UConn Jazz Studies

UC Jazz Faculty

Bill Reynolds is an extremely versatile and sought-after jazz and studio drummer. He is an alumnus of the Berklee School of Music and the Navy School of Music in Virginia, where he also served on the staff as a percussion teacher.

Bill has shared the stage with the likes of Jerry Bergonzi, Jaki Byard, Gary Burton, Mick Goodrick, Herb Pomeroy, Bob Wilbur and Spiegle Wilcox. His performances include the Sacramento Jazz Festival, the Gateway Jazz Festival, the St. Louis Jazz Festival, the Smithsonian Jazz Concert Series and the Wirral International Jazz Festival in England.

As a studio drummer, Bill has recorded many jingles and numerous soundtracks for movies and television series produced by Disney, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Columbia, and Orion Pictures.

Prior to teaching at the jazz department of the University of Connecticut, Bill served on the faculty of the Middlesex School (Concord, MA), and at Phillips Academy (Andover, MA).

Jazz Ensemble/Lab Band

Combos

About the Director

Other Faculty

Dave Santoro, bass

Dave Santoro, a native of Connecticut, is active in both the New York and Boston jazz scenes. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a sideman with many of the most prominent artists in contemporary jazz. His performance and recording credits include Pepper Adams, Joey Baron, Bob Berg, Jerry Bergonzi, Nick Brignola, the Bob Brookmeyer / Clark Terry Quintet, Joey Caldorazzo, Mick Goodrick, Steve Grossman, Tom Harrell, Brad Mehldau, Sal Nistico, Dick Oatts, Red Rodney, John Scofield, and the Village Vanguard Orchestra.

His own quartet, The Dave Santoro Standards Band, has recorded three compact discs on the Double-Time record label. The group's repertoire consists of American songbook pieces, restructured by extending the forms or changing the harmonies and melodies. The group features Jerry Bergonzi on tenor saxophone.

A former student of Dave Holland and Michael Moore, Dave Santoro directs combos and teaches jazz bass and improvisation at the University of Connecticut.

Peter McEachern, trombone

Peter McEachern has toured and recorded three CDs for Polygram with Blues legend Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown; has worked and recorded with minimalist composer Lamonte Young, and is featured on several important CDs: Insomnia with the Thomas Chapin Trio on Knitting Factory Works and Song for Septet with the Mario Pavone Septet on the New World Countercurrents label. Song for Septet was chosen one of the "Top Ten Jazz CDs of 1995" by The New York Times. Mr. McEachern also recorded a Mass for Mass Trombones (77 trombones) by composer Wendy Chambers.

The Peter McEachern Quintet was chosen to perform at the 1995 Discover Jazz Festival by The New England Foundation for the Arts, and was chosen to receive a fellowship for music composition by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts 2001. Mr. McEachern's current projects include the Litchfield Jazz Festival summer music camp, freelance gigs, and composing a piece based on the life of abolitionist John Brown.