Ed Neumeister

Ed Neumeister spent 15 years in the Duke Ellington Orchestra and 19 years with the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, the band that became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and his trombone playing straddles free improvising, swinging post-bop and modern classical writing. Born in 1952 in Topeka, Kansas and raised in the Bay Area, he was a working professional by his mid-teens, backing singers including Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald and playing with symphony orchestras as well as jazz groups. After moving to New York in 1980 he also worked with Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band. He turned to composing in earnest in 1987 at the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, studying with Manny Albam and Bob Brookmeyer, and his arrangement of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" drew a Grammy nomination in 1992. He led the NeuHat Ensemble, taught for 17 years at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, and returned to the New York area in 2017, where he leads a quartet with drummer Tom Rainey.