Steven K. Tyler
MUSICIAN and EDUCATOR
Bio
Steven K. Tyler is a versatile instrumentalist and music educator, with a wide range of experience in both academia and the professional music scene. He earned his Bachelors degree in Music from California State University, Northridge, and holds a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California. He is a former faculty member, and graduate of the well-known Composing and Arranging Program (CAP), at the Dick Grove School of Music in Studio City, CA.
Since relocating with his family from the Los Angeles area to Longmont, CO, in the fall of 2020, Steve has appeared in live performances with the Flatirons Jazz Orchestra, the Harmony Hotshots traditional jazz band, and the Hip Bones trombone quartet. Between 2012-2020, Steve served on the music faculties at El Camino College as applied jazz trombone instructor, and at Los Angeles Harbor College, where he taught classes in Orchestration & Arranging, Music Copying & Notation, Jazz Appreciation, and Music Appreciation. He maintained an active private teaching studio, teaching lessons on Trombone, Bass Trombone, Euphonium and Tuba.
During this time, Steve also appeared in live performances with the Southern California Brass Consortium, Kim Richmond’s Concert Jazz Orchestra, Corey Gemme's Rolling Figs Jazz Orchestra, Conrad Cayman's Big Butter Jazz Band, Al Williams’ Swing Society, and as a frequent substitute musician at Disneyland for the Jambalaya Jazz Band, the Straw Hatters, the Hook & Ladder Co. and the Dickens Yuletide Brass.
Steve served as jazz instructor at De Anza College in Cupertino, CA, from 2000-2012, where he directed the well-known “Daddios” jazz ensembles and taught Jazz Improvisation, Jazz Combos, and the Latin Jazz Ensemble. He was active as a performer, festival clinician and adjudicator during these years in the SF Bay Area. Prior to that, he was Director of Instrumental Music for 4 years at the School for Music Vocations at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa. He has also served on the faculties at West Valley College, Foothill College, Los Angeles City College, and the Dick Grove School of Music, and has taught at summer music camps for the San Jose Jazz Society, Sacramento State University, Drury College in Springfield, MO with the Jim Widner Big Band, and at the Mammoth Lakes, CA Traditional Jazz Camp.
Steve toured as the lead trombonist for the big bands of Harry James, Mel Torme, and Bill Watrous, and worked for over 20 years as a freelance musician in the Hollywood music industry from the 1970s through the 1990s. He has performed with the big bands of Ray Anthony, Louis Bellson, Tex Beneke, and Bill Holman, and played professionally for entertainers such as Tony Bennett, Robert Goulet, Marvin Hamlisch, the Irish Tenors, Johnny Mathis, the Moody Blues, Barbara McNair, Peter Nero, and the Temptations. He also did studio work and was on call for symphony orchestras including the San Fernando Valley Symphony, the Ventura County Symphony, the West Valley Symphony, and the Conejo Symphony, as well as various brass chamber ensembles, dance bands, R&B bands, Salsa bands, Traditional jazz groups, Renaissance ensembles, Polka bands, and the Los Angeles Raiders band.
Steve has written arrangements for professional acts as well as for school jazz ensembles, brass ensembles, and marching bands, with works published by UNC Jazz Press, Almo Publications, Touch of Brass Music, and Hal Leonard Corporation.
Steve has also had many opportunities to perform with numerous Traditional/Early Jazz groups over the years, most notably as regular trombonist with the Hot Frogs Jumping Jazz Band from 1987-1991, and as trombonist/leader of Janet Carroll and the Hollywood Jazz Cats from '91-'94. He has also appeared at jazz festivals, concerts, and private parties with Bob Ringwald's Great Pacific Jazz Band, Conrad Janis and the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band, the Nightblooming Jazzmen, the Natural Gas Jazz Band, Igor's Jazz Cowboys, the Misbehavin' Jazz Band, the South Burgundy Street Jazz Band, the Rhythm Kings, and many others.
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