Ron Horton – trumpet & flugelhorn
Tim Armacost – saxophone
Peter Tomlinson – keyboard
Mark Dziuba – guitar
Mark Usvolk – electric bass/composer
Bram Kincheloe – drums
Bassist/guitarist/composer Mark Usvolk has an unfair advantage. Since he and his wife, Roni own Lydia’s Cafe, he gets to play there whenever he wants and can usually entice musicians who play better than he does to play in his band.
After receiving his Bachelor of Music degree (BM) from the University of North Texas many, many years ago, Mark went on to make a tolerable living playing guitar and teaching until he came to the realization that his chances of finding a woman who would put up with his BS and his meager income would be greatly improved if he had a real job. In the late 80’s, Mark moved to Stone Ridge after living in Dallas and Tucson and began designing and building houses. It worked! He met and married Roni and in 2006 they bought the Country Deli from Roni’s mom, Lydia and thus began the saga of Lydia’s Cafe, a struggling music venue and gaping money pit which brings us to the present situation.
Mark has assembled a dream team of musicians whose sole purpose in life has been to prepare them to perform Mark’s original compositions and to provide beautiful solos over his weird chord changes. The pieces are representative of a range of styles from jazz to Latin to funk to classical and feature memorable melodies and a somewhat unique harmonic approach.
Dream Team
Since 1982, trumpeter Ron Horton has been an integral part of New York’s flourishing jazz scene and he stands out both as an exemplary instrumentalist and as a highly progressive composer and arranger. Whether called upon as a sideman or as a leader of one of his own ensembles, he shows that he is committed to further expanding the existing perimeters of jazz.
Horton has had many long musical associations with leaders such as saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom (1983-2000) and pianist Andrew Hill. He was a member of Hill’s sextet from 1998 until 2003, and appears on the group’s critically acclaimed cd, Dusk (Palmetto 2000). He was also musical director and co-arranger for Hill’s big band, and is featured on the cd, A Beautiful Day(Palmetto 2002).
Ron Horton was born in 1960 in Bethesda, Maryland, and has been frequently called on as a sideman to perform and/or record with such artists as Lee Konitz, Will Holshouser, Rez Abbasi, Phillip Johnston, Andy Laster, Mick Rossi, Matt Wilson, Bill Gerhardt, Bill Mays, Peggy Stern, Allan Chase, Andy Biskin, Ted Nash, Jon Gordon, John McKenna, Walter Thompson, Diana Perez, Billy Newman, Mario Pavone, Tina Marsh, Maryanne DeProphetis, Landon Knoblock, Sam Bardfeld, Maria Guida, Abigail Riccards, Angie Sanchez, Kris Davis, Darcy James Argue and many others.
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Saxophonist Tim Armacost’s music is known for its balance of lyrical invention, harmonic sophistication and exciting interplay among top-tier band mates. His improvisations are brimming with ideas, but organized into a naturally flowing narrative. His unusual life story, which includes extended residencies in Japan, India, the Philippines, Holland and New York, informs his wide ranging musical explorations.
Touring regularly around the world both as a sideman and a leader, Armacost has worked with a phenomenal number of jazz greats, including Al Foster, Jimmy Cobb, Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart, Victor Lewis, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Peter Erskine, Ray Drummond, Roy Hargrove, Don Friedman and Randy Brecker.
Armacost is not only known for his heat-of-the-moment playing. He also brings his storytelling skill to compositions for groups ranging from trios to big bands. He is a recipient of the prestigious Doris Duke/CMA “New Works” award. Four of his compositions were arranged by Michael Abene and Jim McNeely and recorded by Holland’s acclaimed Metropole Orchestra. Wynton Marsalis commissioned Armacost’s original composition and arrangement, “The Repose in All Things,” which is featured on the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s recent recording Jazz and Art II.
Armacost has recorded 14 critically acclaimed albums as a leader, performed on more than 60 as a sideman, and has recorded over 100 original songs and arrangements. Armacost is a widely respected educator, teaching at the Jamey Aebersold and Stanford Summer Jazz Workshops, at Queens College in New York City and as a clinician at Universities throughout the U.S., Japan and Europe.
