JANUARY 2026 - Presence, practicing and the Green Monster!
Hello everyone! I’m back after some time off and hope that this newsletter finds everyone’s 2026 off to a recharged and creative start.
The conclusion of one year and the start of another places us in a unique space of contemplation: looking back at the last year while looking forward to the year ahead, but in between both. I like to think of this period as a sort of macro-presence, a stretch of days where everyone around us is taking notes on their lives, contemplating, planning - all under the umbrella of a feeling of togetherness. Ah… and the resolutions. I have a few, but the one that keeps popping up in my mind is from a speech (link below) by the composer, Arvo Part: “You are the instrument”. I love this sentiment because it reminds us that the music that we make is the sound of our souls. Taking good care of the “instrument” through healthy choices and empathy is a resolution that benefits not just ourselves but everyone around us - friends, family, bandmates and listeners alike.
I’ve been keeping a short-form musical diary for many years now, mostly in the Notes app on my iPhone, and I’ve been feeling that this might be a good place to begin sharing some of it more openly, and to dig a little deeper. These entries are usually quick, one- or two-sentence observations or questions to myself, but they tend to orbit a few recurring themes: musical and personal growth, reflections on people who inspire me, and notes on my own playing. I record myself in most playing situations and listen back later, which has become an essential part of how I learn and reflect.
Over time, this diary has started to feel less like a collection of isolated thoughts and more like a trail of breadcrumbs marking my development. My hope is that some of these reflections might resonate with you as well. I genuinely enjoy hearing from you after I share these letters, and I’m always curious about your perspectives—so please feel free to write back.
Musical diary entry:
“You know what it feels like to play in the present but can you listen to music in a similar mindset?”
Response:
For musicians (especially ones who compose and improvise) listening to music, both live and recorded, can often involve analytical listening, specifically figuring out what’s happening harmonically, rhythmically, interactively to the point where you could imitate if if needed and absorb it to be utilized at a later date. I recognize that part of this phenomenon is inherent to the medium itself: Typically, the recording of jazz and improvised music is a mirror of what happens live, as opposed to a pop record which is produced in the studio and then worked up for live performance later (broad stokes here but hopefully this paints the picture). Lately, though, I’ve been getting glimpses of what it feels like to truly listen with presence. Not to listen like a “collector”.To listen like a child and hear people’s souls.
I was confronted with this feeling of present listening for twenty minutes straight last month, when I helped my friend Jacob Sacks at his latest recital. I had the slightly nerve-wracking job of turning pages during his beautiful twenty-minute performance of Rhapsody in Blue for two pianos.
Following along with the music, having a specific task to do besides simply listening, gave me a new sense of awareness. I found myself just hearing the sounds go by, almost as if I had no musical training at all. Of course, I had to use my skills to read the score, but beyond that, there was no time to interpret or analyze. I think that it was pure listening. At its best, playing music can take on an observational quality. Usually some tectonic parts (training, listening, trust, common ground) have to be in place for this to occur but the main virtue is the present act of listening.
To take this into the realm of improvised music, the Miles Davis near-obsession continues. Miles is famous for “playing the silence”, honoring space just as much as making a sound. As I go back and listen to his earlier recordings, specifically the Prestige recordings of 1954-55, I believe that you can hear the beginning of a new relationship with this concept. I don’t know how he thought about it but to me an “observer’s mindset” begins to emerge. That is to say, hearing the music as a whole - standing back and seeing it as one would a piece of visual art. As many of us know, Miles became celebrated as much for his bandleading and musician selection as he did for his singular voice on the trumpet. I’m always moved by the empathy in his playing and he remains one of my most important teachers.
Performances:
Feb 4 @Closeup - Vinnie Sperrazza 4tet w. Sam Newsome, Chet Doxas and Jacob Sacks. I love playing with Jacob and Vinnie and am excited to finally get the chance to play alongside soprano saxophonist, Sam Newsome. This should be a beautiful night of improvising with some of the greatest listeners I know. If you haven’t been to Close Up yet, it’s definitely worth the visit. Great ambiance and a very friendly artist-run space on the LES.
