner on sax/clarinet and the totally orrsome Phil Orr on keyboards, will commence at 5pm. Bring a picnic if you want, and enjoy the tranquil Veblen House grounds. Park at 600 Snowden Lane or 452 Herrontown Road in Princeton, NJ. 

This year's celebration is extra special because it includes the unveiling of the extraordinary Hope's Community Collage, which turns the community's love for Herrontown Woods into a work of collective art.

More info below, from the website of the event's sponsor, the Friends of Herrontown Woods.

"Three years in the making, the opening celebration of Hope’s Community Collage is a thank you to all the artists — visitors, long-time devotees, and workshop attendees alike — who contributed their unique creative pieces to become one community artwork. The collage began as Hope’s project to support the Veblen House renovation and has grown into a shared expression of this community’s creativity. The waterproof piece will be on display on the Veblen House “Outside Gallery” walls for all to admire that pass through our woods. Join us for refreshments, live music, and the chance to make old and new friends. Everyone is welcome — bring the whole family. Thank you for being part of the FOHW community. Rain date: July 26, 2026."

A Recording Session with Francophone Vocalist Eva Madeleine Martin

It was a joy to record recently with francophone vocalist Eva Madeleine Martin, who has been developing her vocal talents and repertoire with notable vocal mentor Trineice Robinson and our Sustainable Jazz pianist Phil Orr.

We recorded arrangements of Oui, Oui, Oui, Oui, LOVE, Le Petite Fleur, If I Were a Bell, and a couple others, with lyrics in French or english or both. Something about Eva's singing just makes me feel happy. 

California Tour--June, 2026

I began composing in 1983 after joining a composers' workshop in Ann Arbor, MI that evolved into the Lunar Octet. The group, whose all-original repertoire overlaps with that of Sustainable Jazz, still performs, most recently during a ten-day tour in the Bay area of California.

We performed at Mr. Tipples Jazz Club in downtown San Francisco, at the SacYard in Sacramento, and other venues in the area. For these tours, there's a convergence of the core group--conguero Aron Kaufman from Ann Arbor, bassist Jeff Dalton from the Florida Keys, myself from NJ, and drummer/host Jon Krosnick--joined by top-notch players from the Bay area. 

For this tour we were joined by saxophonist Tod Dickow, trumpeter Chris Aschman, and pianist Greg Sankovich. Guitarist Barry Finnerty, who has recorded with Miles Davis and other greats, joined us for a gig.

Our 2025 tour yielded a live recording planned for release later this year. The Lunar Octet website documents 43 years of all-original music making.

Sustainable Jazz to Perform at the DR Greenway's 2026 Gala

Our Sustainable Jazz duo returns to the Johnson Education Center to perform for the DR Greenway Gala, Sunday, May 31, 4-6pm. Support this great organization and hear our original latin and jazz on the beautiful grounds of the DR Greenway headquarters on the west side of Princeton. More info at the link.

Celebrating their 20th year, the DR Greenway has preserved more than 20,000 acres of land in our region!

May 8 Free Performance at West Windsor Senior Center, 1-2pm

This Friday, May 8, Phil and I journey across the Stonybrook to perform our all-original latin and jazz at the West Windsor Senior Center. All welcome. 1-2pm, 271 Clarksville Rd, West Windsor Township, NJ

This is my second time presenting at the Senior Center this year. Back in March, around Einstein's birthday, they hosted a talk historian Cindy Srnka and I developed entitled "How Oswald Veblen Quietly Created Einstein's Princeton."

Sustainable Jazz Performs for a HIP Fundraiser

Sustainable Jazz, with Steve Hiltner on reeds and Phil Orr on keyboard, performed again this year for the Annual Spring Gathering of Housing Initiative of Princeton.

With our mix of original music and jazz standards, we sought to live up to the organization's fortuitous acronym: HIP.

This spirited and effective organization's mission is to "Assist local individuals and families experiencing housing insecurity build toward a sustainable future via stable housing, better employment, and a network of support services."

Introducing Singer Eva Martin--Chanteuse Extraordinaire

What a treat to be part of Le Jazz Fun in the debut performance by Eva Martin, an academic turned French teacher and singer. Eva has a gorgeous voice that's been waiting patiently through her other careers for the time and training needed to bloom.  

That training began when her brother, jazz guitarist Alex Martin, recommended a top flight voice coach:  Dr. Trineice, aka Trineice Robinson-Martin, formerly on the faculty of the Princeton University jazz program and now at Berklee College of Music. Trineice in turn recommended pianist and composer Phil Orr--my close musical collaborator--to be Eva's pianist, helping her expand and arrange her repertoire. 

As Eva tells it, she had always wanted to be a singer, and in fact sat in at a Paris jazz club earlier in her life. The band members encouraged her to continue, but she claims to have had only five notes she could sing. That, along with skepticism about the chances of sustaining herself with music, caused her to pursue instead an academic career. During this time, raising a family, her kids were the ones who got the benefit of her singing. Having achieved what she wanted in academia--a dissertation, a PhD, a book--she shifted to teaching in order to stay in the Princeton area. In 2025, she made a New Year's resolution that proved to be transformative: “Sing for 10 minutes a day. Just for joy.” That precipitated the sequence of events and mentoring that led to her vocal debut. 

With Kai Gibson on bass, Logan Bogdan on drums, and myself on sax and clarinet, we were the opening act at the April 11 Francophone Festival on Hinds Plaza. 

Here's a link to a video of the performance. 

By coincidence, I had played jazz with Eva's brother Alex in Durham, NC 25 years ago. Alex came up from his home base in Washington, DC to be part of the FrancoFest performance.

Performance at Salon 33, Saturday, March 14, 8-10pm

Salon 33 is a great venue for hearing live music in West Windsor, and pianist Phil Orr and I will be there this coming Saturday, March 14. No cover--this is a donation-based event. There's an optional potluck at 7, followed by two sets of our all-original jazz and latin music starting at 8pm. RSVP is required. To get directions and more info, register at this link.

We're a duo, but Salon 33's fabulous grand piano is like a third presence on the stage. (The fig tree in the background is what happens when Phil sits down with Photoshop.)

Upcoming Performances -- 2026

From coast to coast, we're gearing up for another year of all-original adventures in jazz, latin, funk, and tango.

Sunday, Feb. 8, 2-3pm Mount Laurel Library -- We're excited to be part of this excellent series of Sunday jazz concerts. 

Saturday, March 14, 8-10 Salon 33, West Windsor - a great community of music lovers; potluck at 7pm; contact us for more info 

Sunday, May 3, 4-7 HIP Spring Gathering - a good cause and good music at this fundraiser for the Housing Initiative of Princeton, which helps local families who are housing insecure

Friday, May 8, 1pm West Windsor Senior Center - lots of cultural happenings at this community center, including a talk I'll be giving March 20, 1pm, related to Einstein's birthday

June 24 - July 1, California tour with the Lunar Octet