First Decade: Jazz at Lowlands

From Presidents' Day 2019

If the era-defining gig for me prior to the pandemic was the Blue Note China Jazz Orchestra, than the corresponding post-pandemic gig would obviously be Jazz at Lowlands, formerly known as the "greatest bar in the world" according to a previous iteration of their website (that moniker seems to have disappeared in a recent rebranding exercise).

According to my records, I've played at Lowlands over 150 times (the majority of which took place in late 2021 through late 2024), and it's unlikely that I'll play more frequently anywhere else in the coming years. The current runner up appears to be Bar Bayeux, where I've played over 75 times (most of those were the happy hour sets with Peter Watrous, so depends who you ask).

For the hundreds of hours of bandstand experience (and easily upward of a thousand of hours clocked at 543 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn), I have the bar's owner, John Niccoli, to thank. John graciously wrote the liner notes to The Fate of the Tenor, which was recorded live at the bar in June 2022, and I've released two more titles that were recorded live there (lofi at lowlands, the first and second volumes of which are out now).

But before I met John, it was through Walter Stinson that I realized that this place existed in the first place. Walter began bartending there within the first few years that I moved to the city, and I just started hanging out there more as one does. The first time I broached the idea of playing at the bar with Walter, it seemed like a long shot: "A jazz band, here?" But we made it happen in November 2017, and that was a trio with Walter and his old SUNY Purchase roommate, David Frazier Jr., on drums. We were so successful that we were invited back to play the Lowlands holiday party a month later. 

In 2018, the gigs basically stopped; I did two one-off gigs, a trio in January 2018 and a quartet in March 2018. But in April 2019, I started something else: the Happy Trio, a monthly gig that was an excuse for me to play with great rhythm section players from around the city. I called it "Happy Trio" because we played during happy hour and because I only called people who I thought would make for a joyous occasion. My one restriction for myself was to never repeat rhythm sections, and to date there have been 30-plus Happy Trios from 2019 through 2025, with over 30 different bassists and 30 drummers featured.

We kept doing Happy Trio monthly up until March 2020, when something weird happened (the gig was scheduled for March 16, 2020, but we called it off just a few days before). Then a little less than a year and a half later, Happy Trio returned in July 2021 as outdoor dining and to-go cocktails were all the rage in the city. In August 2021, I brought my quartet there, and then John asked me to keep the music going each week because it was a better vibe to have live music in the bar than to not have it, and that's how my weekly gig there got started.

I stopped carrying the drums over from my apartment to the bar and left them in the basement next to the shelves of liquor, and I bought a Mark bass amp from my friend Simon Willson that's still being used just about every week there. I brought over 5 green Manhasset music stands that I had bought for $5 each during the lockdown (closeout sale) and a bunch of cheap stand lights, and then suddenly we had a backline. 

The gigs were originally posted on a Tumblr account, which I have since lost access to, but now John posts them directly to the calendar on the Lowlands website (along with all the other programming there, which includes karaoke on Wednesdays, various DJ nights, and a pretty diverse mix of live music spanning jazz, improvised music, rock, and electronic music). 

Tim Berne, whose music made a deep impact on me in my first few years in New York, also lives nearby and started playing there a few years after I began my weekly gig. The lede of his 70th birthday profile in The New York Times opens with a shout-out to Lowlands, and the bar features prominently in the article without any mention of John or the work that preceded Tim's playing there, hence this blog post. 

I've wanted to organize my archive of the recorded gigs I've done at Lowlands, which basically dominate my YouTube channel, but that'll likely be a piecemeal effort for a later date. 