New music update:
The beginning of this year includes a lot of composing and recording. It’s a peaceful time to hunker down and get some work done. I especially like it when these contemplative periods are accompanied by big snow falls - you can take the boy out of Canada but…
Duo with Tomas Fujiwara: Tomas and I met a couple years ago while performing a collection of new works by Michael Formanek as part of a commission for the Guimaraes Jazz Festival. This past summer, Tomas and I performed together as part of the Wow Jazz Festival in Brooklyn. We played a six-movement graphic composition that I wrote for us based on various star charts from the constellation, Orion. We have begun a series of recording sessions which explore this piece but also allow room for deviation and experimentation in the studio. We are recording this project in my home studio. This is a first for me. I’ve taken the last few years to make improvements to the room and equipment and the thought of now having a functional laboratory for incubating creative work is a dream come true.
Larum: Micah Frank and I have finished production of the new Larum album and can’t wait to share it with you in the coming months. We just sent it off to be mastered by Taylor Deupree and we are thrilled with how it’s turned out. We are not yet sure if we are going to work with a label or self-release it but I'll be sure to keep you all updated with our plans.
Practicing:
Oh yes, my friends, does the journey ever continue…
A main goal of improvising musicians is to be able to play what you hear in real time. I once had a teacher who used to say, “You will spend your whole life trying to shorten your arms.” Funny, right? What he meant was that if you had no arms or fingers to contend with, you could execute your inner melody with greater immediacy and accuracy. I’m feeling my arms getting shorter by the week thanks to triads.
Triads, triads, and more triads. I feel as though triads hold the harmonic keys to playing a lot of what we hear in the Western world. As soon as we have three notes grouped together, an explosion of possibilities occurs: chord qualities, inversions, voice leading, reordering notes to create patterns and melodies, octave displacement, modulation, and much more. I’ve been honing in on the best ways to practice triads - or, as I like to think of them, the skeletal system of harmony. I like this image because it suggests a foundation that is invisible yet essential. The more solid the underlying structure, the higher - and more adventurously - we can build, and the more reliable we can be when others need our support.
It’s taken me this long in my life to actually start practicing slowly… and I mean really slowly. I’ve been calling it “Tai Chi practicing” (a working title 😉). This approach has been motivated by my extended long-tone practice. Working at this pace gives me the time to absorb more by asking myself, “What does this really sound like to me?” I’ve been doing my best to apply my long-tone mindset to practicing triads—truly feeling and hearing the intervals in my body. It’s been both illuminating and inspiring, and it’s often the first thing I think about when I wake up these days. That is, if I manage to get a decent night’s sleep. Ugh… why does good sleep continue to elude so many of us in adulthood? I digress.
Asking yourself questions about things you might otherwise take for granted, in this case, triads, has to play a role in growth and awakening. Developing a deeper connection with something that’s always been around you feels like a worthy and rewarding pursuit. I believe the more we foster a personal relationship with these sounds, the more of ourselves we can share with others. Isn’t it interesting that the clearer and stronger someone’s artistic voice becomes, the more of yourself you see reflected in it? A worthy pursuit indeed.
Listening and watching:
Muhal Richard Abrams: Young at Heart - I've been enjoying the autobiography of Henry Threadgill and this is one of his early recorded appearances. Abrams was a bit of a blind spot for me and thanks to my good friend Zack Lober for suggesting the book to me and that I start with this recording.
Joe Henderson: An Evening with Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden and Al Foster - There’s a special place in my heart for tenor trio and the mutual respect these guys all have for each other. I also feel like their sound concepts align beautifully. This one is a timeless album for me.
Charles Ives: Orchestral Set No. 2 this piece was unknown to me until I heard it performed by the NY Phil last weekend. Wowsers! Sublime work. The performance was outstanding as well. I've always loved Ives and, in fact, we were raised with an album in our home called “Ives Plays Ives”... it’s a fun listen to hear him hack and grunt his way through the Concord Sonata and interesting to hear his phrasing.
Arvo Part:Commencement speech at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary. I often find myself going back to the well of Arvo. His diary entries lay out a brutally honest path of his struggles and development as one of the most sincere and unique living voices in music. If I’m ever feeling stuck, Avro always reminds me that we should feel grateful for this feeling. He reminds me to keep my eyes, ears and heart open as we move through life.
Amir ElSaffar: New Quartet Live at Pierre Boulez Saal This a beautifully rich set of compositions and playing by an amazing quartet. I first heard this group at The Stone about two years ago and was completely knocked out. This is where I first heard the saxophonist Ole Mathisen play and was blown away by his imagination and control of the instrument. Since then, we have become good friends and have performed some duo concerts together.
Cal Newport: Slow Productivity I just finished reading this book and I recommend it to anyone out there who feels like their creative workflow flow could use a tune up. This book clearly lays out some ways of prioritizing quality over quantity and has given me a new sense of agency over my time and projects.
