david bixler trio incognito

About this event

TICKETS are $20 General/$10 Student. Concert is one set; End time is estimate.

New York-based saxophonist, composer, and educator David Bixler continues his recent streak of creative reinvention with incognito ergo sum —the second release from his boundary-pushing trio with bassist Dan Loomis and drummer/percussionist Fabio Rojas, released on June 26th, 2025.

A follow-up to their 2020 debut Inside the Grief —which responded powerfully to the overlapping crises of that year—this new album draws its energy from the trio’s earliest days, playing for parkgoers in pandemic-era New York. Born in a moment of global disruption, incognito ergo sum strips away stylistic borders in favor of shared human expression, drawing on bebop, free jazz, rock, and Venezuelan folk traditions to craft a sound that is both defiant and deeply connected.

Musik an Sich (DE) - review - “A true band that signals togetherness with its music... all three present themselves as equal players”

Hilary Seabrook (UK) - review - “It’s impossible to miss the intensity behind the latest release from saxophonist, composer, and educator David Bixler”

Textura (USA) - review - “the conversational flow the three engage in makes for compelling listening, so much so that the flexibility, agility, and spontaneity of this trio calls to mind no less a unit than Henry Threadgill's Air.”

David Bixler - saxophone

Dan Loomis - bass

Fabio Rojas - percussion

● incognito ergo sum spotify

● liminal space video trio incognito

● Humours of Ballyvaughan with Arturo O’Farrill

● Deep Trust with Bixler Boccato Cowherd and Sturm

incognito ergo sum (June 26th, 2025, DSP Relations)

True to its title, incognito ergo sum (“I am incognito, therefore I am”) celebrates artistic anonymity and collective intention. Early performances saw the group playing under the radar, with Bixler inviting musicians to join without name recognition—an effort to shift the focus from ego to music-making itself. That ethos shines through on this record: conversational, unbound, and driven by curiosity over category.

Across the album’s original compositions, the trio moves with instinct and cohesion—melding intricate rhythmic ideas with moments of stillness, density with clarity. It’s a sound as rooted in downtown NYC improvisation as it is in South American traditions or the post-bop lineage.

Long a staple of the New York scene, David Bixler’s career spans decades of performance and recording, including work with Lionel Hampton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and a Latin GRAMMY-winning tenure with the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Big Band. His recent output—including In the Face of Chaos , BEATitude , Blended Lineage , and The Langston Hughes Project Vol. 1 —marks a bold and personal resurgence after a period of hiatus.

With incognito ergo sum , he offers a powerful artistic statement: a genre-fluid, deeply human album born from upheaval and carried forward by trust, freedom, and collective sound.

The trio celebrated the release at their CD launch on July 24th at DROM on 85 Ave A NYC.

David Bixler | Alto & Soprano Saxophones Dan Loomis | Bass

Fabio Rojas | Percussion

Private Streaming: Soundcloud

WAVs: download here | Photos: download here

Artist website: https://www.davidbixler.com/bio

1. 6.29.21 8:05

2. you 1:03

3. liminal space 7:38

4. you are 1:32

5. recycled 6:23

6. you are ma 3:19

7. what’s at hand 8:03

8. you are ma king 4:26

9. old dog new bix 3:35

10. you are making me 3:18

11. johnny cope 8:25

12. you are making me ha 1:08

13. nobody else but me 5:33

14. you’re making me hate 2:20

All compositions by david bixler David F. Bixler BMI except Nobody Else But Me (Jerome Kern

Oscar Hammerstein) and Johnny Cope (traditional)

Background info / Liner Notes:

Recorded March 25, 2023 North Coast Studios, Fremont Ohio

Engineered by Marco Mendoza

Recorded June 26, 2023 Conveyor Brooklyn, New York Engineered by Peter Karl

Mixed by Peter Karl

Mastered by Mark Bunce

David Bixler is a saxophonist, composer, and educator whose work occupies the fertile ground where jazz meets diverse global traditions. As the leader of Auction Project , Bixler has garnered critical acclaim—including four stars in Downbeat—for his innovative blending of traditional Irish music with Afro-Cuban and contemporary jazz. This foundation in AfroLatin music was built over a decade-long residency at Birdland with the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Big Band , culminating in a Latin GRAMMY for the recording Final Night at Birdland .

