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Tony Bray

Tony Bray studied jazz improvisation and jazz pedagogy with renowned educator Jerry Coker at the University of Tennessee. Also with William Scarlett, Bennie Wallace and Warne Marsh at this time. Graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Studio Music and Jazz.

After college he went on to teach theory and production classes as part of the Commercial Music program at the Antelope Valley College in California. He was also responsible for setting up the first “Small Jazz Group” program at Cal State Northridge.

Since then, Tony traveled the world as a sax player and keyboardist, playing music on cruise ships, clubs and casinos from Las Vegas to Singapore. Includes 3 years with Princess Cruises, 3 years with Royal Caribbean, regular stints at the Stardust Hotel on the Las Vegas strip and a house gig in Laughlin, NV for 3 years. He currently is a regular part of the Austin music scene as he performs with a countless number of groups. His own group “Tony Bray and One Too Many” just released their first CD, ‘Last Call’ and will soon be in the studio to record their second. “Last Call” is currently in rotation on San Antonio’s jazz radio station KRTU. They have also been a featured artist at SXSW in Austin and also JazzSAlive in San Antonio.

As a composer, Tony’s music can also be found on CDs put out by the “Long Beach Jazz Quartet” and the LA based group “Atria.” Currently he is also writing for the San Antonio based latin jazz group “Zarabande.” They will be featured at this year’s JazzSAlive festival.

In addition to being a working musician, Tony also spent many years with the Roland Corporation as a support specialist. In addition to being a support specialist for Roland, he has also served as a clinician for several of its digital recording seminars. He has also produced several records of his own as well as other artists.

In more recent years he found that it was time to combine his background in jazz improvisation and music technology by developing a series of mobile apps that aid in the instruction of jazz improvisation. The “iImprov” series. They can be found for both the Apple and Android formats. He was also a presenter at TMEA 2013 and TMEA 2015 on the use of mobile apps for teaching jazz improvisation and theory in the classroom.

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