Our new Jazz At The Peak series continues with Empyrean Isles on Saturday, February 4 at 5 p.m. Vermont jazzers Rich Davidian, Dave Ellis, Ira Friedman, Glendon Ingalls, and Peter Schmeeckle join forces to bring you an evening of classic jazz, straight ahead. The audience joins the band on stage for a jazz club like experience. This series is an intimate, après alternative you won’t want to miss!

About the Artists:

Edsel Gomez was born in Puerto Rico and has been based out of Manhattan for the past twenty years, supporting everyone from Dee Dee Bridgewater, Don Byron, and Jack DeJohnette on world tours and International Jazz Festivals. He has arranged and played piano on Grammy winning albums by David Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri, and Brian Lynch, and also has many albums under his belt as a band leader.

Glendon Ingalls is one of Vermont’s busiest jazz musicians – performing regularly on double bass, trumpet, and sousaphone. Glendon has been a long time Vermont music educator and currently teaches bass and trumpet at Middlebury College and Castleton University and keeps a busy performance schedule with Red Clover Jazz Trio, Onion River Jazz Band, and Maple Leaf 7.

Daniel Ian Smith has been an instructor at Berklee School of Music for over 25 years. He is in demand as a clinician, guest soloist, and lecturer with appearances throughout the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and England. Daniel’s groups ‘The New World Jazz Composers Octet’ and ‘The Latin Side of Billy Strayhorn’ have been featured at festivals and halls locally and internationally. Recently he has been featured on acclaimed recordings with Fernando Brandao, The Pablo Ablanedo Octet, The Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, and Brian McCarthy and the Better Angels of Our Nature.

David Ellis is one of the elder statesmen on the Vermont jazz scene. He is featured regularly with The Vermont Jazz Ensemble in the ‘solo trumpet’ chair and has also run Ellis Music for decades, Vermont’s premiere band & music store in Bethel.

Peter Schmeeckle has lived in Stowe, Vermont since returning home in 2014. Peter formed the Vermont Jazz Trio in 2020 and has been busy promoting music, bringing Bill Pierce, Ray Vega, and even blues hall of famer Joe Louis Walker to Stowe. Peter is an experienced sideman and bandleader and endorses Bosphorus Cymbals.