Bixler has recently embarked on a prolific artistic reemergence, marked by a series of diverse recordings. These include In the Face of Chaos (2019) and BEATitude (2024) with Bixler, Boccato, Cowherd, and Sturm; Blended Lineage (2020); and Inside the Grief (2020) and incognito ergo sum (2025) with trio incognito. His most recent work with the Bixtet, THE LANGSTON HUGHES PROJECT vol. 1 (2024), was described by PARIS-MOVE as "a touch of genius" for its evocative musical reflections of Hughes's poetry.

A dedicated multi-instrumentalist, Bixler has expanded his sonic palette to include the Irish wooden flute, a pursuit that took him to West Clare, Ireland, to study the country’s traditional heritage. This deep dive into Celtic music, combined with his history touring with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Toshiko Akiyoshi , informs his unique approach to musical pluralism.

Beyond the stage, Bixler is a both a Selmer and Vandoren Artist and serves as the Director of Jazz Studies at Bowling Green State University . He is also the creator and host of the podcast Liner Notes with David Bixler , where he engages in in-depth conversations with the leading voices of the jazz world. Bixler and his family reside in New York City, where he continues to develop projects like Plurality in Motion that use the shared language of rhythm to explore social cohesion and American identity.

Fabio Rojas is a Venezuelan-American Drummer, Film Composer and Educator based in New York City. Originally from Valencia, Venezuela. Rojas has performed with artists such as Geri Allen, Grace VanderWaal, Greg Osby, Pepe de Lucia, Terri Lyne Carrington, David Bixler, Dan Loomis, John Cowherd, Mike Rodriguez, Sean Jones, Pablo Menares, Kevin Harris, Lonnie Plaxico and in venues such as Lincoln Center, 54 Below, SXSW, BU Agganis Arena, TEDx, NAMM Show, RIFF, Boston Symphony Hall, Smoke Jazz Club, Daegu Jazz Festival, among many others.

In Sept 2024 Fabio Rojas released his debut album as a leader called Perseverance , which has been highly acclaimed by International Press as "One of the most brilliant albums that I had in my hands in recent years - Paris Move". The album features jazz legend Greg Osby, Gustavo D'amico, Kevin Harris, Osmar Okuma and Fabio Rojas. The name of the album is inspired by the quote "El que persevera, vence". Which translates to: "He who perseveres, wins".

Rojas earned his Master of Music in Jazz Studies (Magna Cum Laude) at CUNY Queens College 23', where he studied with Michael Mossman. Prior to this Fabio Rojas earned his Bachelor of Music with a Dual Major in Performance and Professional Music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music 14' in Boston, thanks to a Scholarship and hard work. There he had the honor of being mentored by Terri Lyne Carrington and Kim Plainfield.

Besides performing and composing music for films, Rojas also educates and is currently a Faculty member at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He also has given Master Classes at The University of Montana, Furman University, Berklee College of Music, College of Charleston, Northeastern State University, Youngstown State University, Jazz St. Louis, Conservatorio Sergei Rachmaninov, and many other locations around the globe.

Before moving to the US, Rojas studied Jazz Performance at UNEARTE (previously called IUDEM), while being a Drum set instructor at Taller de Jazz Caracas and Percussion instructor at Colegio Emil Friedman.

Fabio Rojas plays Zildjian Cymbals, Vater Drumsticks, Roland, Canopus Drums and ADV Sound iem's exclusively.

With more than a decade of performing experience since moving to New York City, Dan Loomis has emerged as a daring leader, a sought-after sideman, and a composer whose view of the world – and willingness to explore his own inner questioning – has led to the creation of innovative and moving works.

Loomis has appeared on nearly a dozen recordings with the Dan Loomis Quartet and with bands he co- leads, including the collectives The Wee Trio and SPOKE. The latter two bands have released critically acclaimed albums in recent years, including SPOKE’s (R)anthems in 2014, and The Wee Trio’s Wee 3 in 2017.

