Al Chez & The Brothers of Funk Big Band

Al Chez, is a trumpet player extraordinaire. Getting his start in his father’s drum corps in New Jersey at age 9, his career has spanned more than 20 years with stints in a number of rock, funk and blues bands.

As a teenager in 1979, Chez and some fellow New Jersey musicians, including Jon Bon Jovi, started The Atlantic City Expressway, which played locally for five years before disbanding. A few years later, Chez met Paul Shaffer and was invited to tour with The World’s Most Dangerous Band.

A veteran of the clubs around New York City and New Jersey, Chez branched out to California to join the soul-funk band Tower of Power in 1988 and then played trumpet for the band of blues master Robert Cray for a short time in the mid-1990s.

Chez has played a number of high-profile tours and events, from Bon Jovi’s 1987 Slippery When Wet tour to the closing ceremonies of the 1996 centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta with Stevie Wonder and B.B. King.

In 1997, Shaffer asked Chez to be a full-time member of the CBS Orchestra, and Chez has been performing on The Late Show with David Letterman ever since. He maintains a presence as an instructor for a number of drum corps, and is a staff member for the University of Virginia Cavalier marching band.

He formed Al Chez and the Brothers of Funk Big Band with two Rochester-area music teachers, Jimmy Steele and Jarred Streiff.