After moving to NYC thirty years ago, saxophonist, composer and educator David Bixler cut his teeth
touring the world with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Toshiko Akioshi. He later joined the Chico
O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Big Band with whom he played a decade-long residency of Sunday evenings at
Birdland and won a Latin Grammy for the recording, “Final Night at Birdland.” Bixler has recently
embarked on a prolific artistic reemergence marked by a series of diverse recordings including In the
Face of Chaos (2019) with Bixler, Boccato, Cowherd and Sturm, Blended Lineage (2020) with the Bixtet
and Inside the Grief (2020) with trio incognito. His latest project, The Langston Hughes Project vol. 1, features music inspired by the poetry of Langston Hughes.
Bixler is the host of Liner Notes with David Bixler, a podcast centered on conversations with jazz
musicians. He also serves as Director of Jazz Studies at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green,
OH.