In addition to his work on the bass, he’s no less skilled with a pen, having written several commissioned pieces, including a jazz oratorio based on the Book of Job and another based on the final days of Jesus, both commissioned by St. Peter’s Church in New York. He recently formed an ensemble called REVOLUTIONS that uses its music to explore the Haitian and Bolivarian uprisings, and to comment on the world’s continuing need for a revolution of spirit and action.

Loomis is also an in-demand sideman. He’s a regular member of Vadim Neselovskyi’s trio, which has played across Europe and at the Blue Note and Village Vanguard in NYC. A small sample of the no- table names with whom Loomis has performed includes TS Monk, Gary Burton, Wycliffe Gordon, Ernesto Cervini, Joel Frahm, Laurence Hobgood, and The Respect Sextet. He’s played in all of New York’s major clubs and at Jazz at Lincoln Center, in addition to appearing on stages across Europe, Canada, Australia, China and throughout the United States.

Last but not least, Loomis is a popular teacher and clinician, having spent more than a decade working with students across the United States, Canada and Australia. For more on Dan Loomis’s current projects, recordings and clinics, visit danloomismusic.com .

incognito ergo sum

David Bixler Trio Incognito (s/r)

by Rachel Smith

When the father of philosophy, Frenchman René Descartes declared “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am) in 1637, he simplified the abstract concept of existence in a simple statement. Similarly, saxophonist David Bixler with incognito ergo sum—more or less “I am unknown (or hidden)”—offers a play on words and concept in the second album from his Trio Incognito. The group—with Dan Loomis (bass) and Fabio Rojas (drums)—came together during the pandemic and the album’s 14 selections possess an off-kilter quality (as evidenced in the title of the third track “Liminal Space”) that takes the listener out of everyday life. Loomis’ bass playing is particularly subtle, as he produces a sound that is not quite grounded, while Bixler’s saxophone playing floats in a sort of enveloping ether.

The strangeness of this world, sketched by the leader’s twelve original compositions is not disturbing, but rather, attractive. He manages to write a world that sounds new and experimental without pushing his instrument too far. The star of the release is unquestionably the purity of Bixler’s tone. The melodies are mostly unornamented and easy to follow. That simplicity allows his saxophone playing to accomplish a paradox: his approach pierces straight to the heart, while also feeling just out of reach. The arrangements support this effect, with Loomis’ bass lines and Rojas’ drumming audibly soft even during solos, which are notably few, in keeping with the “incognito” ethos.

While an album with such a concept risks becoming monotonous, incognito ergo sum is impressive in its melodic variety. The natural incorporation of Irish folk music on “Johnny Cope” (which was originally a traditional Scottish folk song) was a special treat; Irish music and jazz also come together in Bixler’s live performances with his wife, violinist and Irish fiddler Heather Bixler, as well as with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra.

incognito ergo sum is The Music—capital T, capital M. The musicians are virtuosos on their respective instruments, and the band shares a mission with the album serving its vision. But even more than that basic fact, Bixler’s new release gets to the heart of what The Music is: something higher than us, but something we can feel deeply nonetheless.

Concerts and events made possible, in part, with support from the Wells Fargo Philanthropic Services Private Trust Foundations, which include grants from the Stanley A. and Flora P. Clark Memorial Community Trust Foundation, the John, Anna, and Martha Jane Fields Memorial Trust Foundation, and the Florence V. Carroll Charitable Trust. Special concert event support provided by the Arts Midwest Grow, Invest, Gather (GIG) Fund grant (2022-2023 season). Activities are made possible in part by the Arts Organization Support (AOS), Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Concerts and events made possible, in part, with support from The Esther and George Jaruga Charitable Foundation (2020-2023 seasons). The Student and Home Grown Series concerts made possible, in part, with support from the ArtsEverywhere Grant from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, and the Arts Project Support Grant and the Arts Recovery Grant through the Indiana Arts Commission.