* * * * *

2017

1. November 8, 2017 - Trio Ebullient (with Walter Stinson, David Frazier Jr.)
2. December 21, 2017 - Holiday Party at Lowlands Bar with Trio Ebullient (Walter Stinson and Brandon Buz Donald)

2018

1. January 17, 2018 - Lowlands Trio (Walter Stinson and Robin Baytas)
2. March 28, 2018 - Lowlands Quartet (with Christian Li, Walter Stinson, Dayeon Seok)

2019

1. April 15, 2019 - Lowlands Happy Trio I (Lim Yang, Zack O'Farrill)
2. May 20, 2019 - Lowlands Happy Trio II (Simón Willson, Faron Tillson)
3. June 17, 2019 - Lowlands Happy Trio III (Dan Pappalardo, Robin Baytas)
4. July 15, 2019 - Lowlands Happy Trio IV (Andrew Schiller, Aaron Seeber)
5. August 12, 2019 - Lowlands Happy Trio V (Jared Henderson, Dayeon Seok)
6. September 16, 2019 - Happy Trio VI (Devin Starks, JK Kim)
7. October 21, 2019 - Happy Trio VII (Adam Olszewski, Kayvon Gordon)
8. November 18, 2019 - Happy Trio VIII (Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
9. December 16, 2019 - Happy Trio IX (Dean Torrey, Peter Manheim)

2020

1. January 20, 2020 - Happy Trio X (with Tyrone Allen II, Jesse Simpson)
2. February 17, 2020 - Happy Trio XI (with Matt Dwonszyk, Connor Parks)

2021 

1. July 13, 2021 - Happy Trio XII (with Ben Tiberio, Allan Mednard)
2. August 10, 2021 - Happy Trio XIII (Sean Conly, Steven Crammer)
3. August 24, 2021 - Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
4. September 14, 2021 - Quartet (Dana Saul, Dan Pappalardo, Faron Tillson)
5. September 21, 2021 - Happy Trio XIV (Chris Tordini, Jay Sawyer)
6. September 28, 2021 - Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
7. October 5, 2021 - Willber Sunlight Quartet (Max Light, Simón Willson, Aaron Seeber)
8. October 12, 2021 - Happy Trio XV (Thomas Morgan, Dan Weiss)
9. October 26, 2021 - Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
10. November 2, 2021 - MONASTIC: Monk's Music (Yuhan Su, Walter Stinson, Steven Crammer)
11. November 9, 2021 - Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
12. November 16, 2021 - Happy Trio XVI (Noah Garabedian, Mark Ferber)
13. November 23, 2021 - tt (Jacob Shulman, Dan Pappalardo, Steven Crammer)
14. November 30, 2021 - Quintet (Adam O'Farrill, Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
15. December 7, 2021 - Happy Trio XVII (Joe Martin, Johnathan Blake)
16. December 7, 2021 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
17. December 14, 2021 - Quintet (Adam O'Farrill, Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)

2022

1. January 4, 2022 - Happy Trio XVIII (David Wong, Vinnie Sperrazza)
2. January 18, 2022 - Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
3. January 25, 2022 - tt (Neta Raanan, Tyrone Allen II, Kayvon Gordon)
4. February 1, 2022 - Sunlight (Max Light, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
5. February 8, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
6. February 15, 2022 - Happy Trio XIX Plus (Walter Stinson, David Frazier Jr., Adam O'Farrill)
7. February 22, 2022 - Monastic II (Dierk Peters, Noah Garabedian, Allan Mednard)
8. March 1, 2022 - Dana Saul Sextet (Adam O'Farrill, Patricia Brennan, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
9. March 8, 2022 - Earprint (Tree Palmedo, Simón Willson, Dor Herskovits)
10. March 22, 2022 - Happy Trio XX (Matt Penman, Joe Peri)
11. March 29, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Adam O'Farrill, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
12. April 5, 2022 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
13. April 12, 2022 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
14. April 19, 2022 - Juanma Trujillo Quartet (Andrew Schiller, Matt Honor)
15. April 26, 2022 - Happy Trio XXI (Simón Willson, Kayvon Gordon)
16. May 3, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Dana Saul, Simón Willson, Matt Honor)
17. May 10, 2022 - McClintic Sphere: Music of Ornette Coleman (Alex LoRe, Jeonglim Yang, Allan Mednard)
18. May 17, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Dana Saul, Simón Willson, Matt Honor)
19. May 24, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Dana Saul, Simón Willson, Matt Honor)
20. May 31, 2022 - Happy Trio XXII (Matt Brewer, Kush Abadey)
21. June 7, 2022 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
22. June 14, 2022 - Aaron Seeber Quintet (Charlie Sigler, Sullivan Fortner, Ugonna Okegwo)
23. June 21, 2022 - Live Recording: Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
24. June 28, 2022 - Kevin Sun Duo (Christian Li)
25. July 5, 2022 - SeaJun Kwon Sextet (Elijah Shiffer, Jacob Shulman, Jacob Hiser, Colin Hinton)
26. July 19, 2022 - Elijah Shiffer's All the Birds (Dmitry Ishenko, Colin Hinton)
27. July 26, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
28. August 23, 2022 - Quartet (Adam O'Farrill, Walter Stinson, David Frazier Jr.)
29. August 30, 2022 - Quartet (Adam O'Farrill, Walter Stinson, David Frazier Jr.)
30. September 13, 2022 - Happy Trio XXIII (Solène Cairoli, Kobi Trenchfoot)
31. September 20, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
32. September 27, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
33. October 4, 2022 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
34. October 11, 2022 - Happy Trio XXIV (Michael Gilbert, Eliza Salem)
35. October 18, 2022 - Happy Trio XXV (Mathias Jensen, Jonas Esser)
36. October 25, 2022 - Sunlight (Max Light, Chris Tordini, JK Kim)
37. November 1, 2022 - Sunlight (Max Light, Chris Tordini, Steven Crammer)
38. November 8, 2022 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
39. November 15, 2022 - Quartet (Evan Main, Walter Stinson, Eliza Salem)
40. November 22, 2022 - Hayoung Lyou (Jacob Shulman, Sunhyun Yoo, Thomas Morgan, Vinnie Sperrazza)
41. November 29, 2022 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
42. December 6, 2022 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
43. December 13, 2022 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)

