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Colin Trusedell

Colin Trusedell is the musical director for the United States Air Force Academy Band’s Top 40 ensemble Blue Steel and the adjunct faculty bass professor at Colorado State University – Pueblo. He is one of the most versatile upright and electric bass players in the United States in the field of jazz, fusion, pop and rock music. He is also an active writer, arranger, and bandleader.

In 2013, Colin released Some of My Best Friends Are... Divas, featuring him on the upright bass with three of the best jazz singers in Colorado, which earned the rating “Best of 2013” on AllAboutJazz.com. Colin’s 2014 full length CD, Quartet of Jazz Death, features him on the electric bass as well as his original funk and fusion compositions. His “Quartet of Jazz Death” project has been internationally critically acclaimed and featured on NoTreble.com, TalkBass.com, Bass Musician Magazine, Bass Quarterly, and Bass Player Magazine. His 2015 solo EP project, All By Myself, puts his own solo electric and upright bass approach to some of the most infamous jazz standards ever released. On October 20th, 2015, Colin will release his third full length album as a band leader entitled It’s All About The Hustle, featuring him on the upright bass as well as 10 brand new straight ahead jazz compositions.

Colin has extensive touring experience with both the U.S. Navy Band Northeast and the U.S. Air Force Academy Band, performing anywhere between Florida to Greenland and appearances on NBC’s Today Show, Fox and Friends, the Montel Williams Show, ESPN’s SportsNation and with the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra. Colin also runs a national booking agency called MyShowsLive and runs his own record label, MyShowsLive Records. Most recently, Colin was selected to produce his own jazz radio program on KCMJ.org called the “Colin Trusedell Jazz Jam”, which aires Sunday nights at 8pm MDT.

Originally from Indianapolis, Colin earned a B.M. from the University of Miami and a M.M. from Boston University.

Awards

"Some of My Best Friends Are...Divas" - Best of 2013, AllAboutJazz.com


Tags

3
Album Review

Colin Trusedell Trio: Without All the Chatter

Read "Without All the Chatter" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The members of the Colin Trusedell Trio are not strangers. Quite to the contrary, they are well known to one another and have been. They all served in the United States Air Force together. Pianist Shawn Hanlon appears on every Trusedell project, including, Quartet of Jazz Death (Self Produced, 2014), It's All About the Hustle, and the uniformly excellent Some of my Best Friends are... Divas (Self Produced, 2013). This latter release features vocalist Krista Joyce (along with Julie Bradley ...

2
Album Review

Colin Trusedell: It’s All About the Hustle

Read "It’s All About the Hustle" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Bassist Colin Trusedell is making quite the name for himself. His previous recordings, Colin Trusedell Trio: Some Of My Best Friends Are... Divas (Self Produced, 2013) and Colin Trusedell: Quartet Of Jazz Death (Self Produced, 2014) were well received within these electronic pages. The former was a most excellent acoustic affair featuring some of Trusedell's singing colleagues from the US Air Force. The latter is an electric smorgasbord showing that Trusedell is capable of ramping up the funk as in ...

10
Album Review

Colin Trusedell: Quartet of Jazz Death

Read "Quartet of Jazz Death" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Bassist Colin Trusedell made his recording debut with the very fine Some of My Best Friends Are... Divas. This recording, by relative unknowns, late of Armed Forces service, put together a cogent and well-focused jazz vocal recording that intelligently surveyed the American Songbook. Scoring such a success, what does Trusedell do for a follow-up? He goes in a diametrically opposing direction with Quartet of Jazz Death. The disc open with a cacophony of jazz sounds mashed together, like ...

5
Album Review

Colin Trusedell Trio: Some Of My Best Friends Are... Divas

Read "Some Of My Best Friends Are... Divas" reviewed by Chris Mosey


Jazz as business? Colin Trusedell thinks it's possible. The former Navy Band bassist graduated from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music with a music business degree. He now lives in Colorado Springs where he has set up his own booking agency, MyShowsLive. This supplies musical acts for gala events, cocktail receptions and the like. Some Of My Best Friends Are... Divas forms a key part of his business plan. It features four of the acts ...

4
Extended Analysis

Some of my Best Friends are... Divas

Read "Some of my Best Friends are... Divas" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Bassist Ray Brown did a “Some Of My Best Friends Are..." series of recordings for Teldec shortly before his abrupt death in 2002. That bassist Colin Trusedell has chosen the same theme for his leader debut Some Of My Best Friends Are...Divas is the most auspicious thing about his release. What makes this disc one of the finest released in 2013 is its vacuum-lack of pretension and its critical- mass realized with musicianship. Nevermind that the recital includes the oft-cited ...

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“Holy Smokes! The Escape features some seriously beefy bass tone, lots of groove and solos.” NoTreble.com “A total ear fest for those seeking an energetic spontaneous contemporary jazz excursion.” Pikes Peak Jazz & Swing Society “In a field as choked as that of adult contemporary jazz, Trusedell carves himself out a place where he can both have fun and take himself seriously. That is an enviable place to be.” AllAboutJazz.com “Great overall composition with strong rhythms, innovative melodies, multi- layered harmonies, and fantastic, inspired solos...” Jazz-Rock.com
Primary Instrument

Bass

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Credentials/Background

Colin Trusedell is the musical director for the United States Air Force Academy Band’s Top 40 ensemble Blue Steel and the adjunct faculty bass professor at Colorado State University – Pueblo. He is one of the most versatile upright and electric bass players in the United States in the field of jazz, fusion, pop and rock music. Colin is also an active writer, arranger, and bandleader. Colin’s latest CD, “Quartet of Jazz Death,” is his second as a bandleader, which features him on the electric bass as well as his original funk and fusion compositions

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Without All the...

MyShowsLive Records
2017

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It's All About The...

MyShowsLive Records
2015

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It’s All About the...

MyShowsLive Records
2015

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Quartet of Jazz Death

Self Produced
2014

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Some of my Best...

MyShowsLive Records
2013

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Scotty B

From: It's All About The Hustle
By Colin Trusedell

All In Bloom

From: It's All About The Hustle
By Colin Trusedell

Videos

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