Photo by Warren Difranco Hsu


The Nice Guy Trio
The Nice Guy Trio is Darren Johnston on trumpet, Rob Reich on accordion, and Daniel Fabricant on bass. With an emphasis on spontaneity, they create a sound that is both intimate and reflective of their contrasting yet complimentary musical backgrounds. In concert they navigate through a uniquely diverse collection of original compositions and songs from folk traditions all around the globe, from jazz to klezmer to Balkan dance forms, to calypso and beyond.
Founded in 2006, the “Nice Guys” have perfored in venues big and small, from local organic gems like Jazz at Chez Hanny and the Café Royale, to classic institutions such as The Great American Music Hall, Yoshi's, the Yerba-Buena Garden Festival, and for SF Jazz’s “Summerfest,”

Also during this first year, the Red Poppy Art House hosted the Nice Guy Trio for a five-month-long residency called the “Root Exchange.” Each month a different collaborative concert was programmed, featuring special guest artists from radically different musical backgrounds, and a constant stream of new compositions by members of the trio and by its’ guests. Guests included Sameer Gupta on tabla, Ben Goldberg on clarinet and contra-alto clarinet, John Schott on electric guitar, singer-songwriter Meklit Hadero, David Phillips on pedal steel, Smith Dobson V on both drums and vibraphone, Dina Macabee on violin and Alex Kelley on cello. The series was concluded with a very successful concert presented by Intersection for the Arts at the De Young Museum. Almost all of the guest artists from the series were able to attend, and together they played as one large ensemble as well as in various smaller combinations. The following week the Nice Guy Trio concluded their first season by being awarded the SF Weekly award for “best jazz/blues band,” before taking a hiatus to record their first CD and travel with various other projects.
Year two found the Nice Guys continuing the "Root Exchange" series, thanks to a generous grant from the Friends of San Francisco Chamber Music. Season Two included singer/songwriter Katy Stephans, piano visionary Myra Melford, saxophonists Kasey Knussen and Evan Francis, Brass Menazeri founder Peter Jaques, and percussionists Dave Mihaley, on marimba and drum-set, Faisal Zedan on derbakki and riqq, and Michele Simons on tupan. This season was also concluded at the De Young Museum, and featured a commissioned piece with all the instrumentalists involved, inspired by a work in the museum's permanent exhibit. Two weeks later, the Nice Guy Trio celebrated the release of their new CD on Porto Franco records at Yoshi's jazz club in San Francisco.
For more on the Nice Guy Trio, go to their electronic press kit.

Cylinder
Cylinder is a newly formed collaborative quartet based in San Francisco. It's comprised of Darren Johnston on trumpet, Aram Shelton on alto saxophone and clarinet, Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and Kjell Nordeson on drums. All four members of Cylinder compose for the group to create a body of work that is stylistically diverse while rooted in creative jazz and free improvisation. Each player is distinguished in their own right with their playing and writing being documented on various recordings. In the Bay Area creative music scene, where Johnston and Mezzacappa have been involved for more than a decade and Shelton & Nordeson are relative newcomers, all four are highly active players.


The Transit Collective
The primarily Toronto-based Transit Collective features David Braid on piano, Jon Maharaj on bass, Nick Frasier on drums, Evan Francis on alto sax, and Darren on trumpet. Based on a seven year annual, or sometimes bi-annual collaborative effort, the project has recently solidified into this particularlly special collection of creative spirits. Together they have performed both across Ontario, (Hotel Rex, Port Hope All-Canadian Jazz Festival), and in San Francisco, (Jazz at Pearl's, Bluesix).

The Darren Johnston Quintet
NEW CD DUE FOR RELEASE THIS MONTH!! "With companions like Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, Devin Hoff and Smith Dobson V (also accordionist Rob Reich on one track), this new album offers a project in which the compositional work is developed http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifin order to ignite improvisation of the finest order. But if the written part of these tunes is functional, the beauty we perceive is immediately suggested by the melodies. Some have an introspective, meditative configuration, almost like sound-scapes; others are blasts of energy, with argumentative and eloquent solos. You can't find more refreshing music than this." -Pedro Costa, Clean Feed records. This group has been less active in recent months, so the prospect of reuniting in the new year with a new CD is a very exciting one. Previously this group has performed at Intersection for the Arts, The Red Poppy Art House, The Berkeley Jazz Festival, The De Young Museum, and elsewhere.
There are a couple examples from a live show posted at
BayTaper.com. Thanks Swerbo!!


The United Brassworkers Front
The United Brassworkers Front, originally a four brass plus drums ensemble featuring 2 trumpets, trombone, and tuba, plus drum-set, has grown since its inception in early 2001 to include an acoustic bass, electric guitar, and a second trombone. The sound of a brass choir is like no other, and can sound equally at home performing Bach, Romanian brass band music, New Orleans “second line” marching band music, be-bop or free jazz. The instrumentation for the ensemble came about after Darren heard a recording of the Angolan songwriter Carlos Vierra Diaz’s Birin Birin, which Darren immediately heard an arrangement for what was to become the Brassworkers in his imagination. The UBF have played in various San Francisco venues such as the Black Cat, Bruno’s, The Make-out Room, and Intersection for the Arts. In Oakland and Berkeley they have performed at the Jazzschool, Mills College, the Jazz House, and the Oakland Box. They have performed live on both KFJC, and KPFA radio stations. In 2002, the UBF performed an original score, live to the 1926 silent Russian film By The Law at the El Rio Film Festival. For a Cinco de Mayo show the following year, Johnston orchestrated a collaboration for this ensemble plus accordion, two percussionists, and a laptop musician, featuring a piece for laptop and audience, as well as modular arrangements of traditional Mexican and Mexican-American songs. In 2004, the UBF premiered Darren's piece for five brass and live sound processing, featuring Chris Brown on electronics, at Oakland’s sorely missed Jazz House. Also in 2004, the UBF performed at the ROVA Saxophone Quartet’s "New Music on the Mountain" series at the amphitheatre on Mount Tamalpais. There are two CDs, both available at CDBaby.com. Members have included Henry Hung, and Joel Behrman – trumpet, Mike Rinta, Adam Theis, Danny Grewen, Scott Larson, and Joel Behrman – trombone, Marc Bolin – bass bone and tuba, John Finkbeiner – electric guitar, Bill Artola – accordion, Aaron Germaine and Devin Hoff – bass, Sameer Gupta and Ches Smith – drums.