Michael Hackett Quintet

media release: Michael Hackett, trumpet; Pawan Benjamin, saxophone; Chris Rottmayer, piano; Nick Moran, bass; Michael Brenneis, drums

Michael Hackett has performed extensively with touring entertainers and pops orchestras across the country backing up artists such as Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, and Perry Como. His playing has been featured in many national television and radio commercials, the movie sound track to “The Aviator,” and many commercially available recordings, including those with Scott Whitfield’s Jazz Orchestra East, three recordings with The Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, and “Basically Baker: the Music of David Baker.”

As both an accomplished Saxophonist and Bansuri flute player, Pawan Benjamin stands at the intersection of profound musical traditions. Rooted in Jazz and Improvisation, his pursuit of learning later led him to the Bansuri Flute and a deep study of Nepali Folk and Indian Classical Music. His unique perspective into these legacies of music has allowed him to work with a myriad of world-class artists, and perform and teach around the world. Pawan has performed alongside artists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Reggie Workman, Ranjit Barot, Bill T. Jones, Taufiq Qureshi, Rez Abbasi, Marc Cary, and others. Performance credits include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Newport Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Rubin Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, the Mondriaan Jazz Festival, the Bimhuis, the NCPA in Mumbai, Goa International Jazz Festival, and more.

Chris Rottmayer is a jazz pianist, composer, and jazz vibraphonist living in Madison, Wisconsin. Chris has been a freelance jazz pianist since 1990, was a pianist for Walt Disney World from 1999 to 2020, and has released three albums as a leader: Reactive Synthesis (2013), Sunday at Pilars (2019), and So In Love (2020). Chris is currently the Instructor of Jazz Piano at the University of South Florida, where he has taught since 2007, and is pursuing a DMA in Piano Performance at the University of Wisconsin- Madison where he holds a Teaching Assistantship in the Theory department.

Nick Moran has toured internationally and performed with a diverse collection of internationally renowned acts, including Ben Sidran, Lee ‘Scratch‘ Perry, Clyde Subblefield, David ‘Fathead‘ Newman (Ray Charles’ sax player), Ana Laan, cajón ambassador Juan ‘Cotito’ Medrano (Susana Baca, Novalima), dance hall pioneers Chaka Demus and Pliers, and hip hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc. In 2001, Nick was honored to record and perform with master of afro cuban percussion and Grammy Award winner Roberto ‘Vizcaino” Guillot.

Michael Brenneis has been an essential mover in the Madison improvised music community for twenty years. From his early work with Tomato Box and The Active Percussion Duo, to later projects such as Post Consumer Gnarl, The Ten Sleeps Trio, The Improvisor’s Workbench, and Executive Tea Set, he is consistently demolishing the boundaries of musical convention. In 2018 Michael was awarded an Artistic Development Grant by the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium to compose, record and premiere a large ensemble work entitled Plutonium.