The Green Monster!!!:
Over the pandemic my family and I discovered this smoothie and haven’t looked back. It remains in heavy rotation. It takes like a milk shake and who doesn't like that?
1 cup (250 mL) almond milk or other non-dairy milk
1 cup destemmed kale leaves or baby spinach
1 large ripe frozen banana, chopped into chunks
1 tablespoon (15 mL) almond butter or peanut butter
1 tablespoon chia seeds or ground flaxseed
Pinch of ground cinnamon
1 scoop of your favourite protein powder (optional)
2 to 3 ice cubes
Directions
Add all ingredients into a high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
Warmest to all…literally,
Chet
www.chetdoxas.com
November Newsletter - deeper practicing, new Larum album in the can, listening links, and the Enzoni!
Good Autumn to all,
Fall is here, and with it comes a familiar feeling: that post-summer bliss has dissipated, and I’m now left with the day-to-day rhythm of continuing to engage with my work—drilling down…the real work. I’m reminded of the words of art critic Jerry Saltz: “Artists: get deeper, not better.” Fall feels like the time when the real digging begins and the rewards of curious stick-to-it-ness start to reveal themselves. Not-so-spoiler alert: consistency is key.
Following my last newsletter, I received many warm responses from those of you curious about my daily practice routine. Well, the journey continues—with revelations! I continue to practice and compose for around 4.5 hours a day (6 hrs with breaks) using this practice quadrant and in twenty-five-minute intervals following the Pomodoro Technique. I’ve been contemplating what I practice, why I practice it, and how unique a position I’m in to practice so that I may be available to best serve the music when playing with others—preparing to improvise. Unlike most classical musicians who prepare pre-composed music, we improvisers have a lot of wrangling to do when it comes to deciding what and how to practice. I’m just starting to get glimpses of what it all means to me. Better late than never—and grateful for the opportunity to confront these questions through music.
Interestingly, many of my discoveries have come from the daily warmup portion of my practice. I say “interestingly” because this part of my routine tends to focus on sound development, and there’s not a lot of speed involved. Long tones and slow intervallic leaps—you know, saxophone stuff. Or so I thought. I’m beginning to learn that there are secrets in giving yourself the space to be in the presence of your own sound and allowing yourself the time to listen deeply and make choices based on your own aesthetics.
The specific exercise that has been most illuminating is the “Dewey Redman long tone exercise.” This is the simplest warmup I’ve ever played—or so I thought. When you give yourself twenty-five minutes to play every single note on your instrument for as long as you can, you’re faced with a deceptively simple set of questions: How does this sound? What should I change? Can I reproduce it? Unbeknownst to me, this “simple” exercise has started to create a blueprint of consideration for everything that I play, how I play it, and what I don’t play. Who knew that you could warm up your own taste—one note at a time! Thanks, Dewey.
Recent news:
I’m very happy to report that Micah Frank, my partner in the group Larum, and I have finished the two-year-long composing and production process of our latest album, yet to be named. We share a mild mutual obsession with Cormac McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian and let various scenes guide the path of certain pieces on the album. In case you need a nudge to finally read it, it’s a truly great piece of American art—stark, elegant, brutal, existential, timeless. As McCarthy said, “If it doesn’t concern life and death, it’s not interesting.” Yikes.
Upcoming performance:
Nov 10 at 9pm – Lowlands, Brooklyn
Larum (Micah and I) invite alto saxophonist Tim Berne to join us for a set of improvisations based on a tone row he has mapped to his electronic instrument, the Ableton Push 3. I will be live-processing my woodwinds and the same tone row on cassette loops. The juxtaposition between Micah’s hi-res instrument, my degrading cassette loops, and the live woodwinds works beautifully. Previously, we spent much of our time performing the works of Hildegard von Bingen. Inspired by recent deep listening sessions of Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, we’ve decided to jump ahead 1,250 years for some new inspiration.
What I’ve been listening to & watching:
Zack Lober – So We Could Live
Miles Davis – Live at the Plugged Nickel
Ornette Coleman – Live at the Hillcrest
Ingrid Laubrock – Purposing the Air
David Liebman / Jeff Williams – In Duo
Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer
Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil
Video: Anthony Braxton Quartet - Live in Montreux 1975
Video: Ben Webster Documentary - Big Ben 1971
For anyone who is still drinking out there, this is The Enzoni! A deliciously simple gin and muddled red grape cocktail. It's a nice, fresh, herbaceous way to kick off a dinner. I think that it could also handle a sprig of rosemary and/or some orange zest. I'm strongly considering it for a round of cocktails to kick off Thanksgiving dinner.
