David Weiss

In the mid-1980s trumpeter David Weiss launched his career in New York, performing alongside Jaki Byard, Frank Foster, and Jimmy Heath while taking lessons from fellow brass players Tommy Turrentine and Bill Hardman; he also hosted the Blue Note club’s weekly jam sessions known as “After Hours.” Around 1990 he assembled a working group whose roster over the next five years featured tenor saxophonist Craig Handy, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Jeff Watts. Weiss launched the New Jazz Composers Octet in 1996, recruiting an assortment of emerging New York musicians and writers; the ensemble made its recorded debut on the 1999 album First Steps into Reality and later joined Freddie Hubbard on the 2001 release New Colors. The octet’s next studio effort arrived in 2003 as Walkin’ the Line. Weiss simultaneously directed a sextet that included twin brothers Marcus and E.J. Strickland, and he issued his own first leader date, Breathing Room, in 2002, followed by The Mirror two years later.