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Gavin Templeton

Gavin Templeton is a Los Angeles based saxophonist, woodwind player, composer and educator. Gavin spent his formative years in Reno, Nevada. He began studying classical violin at five years old, but switched to the alto saxophone a few years later. His saxophone teacher introduced him to the music of Charlie Parker, which deeply affected him. Gavin felt an instant affinity with bebop music. He memorized Parker tunes and performed them for friends, family, and at his saxophone teacher’s gigs when he would be invited up to the bandstand. Gavin's professional career began in his teens. He played weekly hits at local venues and eventually found himself on stage backing visiting artists such as Wayne Newton and The Temptations. These experiences fueled his desire to continue studying music. He enrolled in the Jazz Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree.

Always curious, Gavin experimented playing in a variety of musical genres and contexts. During college he performed, recorded, and toured with high energy rock and funk groups. He views those years as a crucial part in his musical development. The electrifying music and emotions of rock and funk are integral to his performance style.

Gavin moved to Los Angeles in 2006. He went on to receive a Master’s degree from the California Institute of the Arts where he focused on composition and performance. In addition to jazz, he spent significant time studying Indian classical music, West African drumming, traditional Balkan music, and modern classical composition. That exposure lead him to join the Eastern European- influenced band, PLOTZ! and co-create the experimental improv group, DR. MiNT.

Gavin performs under his name in varying configurations, and is a member of the Vinny Golia Sextet, the Joshua White Quintet and Daniel Rosenboom Quintet/Septet. He has performed and/or recorded with Charlie Haden, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Nels Cline, Joe LaBarbera, Vinny Golia, Larry Koonse, Darek Oles, the New Century Players, Butch Morris, Alfred Ladzekpo, Swapan Chaudhuri, Peter Epstein, David Rosenboom, daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra, The Temptations, and Wayne Newton, among many others.

Gavin's quintet album 'Asterperious Special' is out on Nine Winds Records. The album is comprised of his original compositions, and he is joined by Joe LaBarbera (d), Darek Oles (b), Larry Koonse (g), Gary Fukushima (p).

'In Series' will be his 2013 release on Nine Winds Records. It features Perry Smith (g), Matt Politano (p), Sam Minaie (b), Matt Mayhall (d).

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5
Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Polarity

Read "Polarity" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


On this album, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom and his quartet engage in a free-wheeling session which comes off as a modern update of Wayne Shorter releases such as The All-Seeing Eye (Blue Note, 1966). He engages in playful genre-crossing and experimentation here which incorporate the sensibilities of hip-hop and ambient music as well as modern jazz. The album's key track is the marathon opener, “The Age of Snakes" in which Rosenboom's trumpet and Gavin Templeton's alto saxophone lazily float ...

12
Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Polarity

Read "Polarity" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel


Recently, Los Angeles-based trumpeter Dan Rosenboom has been experimenting with somewhat freer and edgier realms of improvisation, giving doomy metal influences a go on Trio Subliminal 2 (Orenda Records, 2022), and indulging high-energy trio interplay with plenty of delay effects and other sonic manipulation on Refraction (Orenda Records, 2021). Not to mention the opulent The Complete Boom Sessions (Orenda Records, 2022), which captured over 400-minutes, live to tape, recorded over five gigs at one of Los Angeles' premiere hubs for ...

22
Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Points of an Infinite Line

Read "Points of an Infinite Line" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


Released in the environment of his own label's absolute creative control, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom's newest outing sees a chordless quartet venturing beyond the borders of swing, exploring heavy grooves and free-wheeling improvisation to the point where jazz, hip hop and the rough edges of many other genres meld together to a single style that simultaneously defies the same categorizes of which it is made. Rosenboom's L.A.-based cohorts, drummer Anthony Fung, saxophonist Gavin Templeton and double bassist Billy Mohler, are instrumental ...

Album Review

Gavin Templeton: In Series

Read "In Series" reviewed by Luigi Sforza


Tenerezza e vigore, delicatezza e fermezza sostanziano la natura di In Series. Affrontando sistematicamente l'ascolto dell'album del sassofonista Gavin Templeton affiorano episodi autenticamente ispirati che, pur non prescindendo dai consolidati precetti che normano il jazz moderno, consegnano al fruitore momenti di indubbia raffinatezza musicale. “Karina," ad esempio, ha la sinuosità intrigante di una ballad tradizionale; qui il sassofono del leader non smette di ricordarci quanta liricità espressiva si può ancora sprigionare dagli strumenti attingendo ed ispirandosi ad un passato ...

5
Album Review

Gavin Templeton: Ballast

Read "Ballast" reviewed by Dave Wayne


A native of Reno, Nevada, alto saxophonist Gavin Templeton is emerging as one of the leading voices of Los Angeles' suddenly burgeoning modern jazz scene. If the music on Ballast, his fourth album as a leader, is any indication, Templeton might just be on his way to becoming one of the leading voices in modern jazz, period. A product of the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied under Charlie Haden, Joe LaBarbera, Swapan Chaudhuri, and Vinny Golia, Templeton ...

27
Album Review

Gavin Templeton Trio: Some Spinning, Some At Rest

Read "Some Spinning, Some At Rest" reviewed by Robert Bush


LA alto saxophonist Gavin Templeton's sophomore release as a leader, Some Spinning, Some At Rest represents the values of composition and free-improvising with equal fervor and expertise, and alongside double-bassist Richard Giddens and drummer Gene Coye, Mr. Templeton has documented one of the finest saxophone trio recordings in recent memory. Templeton's soulful, yearning vibrato opens “Exit Row," teasing a raw, primal groove from Giddens' groaning pizzicato and the fulsome architecture of Coye's sticks-on-skins. These two mesh ...

5
Album Review

Gavin Templeton: In Series

Read "In Series" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Alto saxophonist Gavin Templeton has become a pivotal force in the L.A. progressive jazz scene and it's easily discernible, given his strong improvisational faculties, resonating tone, and penchant for bridging conventional means into the outside schema of the jazz vernacular. On his second solo release for Nine Winds Records, he embeds rock riffs, variable tempos, and odd-metered unison choruses with guitarist Perry Smith and a host of mood-evoking thematic episodes via these multicolored pieces. The artists conclude the ...

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“Los Angeles saxophone phenomenon” –– RobertBush, San Diego Reader

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Polarity

Orenda Records
2023

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Points on an Infinite...

Orenda Records
2020

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Ballast

Orenda Records
2016

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In Series

Nine Winds Records
2016

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Some Spinning, Some...

Orenda Records
2014

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In Series

Nine Winds Records
2013

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