Warmly,
Chet
September/October Newsletter - Gigs, Releases, Daily Practices, Listening & Pasta!
Hi friends,
Thank you so much for the incredible response and interest in signing up for my newsletter. It was heartwarming to see your names appear in the spreadsheet and to know that you’d like to stay up to date with me and my projects. I’m new to this, so please bear with me as I iron out the kinks. I’ll do my best to keep things succinct, but hopefully also warm, inviting and fun.
Upcoming Performances
Sept 25: LARUM at Public Records (supporting blankfor.ms release)
Oct 1: Chet Doxas Sextet – Ceremonial at Smalls NYC (6pm & 7:30pm)
Oct 8: Dave Scott Quintet at Smalls NYC (6pm & 7:30pm)
Oct 11: Chet Doxas Organ Trio at Bar Bayeux, Brooklyn
Oct 22–24: Visiting Lecturer at Capilano University, Vancouver BC
Oct 25: Saxophone Summit Concert at Capilano University, Vancouver BC
News
LARUM (with Micah Frank & Taylor Deupree) has released a new album, Treatise – Cornelius Cardew, on 12k Records. The album was recorded live in New York City at two different performances: Public Records in Brooklyn and The Fridman Gallery on the Bowery. The recordings are our interpretations of English composer Cornelius Cardew’s iconic graphic scores. Some thoughtful words from a recent review: “It’s tempting to say Larum play Cardew, but that misses the point: they inhabit him, walk through his shapes like rooms, and leave their fingerprints on the walls. The result is music that is both rigorous and free, logic wrapped in intuition.” – chaindlk.com
Live in Brooklyn: This release grew out of a beautiful musical meeting between new and old friends. Jacob Sacks (piano) and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums) were among the very first musicians I met upon moving to NYC just over ten years ago, and every chance I get to play with them is something I deeply treasure. When we secured the date at iBeam, Vinnie reached out to the incomparable bassist, composer, and improviser Mark Helias to see if he might like to join us. Since then, we’ve played several gigs together, and I’m happy to report that a genuine musical and personal friendship continues to grow. This album was also a fun DIY experiment. I brought some remote recording gear to the venue, and Mark mixed and mastered the session, and Jacob designed the artwork, which is now available on Helias’ own online label.
Daily Practice
Lately, I’ve been settling into a new (and improved) practice and writing routine: about 4–4.5 hours of saxophone/clarinet practice and 1 hour of composing each day — all in 25-minute intervals, using the Pomodoro technique. The last time I practiced this much was in my late teens and college years. These days, while progress is a little slower, I find it far more productive and meaningful. These daily sessions have quickly become a sacred space for me. A big part of that is a mantra shared by my friend Nick Law, a celebrated designer and creative business leader: “Produce more than you consume.” At first glance it seems simple, but it’s been transformative for my mindset. I’ve started to recognize that distraction, negative thought cycles, and even non-constructive conversations are forms of “consumption.” Shifting my focus to creating instead has not only improved my practice but also changed the way I improvise — I notice myself leaving more space, which feels like growth.
Listening Lately
Here are 10'ish albums I’ve been enjoying recently. The common threads among much of the music I gravitate toward are imagination, risk, presence, sincerity, and love. I actually keep a running list on my phone of musicians who embody these traits — maybe I’ll share more about that in a future newsletter. All of the titles below should link to their respective recordings. Enjoy!
2. Richard Strauss - Selections from Salome
3. John Coltrane - Live in Japan… bonus interviews at the end
4. Clifford Brown & Max Roach - self-titled
5. John Abercrombie & Vince Mendoza - Animato
7. Emerson String Quartet - Beethoven: The Late String Quartets
8. Mary Halvorson - About Ghosts
10. Baikida E.J. Carroll - Orange Fish Tears
11. Dimitri Shostakovich - Ashkenazy: 24 Prelude & Fugues, Op. 87
12. First Place Again - Paul Desmond with the beautiful rhythm section of Jim Hall, Percy Heath and Connie Kay
BONUS
Dig this simple and delicious pasta recipe. I whipped it up for friends over Labor Day weekend in Montauk while we were standing around trying to think of what to make for dinner;) It’s a keeper!