Meet the Band!
Krisangela Washington, Vocals
Bio coming soon!
David Sharp, Vocals
David Sharp has performed on Broadway, in Hollywood movies and television shows as an actor, singer and tap dancer. He has toured with bands and performed alongside some of showbiz’s best. David also composes music, writes songs and is a published author. He is currently a professor and spiritual teacher who loves to rock the dance floor with Mass Hipsteria.
Alan Aluisi, Drums
Alan Aluisi Alan grew up in the Denver area, and spent 10 musically formative years with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. During this period, he received tutelage in the classic eastern rudimental snare drum style from several of the nation’s top snare drummers who were then playing with the Air Academy Corps. He began teaching this style to his band mates while still in grade school and continued teaching through college. While attending UNC in Greeley he played with the Jazz Lab Band 1 and several small combos, along with Bill Frisell; and also freelanced at recording studios.
Alan was forced out of music for many years due to illness, but upon resuming, was fortunate enough to receive awards for musicianship in various Jazz Festivals. He was a double finalist in the Colorado Composer’s Classic, thanks to the intense theoretical instruction of Bob Gillis. He authored a critically acclaimed solo book used in top music schools, marketed through wheelhousepress.com. He also invented the ‘Drum Wheel’ electronic kinetic drum set with a multi-volume curriculum, which allows drummers to play patterns never before possible, resulting in a significant expansion the drum set medium. Alan used the ‘Wheel’ on the critically acclaimed CD ‘Hats’ with the Bob Gillis group, which also garnered a “Top 10” pick from the prestigious Cadence Magazine.
In addition to Mass Hipsteria, Alan’s musical affiliations include the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, Colorado Jazz Workshop, Boulder Big Band, Deborah Stafford Quartet, Aurora Singers, Portraits Jazz Quintet, Flatirons Jazz Quintet, the Jazz Mutants, and the Bob Gillis Group. Alan is also busy with his all-style studio and live freelancing.
John DeTombe, Keys
Bio coming soon!
Clint Dadian, Guitar
I am a professional guitarist specializing in jazz and fluent in many styles. My deep passion for music is reflected in my playing, teaching, composing and arranging. I aim to achieve a warm sound and improvisational flow within the jazz idiom and am comfortable in performance settings ranging from solo guitar to big band.
In 1991, after spending some time in Europe, mostly in Budapest, Hungary, I settled in Brooklyn, New York where I earned a Bachelors degree in Jazz performance from Long Island University. There I had the opportunity to study with some of the finest jazz guitarists in New York including Peter Bernstein, Rodney Jones, Chris Rosenberg, Mark Elf and Randy Johnston. I used my background in classical piano while studying jazz piano with Bruce Barth and David Berkman and attended master classes with Jim Hall, Jack Wilkins, Jimmy Heath, Attila Zoller, Barry Harris and many others. After graduating I served as an adjunct guitar instructor at LIU.
For five years in the late nineties I held a steady early slot gig at Augie’s (now Smoke) every Friday night. During those years I was afforded the opportunity to listen to (and occasionally sit in with) the late set players who accompanied Joe Farnsworth. Among them: Peter Bernstein, Rodney Jones, Eric Alexander, Harold Mabern, Cecil Payne, Jim Rotundi, Steve Davis, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Larry Goldings and other characters who frequented the club. This was a real education. New York City had, and has, an incredible array of musical offerings that I tapped regularly. During that time I created and instructed a jazz workshop for adults which ran for six years. This gave me the fledgling opportunity to practice arranging for a variety of instruments.
In 1999 I married Kristin Sanders, a versatile and talented saxophone player with whom I had performed for several years. We continued to play regularly at countless spots in and around New York with performances in Japan and Europe as well until we moved in 2006 with our daughter, Chloe, to Evergreen, Colorado, a mountain suburb of Denver.
In 2009, I was awarded a Masters Degree in Music from the University of Denver. I studied classical guitar with Masakazu Ito, jazz guitar with Alan Joseph and composition and arranging with Dave Hanson. My work with Mr. Hanson opened up a whole new world of big band arranging that I have become immersed in. I now compose for and perform weekly with the Ultraphonic Jazz Orchestra in Denver.
I have served as an adjunct at the Community College of Aurora and as band and choir director for several years at Academy Charter School in Castle Rock, Colorado. While there I wrote arrangements for the bands and often had them accompany the choir. I continue to teach, record and perform with some of the finest musicians in and around Denver.
David James, Bass
David James first picked up the electric bass in high school in Indiana, and added in the upright in 2001 while getting a jazz minor at DePauw University (Greencastle, IN). After moving to Colorado in 2010, he continued playing both instruments in a variety of groups. In addition to Mass Hipsteria, he performs regularly as a member of the Denver-based indie-folk band The Moonlit Wild (www.themoonlitwild.com), and in a more traditional jazz combo setting with a rotating cast of area musicians.
