My Music

Jazz, Rap, Science, and more

Since the age of 14, I have been performing as a professional saxophonist and songwriter at all kinds of venues. Having trained as a professional jazz musician since middle school, I've had the opportunity to perform in some incredible places, from the Detroit Auto Show, to the Chicago Comic And Entertainment Expo, to a punk music festival in Copenhagen. Over the past twelve years, I have played in bands at weddings, college parties, graduation ceremonies, nightclubs, and everything in between. I am a seasoned band leader, having started my own music group as a student at the University of Chicago that went on to receive scholarship funding for its work engaging and encouraging students to make music a lifelong passion. Today, I perform in in Cowboys After Dark, a college/grad student-based rock band that performs for parties, festivals, and packed dance floors, as well as the local-legendary Nathalie Cortez Band at clubs and other venues throughout the Sacramento area. 

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I have also written and performed my own original comedy rap music over the course of the past decade. Performing as the dual rapper/saxophonist Average Johnson, my songs range in subject from pro-mediocrity anthems to anti-Harvard diss tracks, and I'll always put away the mic for a bit to bring out the sax. My album about life at the University of Chicago, Views from the Reg, has garnered tens of thousands of plays, and its songs remain popular to this day at UChicago college and grad student parties. 

Currently, I am working on two new albums of music, Mediocrity Unleashed is an album about trying to stay average in an increasingly unstable world. Mediocrity Evolved is my first science communication album, with Bill Nye the Science Guy-inspired songs about subjects in biology. I often parody popular music in my work, but recent songs developed for my science album, like Fungus Funk and Adaptation Across the Nation, are all original. I am currently in the process of recording, so stay tuned for a release date!
 

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