2023

1. January 5, 2023 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
2. January 12, 2023 - Quartet (Christian Li, Walter Stinson, Eliza Salem)
3. January 17, 2023 - Sunlight (Max Light, Simón Willson, Steven Crammer)
4. January 24, 2023 - Sunlight (Max Light, Simón Willson, Steven Crammer)
5. February 7, 2023 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
6. February 16, 2023 - Quartet (Christian Li, Walter Stinson, Eliza Salem)
7. February 23, 2023 - Quartet (Christian Li, Jeonglim Yang, Eliza Salem)
8. February 28, 2023 - Trio (Simón Willson, JK Kim)
9. March 7, 2023 - Quartet (Evan Main, Walter Stinson, Eliza Salem)
10. March 14, 2023 - Quartet (Evan Main, Walter Stinson, Eliza Salem)
11. March 21, 2023 - Simón Willson Quartet (Andrew Boudreau, Kayvon Gordon)
12. April 11, 2023 - Happy Trio XXVIII (Henry Fraser, Henry Mermer)
13. April 18, 2023 - Happy Trio XXIX (Jared Beckstead-Craan, Curtis Nowosad)
14. May 2, 2023 - Quartet (Adam O'Farrill, Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
15. May 11, 2023 - Quintet (Adam O'Farrill, Christian Li, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
16. May 16, 2023 - Quartet (Christian Li, Walter Stinson, Eliza Salem)
17. May 23, 2023 - Elijah Shiffer's All the Birds (SeaJun Kwon, Colin Hinton)
18. May 30, 2023 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
19. June 6, 2023 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
20. June 13, 2023 - Happy Trio XXX (Gui Duvignau, Elé Howell)
21. June 20, 2023 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
22. June 27, 2023 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
23. July 11, 2023 - Happy Trio XXVII (rain date) (Alon Near, Angus Mason)
24. July 25, 2023 - Three Tenors (Neta Raanan, Jacob Shulman, Dan Pappalardo, Eliza Salem)
25. August 29, 2023 - <3 Bird (Adam O'Farrill, Max Light, Walter Stinson, Matt Honor)
26. September 26, 2023 - Quartet (Max Light, Walter Stinson, Jon Starks)
27. October 10, 2023 - Quartet (Isaac Wilson, Walter Stinson, Jon Starks)
28. October 24, 2023 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
29. October 31, 2023 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
30. November 7, 2023 - Elijah Shiffer City of Birds, Volume 1 album release (Dmitry Ishenko, Colin Hinton)
31. November 21, 2023 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
32. December 5, 2023 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
33. December 12, 2023 - Two Tenors (Ben Solomon, Jeonglim Yang, Kayvon Gordon)
34. December 19, 2023 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Christian Li, Simón Willson, Jon Starks)

