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Undergraduate Research at UMass Dartmouth
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students (myself and Caitlin Walsh), two alumni
(Miles Flisher and Sean Farias), and one of my
professors (Jim Robitaille). This is a quintet that
consists of saxophone (Caitlin), guitar (Jim), piano
(Miles), bass (Sean), and drums (myself). Bringing
together this group of people required not only
research and coordination, but also financial support.
Thanks to a grant from the OUR I successfully
executed this complicated project.
As a jazz musician one makes the decision to throw
themselves into a continuum– the rich and vast
legacy of many creative minds who advanced this
form of music. I am interested in creating new jazz
music and finding my own personal approach to
both improvisation and composition. In doing so,
I get inspired by many sources of influence. At my
core, I am intrigued by the post-bop traditions of the
1960’s, which includes such artists as John Coltrane,
Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock,
McCoy Tyner, and Eric Dolphy. I have also begun to
draw inspiration from successful contemporary jazz
musicians, including Brad Mehldau, Donny Mc-
Caslin, and Kneebody. Also, as a jazz drummer, I am
inspired by masters of the instrument such as Elvin
Jones, Roy Haynes, Jack Dejohnette, Tony Williams,
Bob Moses, Paul Motian, Brian Blade, Jorge Rossy,
Nate Wood, Mark Guiliana, as well as local drummers
Luther Gray and Chris Poudrier. These influences
continue to color my approach as I try to reach
for something that is uniquely my own expression. To
achieve this goal, I have created a group under the
moniker of Spheres of Influence.
Spheres of Influence is my own modular ensemble,
which aims to perform both my own music and the
music that I resonate with. A Sphere of Influence is an
international relations term which denotes the region
in which one nation holds power or influence. I decided
to co-opt this term for my own work as the name
allows for the group to be modular. Each group under
this moniker represents its own sphere and its own
artistic place, thus changing the influences made by
other groups. In improvised music the range of individual
players in any particular configuration can change
the nature of the music. What unifies the concept
though is the overall character of the music played by
the whole group. The music is always guided by certain
aesthetic principles–principles that are universal between
different iterations. My vision for this group was
to put on a free public concert in the College of Visual
and Performing Arts’s main auditorium, showcasing a
program of primarily original jazz compositions. The
performance was also recorded and released as a
high-quality video (view it above). While this concert
was a collaborative effort between many musicians, a
great deal of individual work went into it.
John Dalton’s Spheres of Influence during performance