Armacost co-leads the New York Standards Quartet, the Brooklyn Big Band, and In Trio, and is currently working on music for two new projects: a chord-less quartet featuring Gary Smulyan, John Patitucci and Al Foster, and a new quartet with Jim Ridl, Ugonna Okegwo and Rudy Royston. His most recent leader outing, Time Being, featuring Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts and Bob Hurst received 4 stars in Downbeat magazine, and has met with critical acclaim around the world.
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Mark Dziuba has been a guitarist, improviser and composer for most of his life. He has performed with a who’s who of Jazz, Blues, Rock and Bluegrass musicians and has performed and taught at workshops and festivals internationally for over 40 years.
Mark is a tenured professor of music at the State University of New York at New Paltz where he directs the Jazz Studies program. He was a part of the internationally acclaimed National Guitar Workshop for 25 years and has been a part of the Crown of the Continent International Guitar Festival since its birth.
Mark is a published author and a featured soloist and composer on numerous recordings. He continues to explore the world of improvised live and virtual music and can be found performing often in the area and abroad.
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Pianist/composer Peter Tomlinson holds a BFA from SUNY New Paltz. He hasalso studied with Barry Harris, Warren Bernhardt and Mulgrew Miller.
Peter has been an adjunct professor at Western Connecticut since 1990. He has also taught instrumental music and directed stage bands, grade 3-12, for the Paul Effman Music Service since 1992. In 2006 Peter became an associate professor of jazz piano at Vassar College. Other teaching experiences include jazz clinics and coaching high school All-State jazz bands.
Recordings include albums with Grammy Award winner Jay Ungar, “The Lover’s Waltz”, and Mark Dziuba, “Son of Cramdon”, also featuring Adam Nussbaum and Jay Anderson. Of Peter’s own albums, “Momentum” , on the Compose label, featured musicians include Dick Oatts, Dave Douglas and Jimmy Cobb. Rhodes Spedale of Jazz Times Magazine says, “ He’s talented, lyrical, imaginative, and swinging- all the necessary attributes of a fine pianist.” Peter’s 2003 album, “For Evans’ Sake” is a duo with guitarist Peter Einhorn. Jim Hall wrote “ It’s amazing… I loved it!” In 2007 he recorded with singer Bar Scott and bassist Lou Pappas, “ A Little Dream”. Other musicians Peter has worked with include Ron Carter, Hubert Laws, Laurel Masse, jazz tap legend Honi Coles and singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant.
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Drummer Bram Kincheloe is a professional musician, writer, and small business owner. He started studying drums with renowned teacher Barbara Borden at the age of four. At eleven, he graduated to her teacher, Chuck Brown, who had also taught Terry Bozzio, Will Kennedy, and Dave Garibaldi. He was the youngest student ever accepted into Chuck Brown’s studio. In 2002, Bram, then aged sixteen, moved to New York City on his own to pursue a career in jazz drumming. He attended Laguardia School of Performing Arts for one year before being accepted into Manhattan School of Music. While at Manhattan, attending on a Zildjian scholarship, he studied with Justin DiCioccio. Through the years playing jazz, he has been honored to play with Lee Konitz, Branford Marsalis, Ambrose Akinmusire, Wynton Marsalis, Ben Street, Steve Cardenas and many others.
In 2005, Bram moved to Amsterdam to study abroad through a sister program at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam, where he was involved in the creative music scene in Holland. Around this time, he also started seriously pursuing a parallel career in writing.
Bram is an accomplished singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist and plays piano, keyboards, guitar, and bass in addition to drums. He also has a degree from the Institute of Audio Research, having studied production techniques and ProTools. He is the owner/operator of Semperviren Studios, a full-service professional production studio with 26 channels of inputs, a full backline of world class instruments, and more, in the Hudson Valley.
His debut novel, Hitchhiking in the Graveyard, was recently named the runner-up winner in the 2018 Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing competition. In early 2015, Bram was hired by SB Nation to cover the Golden State Warriors for the popular site Golden State of Mind, a subsidiary of Vox Media. He was a staff writer for the site from 2015-2020, as well as a contributor to SB Nation’s national site.
In 2017, he became part owner and Director of Sales & Marketing for Bad Seed Cider.
He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, son, their dog, and two cats.
