Band
Formed in 2007, jazzpollution is a funk/jazz band from central new jersey. jazzpollution strives to produce original jazz infused funk & groove music from the soul. The band is comprised of former Jaski members John Hopper (flute) and Alex McDaniel (guitar, lead vocals), on bass is Frank Ulatowski from Bamm Hollow, Berklee grad Mike Cohen on alto sax, New Groove Orchestra’s Nadav Nirenberg and Ryan Carver from Jah Fizz on the drums. in their short history, jazzpollution has shared bills with numerous acts, including national talent like Robert Randolph & the Family Band and the North Mississippi Allstars.
Alex McDaniel
Lead Vocals & Guitar
Alex, 32, is jazzpollution’s singer/guitarist and songwriter. Alex has been writing music, playing the guitar and singing for more than 17 years. He was in the bands Nadir, 4 Wheel Jive and Jaski before forming jazzpollution with fellow funkster John Hopper. He’s doing this for the love of the music, and doesn’t plan on ever stopping. He lives in Howell,NJ with his wife and two chitlins. His biggest influences are Groove Collective, Charlie Hunter, the Greyboy Allstars, James Brown, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Tool, Grant Green, System of a Down, Jamiroquai, Mars Volta, Django Reinhardt and your momma (she’s more a muse than an influence, but now we’re just focused on semantics, when clearly he wants to stay focused on your momma!)
Frank Ulatowski
Bass Guitar
Frank Ulatowski began his musical career in 1994 playing as a guitarist in various musical projects with several local friends in the Manalapan/Englishtown area but, in response to his love of bands such as Cypress Hill and Jamiroquia, his musical potential was fully realized in 1999 when he made the life-altering switch to bass guitar. That year he was, purely by accident, turned on to the gentle, flowing, yet, funky bass parts of the late Jaco Pastorius and his life was truly changed forever. Since then, he’s appeared at just about every major club in the Central Jersey area, he’s been recorded on several hundred songs and has made a name for himself as a local go-to guy for performance and recording sessions. He has had a lasting business relationship with Tom DeStephano at Firedog Studios since 2002 and Stan Chan at FRS Music since 1996.
On the side, Frank is a fan of philosophy, science, literature, and all around stupidity but only in an all around intellectual way. His extensive use of hyperbole always makes for good table conversation, and his table etiquette in general has been viewed as being, more or less, appropriate only to the masses of megafauna that inhabited this planet several million years ago.
Frank is an active blogger. You can read his blogs at WWW.FRANKLOVESGUINNESS.COM. He is also hoping to get an endorsement one day from Sadowsky (www.sadowsky.com) and Modulus (www.modulusguitars.com) Guitars. He is an advocate of Linux, Apple, and any well written software that falls under the pretenses of the GPL ( GNU Public License ).
Ryan Carver
Drums
Bio to Come…
John Hopper
Flute & Backup Vocals
John started out playing guitar in the hard core band Nadir in the early 90’s, but was then seduced by the sultry funk flute of the likes of Jay Rodriguez of Groove Collective and Karl Denson of Greyboy Allstars. He picked up the instrument on his own and started Jaski with band mate Alex.
Mike Cohen
Alto Sax
Bio to Come…
Nadav Nirenberg
Trombone
At 23, Nadav is quickly establishing himself as a trombonist/bandleader in both NYC and Montreal. For the past 7 years he has co-led successful large funk bands wherever he has lived, including“Mugwump”(NYC) and “The New Groove Orchestra”(Montreal). He writes for all his projects, ranging from 10-piece funk/latin groups to jazz trios-octets and more.
He is also an accomplished sideman, playing in all genres: Jazz, Funk, Blues, Latin, Rock, Bossa, Dixieland, Afro-beat, Classical, Klezmer, Reggae, and more. His studies at McGill University (Montreal) and CCNY (NYC) have allowed him to study with some of the best musicians on the east coast, including Scott Reeves, Mike Holober, Dan Carillo, Remi Bolduc, Ron DiLauro, Kevin Dean, and many more. Recent venues include The Blue Note NYC, The Montreal Jazz Festival and the TD Toronto Jazz Festival.
Nadav is known for his big sound, writing, sight-reading and versatility, but more for his powerful solo style. He also sings backup vocals (baritone range), and plays aux. percussion (shakers, bells, guiros, etc.) Also, he feels weird about writing in the third person.
