Friday, May 29, 2015

Don Mopsick began his musical career

Don Mopsick began his musical career as a teenager in his hometown of Linden, NJ, performing on trumpet and bass guitar. He attended Rutgers University and Berklee College of Music. His first professional gigs were with Rosemary Clooney around Boston in 1972.

Mopsick's musical interests have always been eclectic and far-ranging. He was graduated from The Manhattan School of Music in 1977 with a degree in Tuba Performance. While in New York, he performed on tuba and bass with The Smith Street Society, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, John Carisi, Paul Jefferey and others.

After a move to Ft. Myers FL in 1977, Mopsick began study on double bass with Lucas Drew at the U. of Miami. He moved to Orlando in 1983 and began work as a free-lance jazz bassist state-wide.


He played concert dates for, among others, The Jazz Club of Sarasota, The Treasure Coast Jazz Society (Vero Beach), and The Gainesville Friends of Jazz, Florida concert dates with Howard Alden, Mousey Alexander, Bill Allred, Dan Barrett, John Bunch, Pete Christleib, Al Cohn, Richie Cole, Kenny Davern, Buddy DeFranco, Terry Gibbs, Scott Hamilton, Buddy Morrow, Ken Peplowski, Flip Phillips, Red Rodney, Bob Rosengarden, Ira Sullivan, Clark Terry, Warren Vaché Jr. and others.


Mopsick joined the Jim Cullum Jazz Band in San Antonio in 1991. He played nightly at The Landing jazz club and toured with the band in the US and abroad. He recorded hundreds of hours for the Riverwalk Jazz public radio series with guests Benny Carter, Clark Terry, Bob Wilber, Dick Hyman, Kenny Davern, Milt Hinton, Nicholas Payton, Ralph Sutton, "Sweets" Edison, Harry Allen, Dan Barrett, Joe Williams, Rebecca Kilgore, Bob Barnard, Bria Skonberg, Jon-Erik Kellso, Vince Giordano, Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Stephanie Nakasian, and many others. He left Texas in March 2010 to relocate back to Florida's Gulf Coast.

read more: https://about.me/donmopsick

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