Kurt Eherenman, Saxophones
Kurt Eherenman Kurt started playing the saxophone in the 4th grade. He continued playing through high school, earning lead chairs in concert and jazz band, and achieved Colorado state honors for music performance along the way. In college, Kurt played lead alto in the top bands at the University of Colorado, Metro State College, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During these years, Kurt had been involved in independent jazz and funk musical projects.
Kurt continues to play lead alto with a 20-piece jazz orchestra, known as the Colorado Jazz Workshop, a Zimbabwean afro-pop marimba band known as Kutandara, a 5-piece jazz quintet Flatirons Jazz and a Steely Dan Tribute band, Citizen Dan.
Keith Ley, Saxophones
Keith relocated to Colorado from northern New Jersey in September of 1997. Originally starting on tenor sax in grade school, and playing saxophone and clarinet in a variety of high school, community, jazz and parade bands, Keith is well versed in both jazz and orchestral music. Becoming more serious about music since graduating college he has studied with several fine reedmen including; the late Charlie Librizzi, a woodwind specialist and New York area studio musician, Scottish born baritone saxophonist and anchor man for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Joe Temperly, and recording artist Scott Krietzer, best known for his background horn arrangements and sax and flute work for the popular fusion group, Spyro Gyra. In addition to Mass Hipsteria, Keith is actively playing with the Flatirons Jazz Quintet and often subs in other Denver area bands on tenor and baritone saxophones.
Bryce Rieber, Trombone
Bio coming soon!
Christine Palmer, Trumpet
Christine picked up her dad’s trumpet in 6th grade and hasn’t looked back since. She grew up as an Army brat and has always loved traveling and exploring new ideas, both geographically and musically. She has earned Bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Trumpet Performance from the College of St. Benedict, as well as a Master’s in Trumpet Performance from the University of Colorado. Christine has performed, taught, and composed around the country and has been involved with projects such as Pocket Watch, the Rats and People MN Silent Film Orchestra, Nova Jazz Orchestra, Fred Savage and the Unbeatables, and McNasty Brass Band… every genre brings its own challenges and its own lovable foibles. By day, she works at Harrelson Trumpets – making the most beautiful and efficient horns in existence. She lives in Denver, CO, and in her free time loves to run around lakes and mountains, dance to Thriller, and brew stouts.
Gary Wilhelm, Trumpet
Gary is a Colorado native and began playing trumpet at the age of 8. “My love for the trumpet began the day my father took me to a local music store and purchased my first horn, an Olds Ambassador. He taught me to play the C major scale, and played alongside me on his 1945 King. A horn I cherish and still own to this day.” His formidable years were spent playing in the school concert, jazz and marching bands and studying with various private teachers, including Guy Chimento, a long time member of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
Upon graduation from Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado in 1982, he began studying trumpet on a more concentrated level, playing in the college Jazz Band, Wind Ensemble, and performing locally with various small combo groups. He received a Bachelors degree in Trumpet Performance from Fort Lewis College in 1987.
In 1989 he began graduate studies at the University of Northern Colorado and received a Masters Degree in Trumpet Performance in 1994. This is where he discovered his deepest passion for the trumpet. Studying with great educators like William Pfund and Dr. Gene Aitken, as well as playing alongside some of Colorado’s and the country’s best musicians. Performing in the University’s Brass Choir, Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Jazz Lab Band II. H e also received a Teaching Assistantship working in the Computer Aided Technology department. It was during these years that he embarked upon his first international tour of Great Britain with the Denver Young Artists Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle and performing with internationally renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
From 1994 to 2004 he ventured into a music business related career in production with Vartan Jazz, Inc. and Elephant Records. “I began working seriously in night clubs at this time and was introduced to and worked with some of the greatest musicians in the Jazz industry. Although most of them only knew me from the business side and didn’t realize I played trumpet. I had the great fortune of recording, producing and touring with such greats as Terrence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, James Moody, T.S Monk, Horace Silver, Kevin Mahogany, Janice Siegel, Charles McPherson, Freddy Cole, Regina Carter, Joao Donato, Frank Colon, Valery Ponomarev, and many others. I would sit on-stage, late at night in the clubs after the shows ended and all the musicians had left, and practice alone. Of course it was the trumpet players whom I revered the most and would spend the vast amount of my time with. They were the only ones who knew of my true passion.”
“The next few years were filled with my greatest joy in life, the birth of my beautiful daughter Ella. But during these years I had set my music aside, and along with the passing of my father, I realized how much I had lost and missed playing the trumpet and performing.” In 2012, after a ten year hiatus from his horn, he purchased some custom made instruments from Jason Harrelson of Harrelson Trumpets and Andy Taylor of Taylor Trumpets, began exploring and experimenting building his own horns, and began his affiliation with various local performing groups. In addition to Mass Hipsteria he is now the Principal Trumpet in the Lone Tree Symphony Orchestra, Principal Trumpet in the Denver Concert Band, section trumpet with the Colorado Wind Ensemble, section trumpet with the Ultraphonic Jazz Orchestra, and freelances with numerous other big-band and swing band groups around Denver.
