Andrew Neesley is an award-winning jazz trumpeter and inventive composer who regularly brings his acclaimed horn style to club and festival stages. Based in New York, Neesley has made his mark nationally performing with contemporary music greats as well as other up-and-coming artists.
Neesley has recorded with the GRAMMY-nominated Bobby Sanabria Big Band on his newest release “Big Band Urban Folktales” (JazzHeads 2007).
Neesley publishes his own work as a composer/arranger through Really Good Music, LLC, and Neesley Music. He is a recipient of the 2003 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer’s Award and winner of the 1999 National Trumpet Competition. Recently, he collected a DownBeat magazine award for Best Engineered Studio Album.
Fluent in a range of styles, Neesley has performed with Jon Faddis, Lewis Nash, Christian McBride, Byron Stripling, Slide Hampton, Randy Brecker, Dick Oats, Mike Abene, Carl Allen, Ingrid Jensen, Ed Calle, Jason Marsalis, Bill Reichenbach, Chris Botti, James Taylor, Peter Yarrow, and the Roots. He had the rare opportunity, in 2002, to perform as guest soloist with the Brass Band of Battle Creek, performing his own arrangement of Stardust alongside trombonist/composer Wycliffe Gordon.
Neesley has appeared and competed in top venues, from Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Ravinia, to New York City’s Birdland and Jazz Standard. In the past four years, he has participated in Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead and programs at The Steans Institute, Jazz Aspen and Brevard Music Institute. He has performed in concerts aired live on the Internet and BET on Jazz. At one time, Neesley hosted his own national public radio program, “Live from The Stone’s Throw,” featuring musicians from across the nation.
After starting out on violin at age four, Neesley attended Interlochen Arts Camp for eight summers of intense study. There he took up the trumpet and developed an abiding interest in jazz. As a student, Neesley competed successfully for various international honors and music fellowships.Neesley maintains a private lesson studio in New York and has served on the music faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Stout. His practice includes teaching brass and jazz improvisation. A 2003 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he performed with the GRAMMY-nominated “Jazz Ensemble I,” Neesley has recently completed an advanced degree at the Manhattan School of Music.
A native of Glendale, WI, Andrew maintains many close and personal friends and business relationships in the Wisconsin area.