2024

1. January 9, 2024 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
2. January 17, 2024 - Steven Crammer 30th Birthday Quartet (Evan Main, Walter Stinson)
3. January 23, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Max Light, Walter Stinson, Jon Starks)
4. January 30, 2024 - Kevin Sun ROSELESS (Andrew Boudreau, Simón Willson, Kayvon Gordon)
5. February 6, 2024 - Old and New Lions (Adam O'Farrill, Jeonglim Yang, Kayvon Gordon)
6. February 13, 2024 - Happy Trio XXXI (Kevin Hsieh, Jon Starks)
7. February 20, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Max Light, Simón Willson, Jon Starks)
8. February 27, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Andrew Boudreau, Simón Willson, Jon Starks)
9. March 12, 2024 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
10. March 19, 2024 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
11. March 26, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quintet (Max Light, Simón Willson, Walter Stinson, Jon Starks)
12. April 9, 2024 - Quartet (Henry Fraser, Jon Starks, Kayvon Gordon)
13. April 16, 2024 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
14. April 23, 2024 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
15. April 30, 2024 - Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
16. May 7, 2024 - Kevin Sun Trio Plus with ((with Adam O'Farrill, Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
17. May 14, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet with ((with Max Light, Walter Stinson, Jon Starks)
18. June 4, 2024 - Quiet Quartet (Isaac Wilson, Adam Olszewski, Jonas Esser)
19. June 11, 2024 - Sacrilege Trio (Adam Olszewski, Kayvon Gordon)
20. June 18, 2024 - Yellowface (Christian Li, Kevin Sun)
21. June 25, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Christian Li, Henry Fraser, Kayvon Gordon)
22. July 9, 2024 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Jon Starks)
23. July 16, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Max Light, Simón Willson, Aaron Seeber)
24. July 23, 2024 - Two Tenors (Ben Solomon, Dean Torrey, Kayvon Gordon)
25. September 17, 2024 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
26. October 29, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Anthony Pearlman, Jayla Chee, Eliza Salem)
27. November 5, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Max Light, Walter Stinson, Jon Starks)
28. November 19, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Anthony Pearlman, Jayla Chee, Eliza Salem)
29. December 9, 2024 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Anthony Pearlman, Walter Stinson, Eliza Salem)

2025

1. January 7, 2025 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
2. February 4, 2025 - Mure (Dabin Ryu, Jeonglim Yang, Dayeon Seok)
3. February 25, 2025 - Elden Trio (Thomas Morgan, Eric McPherson)
4. March 24, 2025 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Anthony Pearlman, Jayla Chee, Eliza Salem)
5. April 28, 2025 - Kevin Sun QUARTETS Album Release (Christian Li, Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
6. May 13, 2025 - Sun-Weinberg Quartet "Conical Intersect" (Sam Weinberg, Henry Fraser, Jason Nazary)
7. June 30, 2025 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Anthony Pearlman, Simon Willson, Eliza Salem)
8. July 22, 2025 - Lowlands Midband (Jasper Dütz, Neta Raanan, Ben Solomon, Dave Adewumi, Allison Philips, Jacob Garchik, Christian Li, Mathias Jensen, Jon Starks)
9. September 22, 2025 - Kevin Sun Quartet (Anthony Pearlman, Simon Willson, Eliza Salem)
10. October 27, 2025 - Dave Treut Trio (Nick Joz)
11. October 28, 2025 - Happy Trio XXXII (John Hebert, Jochen Rueckert)
12. November 17, 2025 - Kevin Sun Trio (Walter Stinson, Kayvon Gordon)
13. December 8, 2025 - Lowlands Midband (Ben Solomon, Yuma Uesaka, David Leon, Peter Lin, Alex Ridout, Brandon Choi, Yvonne Rogers, Jayla Chee, Jon Starks)