Mike Titlebaum

Mike Titlebaum has been making music as a saxophonist, composer and arranger for almost 40 of his 50+ trips around the sun. He has performed at top NYC musical venues such as the Blue Note, Smalls, Augies, Fez/Time Café and the legendary CBGB's as well as the pit orchestra of the Broadway musical "Cats."  He has played with dozens of internationally recognized artists and groups such as John Hollenbeck, Gary Versace, Red Rodney, Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Kenny Wheeler, Randy Brecker, Cab Calloway, Jeff Tyzik, Natalie Cole, Billy Taylor, Mel Torme, Branford Marsalis, Billy Hart, Paquito D'Rivera, Jason Robert Brown, the Mingus Big Band, the Sneider Brothers, and dozens more.

As a writer, Titlebaum has published numerous compositions and arrangements through Lorenz (Heritage Jazz Works), Advance Music (Schott), and GIA Publications. He recently competed a co-edited textbook with Dr. Chad West called “Teaching School Jazz: Perspectives, Principles and Strategies” which is scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press in mid-2019.

During daytime hours, Mike directs the jazz studies program at the Ithaca College School of Music in the ridiculously beautiful Finger Lakes region of central New York. At IC he teaches jazz saxophone, arranging, improvisation, theory, and directs the hard-swinging Ithaca College Jazz Ensemble. In 2010 he founded the Ithaca College Jazz Ensemble Composition Contest, which was endowed in 2017 with a gift by David P. ('60) and Susan W. Wohlhueter.

His interest in educating musicians of all ages has brought Mike to schools and universities across the country where he has done numerous lectures, clinics and performances and directed honors jazz ensembles. He has been on the faculty of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and the Eastman School of Music, created the jazz track at the American Festival for the Arts in Houston, and has taught a variety of musical topics at several schools in the New York City area. 

Mike grew up in Rochester, NY, and attended the Eastman School of Music where he earned a BM in Saxophone Performance and the Performer's Certificate in 1991. He also completed graduate studies at Eastman, receiving his MM in Jazz and Contemporary Media/Writing Skills in 1992.

“Music of Jack Gale” Project

Along with his wife Catherine Gale, Mike is currently unearthing and organizing the music of Catherine’s dad Jack Gale, legendary trombonist, composer and arranger. Jack has been a beloved figure in the NYC trombone scene for nearly for his nearly 60 years working in big bands (Buddy Morrow, Woody Herman, and Maynard Ferguson), Broadway pit orchestras, and playing on thousands of studio recordings and concerts.

In addition to his performing career, Jack is also admired for his writing, including oft-used jazz trombone etudes and duets and literally hundreds of big band charts and brass quintets. To date, Mike and Catherine have identified over 600 unique compositions and arrangements. Many are published by outlets such as Art of Sound Music, Musicians Publications and others, but hundreds more are ink or pencil manuscripts, so Mike and Catherine are working diligently to archive Jack’s music and make it available to future generations.

Jack has written for the big bands of Buddy Morrow, Woody Herman, Ted Blumenthal, Max Greger and many others, but he also wrote for friends and family. A brief smattering of Jack’s compelling big band charts includes:

• A Doxy-changes chart “Sig Ep” he wrote for Woody Herman’s great 60s band, which they recorded in 1963. In addition, this video of the tune from a televised concert in England in 1964 will please upstate New Yorkers, who will surely dig seeing Rochesterian Joe Romano and Syracuse-born Sal Nistico playing tenor in the band.

• A harmonically rich arrangement of Harold Arlen’s “Blues In the Night” he wrote as a feature for Catherine to sing.

• “Bernie’s Waltz,” a tune written by Jack’s friend Bernie Berger which Jack arranged for an expanded big band (with additional winds and tympani) performance by Gerry Mulligan with the New Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra.

• An infectious and aptly-titled 70s rock tune he called “The Squawker”.

• His original tune “Better Days” on the changes to In a Mellotone/Rose Room.

In addition to his jazz writing, Jack has also written in other arenas, including for orchestras, brass quintets and other chamber music configurations. A sample of interesting works includes:

• A stunning arrangement of “West Side Story” he wrote for trumpeter Rolf Smedvig’s Empire Brass. Leonard Bernstein himself authorized this arrangement’s publication, but it had fallen out of print, so Mike and Catherine worked closely with Art of Sound Music to re-release it.

• Jack’s original musical setting of the west African folk tale “Anansi the Spider” which featured James Earl Jones narrating.

• His arrangement of “Sleigh Ride” that the Empire Brass performed on morning TV shows several times, including the Today Show and Good Morning America.

• An orchestral arrangement of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” for vocalist Marilyn Horne in a televised performance at Lincoln Center.