Bio's
Adam Compeau
Trumpet - Vocals
Writer/Arranger of Various Styles of Music. Trumpeter/Vocalist who also dabbles with the Drums, Keyboard and light Guitar.
Playing and singing Jazz and Jazz/Rock as well as Leading Worship are some of my passions. I started out as a Classical trumpeter in the Detroit area and was made Principle trumpet of the Detroit Concert band right out of High School. Performing with a Beatles Cover Band, Horn Band, Jazz bands and Variety Bands in the Phoenix area have kept me musically inspired over the years.
The Postmodern Hard Bop Crusaders and Taken by the Horns bands are my two current bands that I am really passionate about! Playing trumpet with the one and singing and playing drums with the other.
Mark Witt
Trombone
Trombonist Mark Witt studied at the University of North Texas then joined the Army in 1980. He was a soloist with the 76th Army Band until 1984, then secured a position as the second trombone player for the Stockton Symphony in 1985. After moving to Chicago in 1987, Mark played with many notable latin and jazz musicians, then on cruise ships for several years until he moved to the Phoenix area in the early ‘90s. He was a founding member of the Swingtips, a local group that recorded and toured extensively. He graduated from ASU in 1998 with a degree in music education. He currently works days as the band director for Granada East School in West Phoenix. Besides teaching, he keeps a busy schedule as musician playing a wide variety of music with many different bands and artists from stage to church and theater work. He has played with Ray Charles, Shirly Jones, Sherry Lewis, Mary Jones, Dick Clark, Jay Leno, Wayne Newton, Bill Watrous, Monte Procopio, CC Ryder Express, Power Drive, City Lights, and many others and currently with Carmela Ramirez y Más and the Superstition Jazz Orchestra. He also writes and arranges, some of which can be heard on Ghost Note Recording and Fervor Records.
Rob Wren
Bass Guitar
Rob Wren started his music career growing up in So Cal, majoring in Trombone Performance at Cal State University Northridge, where he played lead and jazz trombone in the nationally acclaimed Jazz “A” band. After leaving CSUN, Rob embarked on a professional career that allowed him to share the stage and studio with many notable musicians, from legends such as Mel Torme, Rosemary Clooney, and Buddy Greco, to jazz greats Pete Christlieb, Wayne Bergeron, and Bill Cunliffe.
In the 1990’s, Rob became Director of Multimedia Development for the leading music education publisher Alfred Music, for whom he developed a myriad of critically-acclaimed, best-selling CD-ROMs, DVDs, and other computer-based products.
Leaving Alfred in 2012, Rob shifted his focus back to performing and can be heard playing electric bass with numerous groups throughout Arizona. He is also currently Director of Music and Arts at Cross of Christ Church in Anthem, AZ.
Chris Sabbarese
Guitar
Originally from Brooklyn, NY, guitarist Chris Sabbarese studied privately with acclaimed jazz guitarist Bill Frisell before moving to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music as a jazz composition major from 1989 - 91. Gigs in NYC included a performance with legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Chris was a full time musician working with a number of bands in the Boston/New England area prior to relocating to Arizona in 2009. Gigs in Arizona include performances with The Miracles, The Drifters, Jeff Kashiwa and Jeanette Harris. Chris performs regularly in the Phoenix area with a variety of bands spanning genres from Blues to Jazz to R&B.
Steve Fitch
Drums
Steve Fitch has been the solo drum set player for The Phoenix Symphony for the past twenty-nine years, as well as a percussionist and the associate principal timpanist with this orchestra.
He is on the faculty at Grand Canyon University. In 2009 he was offered the position of principal percussionist with the Arizona Musicfest Festival Orchestra, working alongside principal timpanist John Tafoya. He has soloed on numerous Phoenix Symphony POPS programs and in March 2009, he performed Harold Farberman's Concerto for Jazz Drummer and Symphony Orchestra with The Phoenix Symphony.
Besides working with TPS, Steve also plays in The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Dave Schmidt's GCC Night Band, A.J. Thau's Jazz 4tet, Barry Black's VALLEY BIG BAND, Gene lannette's jazz quintet, Clark Krueger's and Richard Lillard's Extreme Decibel Big Band, Dave Bacon's Red Mountain Big Band and Canyon Big Band, Joe Gilboy's, George Shearing Tribute, the Johnny Michaels Band, Derek Nellis' Mammoth Ensem-ble and others.
Fitch is fluent in German after having spent two years and twelve summers living in Germany and has been a guest with many German orchestras, including the operas of Hannover and Bremen and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. As a regular guest with the Radio Philharmonie Hannover des NDR, and the Hannover Pops Or-chestra, he has performed, and/or toured with such stars as Ray Charles, Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin, Randy Crawford, and Patricia Kaas. In Phoenix, he has drummed for Natalie Merchant, Keb Mo, Indigo Girls, Chris Walden, Bill Cunliffe, Wycliffe Gordon, Gary Foster, Marvin Hamlisch, Bill Conti, Steve Lippia, Jack Everly, Michael Krajew-sky, Tom Scott, the Canadian Brass, John Williams, Andrea Bocelli, Scott Whitfield, Seamus Blake and many others.
Back in the day, Fitch marched in two different drum corps, performed in the Drum Corps International Championship Finals in Philadelphia and attained sixth place in the DCI snare drum individual competition.
Since 1993 he has played and recorded as a founding member of the kalamazoo Per-cussion Trio in Germany where the German press hailed Steve as a "drum wonder," "master drummer," and "extraterrestrial" after performances of his piece 'F/X' for solo snare drum. His improvised snare drum solos at The Phoenix Symphony's 'Symphony for the Schools,' POPS, and Musicfest programs, entitled "I Drum, Therefore I Am," have entertained and delighted tens of thousands of people.
In May of 2014 Steve flew to Atlanta to play drum set with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at the Woodruff Arts Center at the request of their Principal Pops Conductor Michael Krajewski.
He taught on the faculty of the "Festival junger Kuenstler" in Bayreuth, Germany for seven years, working with talented college-aged percussionists from all over the world and teaching his workshop on Ultimate Stick Control-"Intuitive Touch." Several of his percussion compositions received their world premieres there. Fitch's numerous marimba, percussion, timpani, and percussion ensemble compositions have been published by C. Alan Publications in North Carolina and Musikverlag Zimmermann in Frankfurt.
In addition to Flam Pathways, he has written the books Fantastic Feet-Stepping Outside the Box for drum set (published by Mel Bay), Fantastic Hands (Mel Bay) and Drum Set Freedom. Steve has studied Basler drumming with Swiss master drummer Alfons Grieder in Basel, Switzerland, and he earned his bachelor and masters of mu- sic performance degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Michael Rosen and John Beck, respectively.
Steve is a Yamaha Performing Artist, a Zildjian Orchestral Artist, a Vic Firth Education Artist, a Remo Artist and a Grover Pro Percussion Artist. Please message Steve on Facebook, if you have any questions or comments about his books, and look for his videos on YouTube.