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Xavier Breaker

Drummer, composer and arranger, Xavier Breaker has played with various artists throughout his career including Joe Sample, Randy Crawford, Howard Hewitt, Lalah Hathaway, Ernie Watts, Joey DeFrancesco, Bob Mintzer, Brad Leali, and Jonathan Scales. He has also played for some of Chicago’s finest including Corey Wilkes, Kahil El Zabar, Dee Alexander, Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Chicago Yestet, Sidewalk Chalk, and many others. The Xavier Breaker Coalition was formed in 2013 as an effort to design a group that can thrive in a variety of musical situations. The Coalition opened for many groups, including Brian Auger's Oblivion Express and HBC (Scott Henderson, Jeff Berlin, Dennis Chambers). They have been featured in many festivals including the Chicago Jazz Festival and have been the first­call house band for the Keilworth "Saxophone Idol" competition since 2013. The Coalition released their debut album, "Dreamology," in 2015. Xavier endorses Paiste Cymbals.

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23
Album Review

Doug Lawrence: Doug Lawrence & Friends

Read "Doug Lawrence & Friends" reviewed by Jack Bowers


If the name Doug Lawrence doesn't sound familiar, the name Count Basie surely should. What is the Lawrence- Basie connection? Well, for more than two decades Lawrence has been the featured tenor saxophone soloist with the renowned and still- active Count Basie Orchestra, a chair once impressively occupied by the likes of Lester Young, Eddie “Lockjaw" Davis, Lucky Thompson, Wardell Gray and Frank Foster, among others. When someone has been around as long as Lawrence, he or she makes a ...

11
Album Review

Carlos Vega: Art of the Messenger

Read "Art of the Messenger" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Tenor saxophonist Carlos Vega is a steeped-in-the-tradition fan of early bebop, displaying his passion for the genre with his nods to alto saxophonist Charlie Parker on Bird's Ticket (2016) and Bird's Up (2017), both on Origin Records. With Art Of The Messenger he shifts his focus to Art Blakey, the drummer who led the Jazz Messengers from 1955 onward for thirty-five years, helping define—in the early years—the hard bop Blue Note Records approach to jazz. Vega and his ...

16
Album Review

Carlos Vega: Art of the Messenger

Read "Art of the Messenger" reviewed by Jack Bowers


In case you didn't quite catch the “message" subtly embedded in the title of Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Carlos Vega's new recording, Art of the Messenger, here is a brief reminder that it was drummer Art Blakey who formed the Jazz Messengers in the mid-1950s and led the celebrated hard-bop ensemble until his death in 1990. The Messengers' roster of alumni reads like a Who's Who of Jazz Hall of Fame members. With that in mind, Vega assembled ...

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Primary Instrument

Drums

Location

Chicago

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Players

Open Mic Records
2022

buy

Art of the Messenger

Origin Records
2021

buy

Doug Lawrence &...

Self Produced
2021

buy

Sittin at the Bar

From: Players
By Xavier Breaker

There Are Thorns

From: Players
By Xavier Breaker

Simone

From: Blueprints Figure Two: New...
By Xavier Breaker

Art of the Messenger

From: Art of the Messenger
By Xavier Breaker

Videos

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