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Max Perkoff - Trombone, piano, musical director, Educator

Max Perkoff performs all over the United States and Israel. In the US, from SF Jazz in San Francisco to Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York City.  Some of his many festival performances include The Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, Mendocino Music Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, and The New York City Cabaret Festival.

In Israel performances in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa have included a wide variety of venues from Baba Yaga Restaurant, Michelangelo Cafe, and The Hub at Nefesh B Nefesh in Tel Aviv, to  Harmoniya and The Skizza Art Gallery in Jerusalem, and Rodeo Haifa in Haifa.

An accomplished music educator and composer, he was a San Francisco Opera Teaching Artist from 2018 - 2021, teaching 4th graders how to compose their own opera score.

In addition to The Max Perkoff Band, his performance groups have included: Monk's Music Trio, The Harry James Orchestra, The San Francisco Wind Symphony, The Berkeley Choro Ensemble, The Johnny Mathis Big Band, The Lake Tahoe Festival Orchestra, Terese Genecco and her little Big Band, The Mike Vax Great American Jazz Band, and The Virginia Symphony.

During high school Max studied trombone with Mark Lawrence and piano with Naomi Chaitkin, and earned his B.M. in Jazz Studies from Indiana University School of Music in 1985. The great Philadelphia Orchestra alum M. Dee Stewart taught him trombone. Cheryl Tchanz and Eduard Auer were his classical piano teachers. 

USA touring has included Jazz At Lincoln Center, The Iridium, The Triad, La Mama Theater, The Encore, The Metropolitan Room, and other New York City venues; as well as clubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Reno, Nevada.

Extensive sideman work has included jazz, cabaret, rock & pop performance with Vicki Burns, Lou Christie, John Cippolina, Chris Clark, Linda Clifford, Terese Genecco, Terry Gibbs, Jon Hendricks, Dan Hicks, Noel Jewkes, Harold Jones Big Band, Harry James Orchestra, Linda Kosut, Johnny Mathis, Kim Nalley, Sherri Payne, King Perkoff, Si Perkoff, Bobby Rydell,  Cami Thompson & The Cosmopolitans,  Mike Vax, and Kenny Washington. 

Recordings include:

  1. Bridges" The San Francisco Wind Symphony 2018.
  2. Brooklyn Battery" Manny Moka. 2014.  
  3. Long As You're Living - The songs and poetry of Oscar Brown Jr." Linda Kosut vocals with the Max Perkoff Band. 2007.
  4. "Infinite Search" The Max Perkoff Band. 2006.
  5. Monk’s Bones” with special guest Roswell Rudd and Monk’s Music Trio, 2006. This CD reached #10 on the national jazz radio play list,
  6. “Flute Vibes” Gerald Beckett. 2006. This CD reached #14 on the national jazz radio play list.   
  7. “Amazing Space,” 2005. Duo with father Si Perkoff.    
  8. “Bigbandjazz.net” 2002. Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra. Summit Records. 
  9. “Off The Ground,” 2000. The Max Perkoff Jazz Ensemble.

 

 

 

The Max Perkoff Band - Jazz, Blues, from New Orleans to Contemporary Styles.

My band is usually a trio, but can be smaller or larger as needed.  I'm interested in combining traditional jazz styles with the music of my Jewish soul.  That means both Middle Eastern and Eastern European folk music, klezmer, and popular dance styles.

Here's some of our press.  

"The Max Perkoff Band is a tight outfit. They lean into each other, read emotion and movement, and come up with a cohesive musicality that evolves in several styles. At the outset they find their reckoning in a bop beat in “New Life.” The tune is enough to make one salivate for more and the band does not disappoint....Perkoff shows his lyrical side on the piano as well, his notes flowing with gentle, rippling passion." - Jerry D'Souza, allaboutjazz.com

"Perkoff is influenced by J.J. Johnson and is a chordal-based bop soloist at heart, but his improvisations are unpredictable and are free of clichés. He held his own with Roswell Rudd in his previous record Monk’s Bones, and he excels with his modern mainstream quartet. "Infinite Search" should result in Max Perkoff becoming better known and rated high among modern jazz trombonists." - Scott Yanow, Los Angeles Jazz Scene