Ohs (Overhand Sam of Thunder Body) with Mike Kaupa
An evening of music no one has ever heard before.
Expect the unexpected when Mike and Sam team up on Wednesday, August 19th.
Trumpeter Mike Kaupa has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan. From 2001 through 2005 he was a member of the faculty at the annual Seminario de Jazz, in Barcelona, Spain. He has been associated with the Taller de Musics school in Barcelona since 1983 and recorded there with the group ONIX. On Saturday December 2nd, 2007, Mike performed at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona. Later that month he was a soloist with the SUNY Fredonia Jazz Ensemble. He was an interim professor of jazz trumpet at the Eastman School for the 1999/2000 school year and the spring semester, 2010. He recently performed at The 92nd St. Y in New York City with pianist Bill Dobbins at the "Remembering Marian" tribute concert for Marian McPartland. Among others, he has performed with Jorge Rossy, Ben Monder, The Dave Rivello Ensemble, Mark Egan, Mark Murphy, Gary Bartz, Luciana Souza, Joe Locke, Mel Torme, and Ray Charles. Mike holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Fredonia State University and a Master of Music degree from The University of Miami. He is currently on the faculty of The Harley School, The Institute for Creative Music, and the Eastman Community Music School. Mike has participated in school workshops with Quintopus, the Blank Tape Series, and the IfCM Collective.
Known by his nickname "Overhand Sam," Snyder first began playing guitar as a kid who got stuck inside the house with a broken arm and his older brother's neglected guitar. Aching to play with his fretting hand wrapped up in a cast, Sam did the only thing he could think to do at the time: laying the guitar on the family's dining room table and fingering the fretboard overhanded. (Once big bro saw Sam starting to get good at it, big bro suddenly got possessive and competitive, which Sam says fueled an arms race and pushed each brother to keep improving their chops.) By the time his injury healed weeks and weeks later, he'd already come too far to turn back. Hence the bank robber-sounding nickname, which he was christened with by grizzled old blues veterans. (OHS, btw, kinda-sorta stands for "Overhand Sam" but also has other connotations that Snyder would rather leave open to listeners to fill-in for themselves.)