John Lake

John Lake is a trumpet player and composer living in New York City, maintaining a busy performance schedule as a jazz soloist and in-demand lead trumpet player. John composes and arranges original music for his own acoustic jazz septet, The John Lake Ensemble, and is a co-leader of the New Alchemy Jazz Orchestra, which has featured such artists as Peter Bernstein, Dick Oatts, and Terrell Stafford. John's compositions and arrangements have been performed at New York University, University of Wyoming, University of Colorado, Ithaca College, Celebrity Cruises, and many more.

Recent large-ensemble performances include lead and section trumpet with the American Ballet Theater Orchestra at Lincoln Center, Michael Feinstein & Tedd Firth Big Band at Jazz At Lincoln Center, Ben Markley Big Band, Fat Cat Big Band, Jihye Lee Jazz Orchestra, Jazzharmonic Orchestra, David Berger Jazz Orchestra, Charlie Rosen��s Broadway Big Band and 8-Bit Big Band, the Danny Jonokuchi Big Band, Brian Krock��s Big Heart Machine, Jazzharmonic Orchestra (Miho Hazama & Ron Wasserman), Steven Feifke Big Band, Terazza Big Band (Michael Thomas & Edward Perez), the Seth Weaver Big Band, and is a featured musician of the New York Rangers NHL team

Points In Time

By John Yao

Label: See Tao Recordings
Released: 2025
Track listing: Upside; Not Even Close; Triceratops Blues; First Step; The Other Way; Early Morning Walk; Song For Nolan; Finger Painting.

Not Even Close

August 12, 2025

Album: Points In Time
By John Yao
Label: See Tao Recordings
Released: 2025
Duration: 8:16

John Yao and His 17 Piece Instrument: Points In Time

by Jack Bowers
August 4, 2025

The insuperable spirit of swinging big-band jazz is everywhere apparent on Points in Time, the seventh recording by New York-based composer, arranger and trombonist John Yao, and the second with his marvelous 17-Piece Instrument, a decade after its well-received debut, Flip-Flop. (See Tao, 2015). As on that earlier album, the playlist consists of ...

John Yao and his 17 Piece Instrument: Points In Time

by Pierre Giroux
July 13, 2025

Trombonist and composer John Yao presents a heartfelt and personal retrospective with Points In Time. This ambitious album delves deeply into the emotional and professional journey he has undertaken over the past twenty years in New York City. Leading his precisely coordinated ensemble, aptly called His 17-Piece Instrument, comprised of talented musicians from various points along ...

Brad Goode: Polytonal Big Band: The Snake Charmer

by Jack Bowers
February 22, 2025

"Polytonal," according to Webster's, denotes “the simultaneous use of two or more musical keys." Denver-based trumpeter and educator Brad Goode makes full use of that technique on The Snake Charmer, the debut recording by Goode's well-named Polytonal Big Band. When all has been written and played, two things are clear: first, Goode is a world-class big-band ...

Goose Chase

February 5, 2025

Album: Polytonal Big Band: The Snake Charmer
By Brad Goode
Label: Origin Records
Released: 2024
Duration: 08:48

Breathe

By Peter Lenz

Label: ART
Released: 2024
Track listing: Between Lines, Breathe, Von Inneren Grenzen, Enclouded, Eleanor.

Swingin' Uptown

By Eyal Vilner

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2024
Track listing: Chicken an�� Dumplings; Bumpy Tour Bus; Swingin�� Uptown; Tell Me Pretty Baby; I Want Coffee; Is You Is or Is You Ain��t; Tea for Two; Lobby Call Blues; Blue Skies; Don��t You Feel My Leg; I Love the Rhythm in a Riff; I Don��t Want to Be Kissed (By Anyone Else But You); Swing Brother Swing; Coffee Bean Stomp Jubilee; Hellzapoppin��; Afternoon at Smalls.

A Decade

By Danny Jonokuchi

Label: Bandstand Presents
Released: 2024
Track listing: Voyage; Red Top; This Can't Be Love; South Philly; Skylark; On Green Dolphin Street; Ping Pong; Lady Bird; Like Someone In Love; Skylark (vocal).