Jazzbird Nights: Russell Schmidt with Exit Strategy

Russell Schmidt takes the Jazzbird stage once more with his newest project, Exit Strategy. Leading a nimble, cohesive quintet through a pair of wide-ranging sets—featuring jazz classics, songbook standards, and original compositions—the bandleader also returns to the mic as vocal soloist for a few selections.

Featured performers include Russell Schmidt (Piano/Vocals), Vince Kaufmann (Tenor Saxophone), Mike Ozuna (Guitar), Ben Hedquist (Bass), and Rob Moore (Drums). Please join us for a very special evening of creative music from Russell Schmidt & Exit Strategy.

About the bandleader… As a performer, composer, conductor, and educator, Russell Schmidt has spent nearly four decades collaborating with world-class musicians while also helping shape and develop future artists. A deeply creative pianist, he has shared the stage with such celebrated performers as Carl Allen, Roxy Coss, Eddie Daniels, Nick Finzer, John Hollenbeck, Gerry Mulligan, Arturo Sandoval, and Clark Terry. Schmidt has been featured as a guest soloist with Caleb Chapman’s Crescent Super Band in a performance at Carnegie Hall, as well as with the Eastman Jazz Ensemble at an alumni tribute concert to famed jazz pedagogue Rayburn Wright. Additionally, he has served as keyboard soloist with more than 30 professional orchestras, including performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall.

As a composer/arranger, Schmidt’s music has been released by Advance Music, GIA Publications, the Penfield Commission Project, and VJC Publications, and he has written for artists as varied as saxophonists Bob Berg and Michael Brecker, the Ying String Quartet, and the chamber music group Rhythm & Brass. As an author, he recently contributed two chapters to the Oxford University Press publication Teaching School Jazz: Perspectives, Principles, and Strategies. Schmidt currently directs the Valley Jazz Cooperative program, serving Arizona students in grades 8-12. Previously, he served as Director of Jazz Studies at Bowling Green State University and the University of Utah, and was on the jazz faculty of the Eastman School of Music, where he co-conducted the Eastman Studio Orchestra.