Monks Livestream's Upcoming Shows

Program:

6:30 PM | Doors & Meet & Greet

7:30 PM | Live Interview with John Page and Zak Kuhn

9:00 PM | Concert Performance

About John Page

John Page is a legendary guitar designer, master builder, and founder of John Page Guitars. After joining Fender in 1978, Page became one of the company’s youngest guitar designers and, in 1987, co-founded and led the Fender Custom Shop—known as the “Dream Factory”—for more than a decade. Over a career spanning more than 50 years, he has designed instruments for artists including Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, and Elliot Easton. Today, Page continues his work crafting distinctive, hand-built instruments through John Page Guitars, bringing his celebrated philosophy of “uniquely familiar” design to a new generation of players.

About Matt Muehling

Matt Muehling is an Austin-based guitarist and versatile multi-genre musician whose work spans jazz, funk, rock, R&B, and experimental music. A longtime fixture of the Austin music scene, Muehling is a member of acclaimed groups including Progger, JARS, Open2.o, and Sketch, and performs as a member of the Kill Tony Band. He has also worked alongside artists including Jon Batiste, Bruno Mars, Gary Clark Jr., and the Black Pumas. Known for his exceptional versatility and deeply expressive playing, Muehling is one of Austin’s most in-demand guitarists and a prominent voice in the city’s contemporary jazz and fusion scene.

About Chris McQueen

Chris McQueen is an Austin-born guitarist, composer, and arranger best known as an original member of the five-time Grammy-winning instrumental collective Snarky Puppy. He is also a co-leader of the groove-oriented group Forq and a member of the Grammy-nominated world music ensemble Bokanté. McQueen began playing and recording music in Austin as a child, later studying jazz at the University of North Texas and performing with the acclaimed One O’Clock Lab Band. His playing draws from jazz, funk, rock, R&B, and experimental music, and his work has taken him around the world with some of the most innovative groups in contemporary music. He continues to live and work in Austin.

About the Zak Kuhn Show

Each week, Zak gives his audience an all-access pass to the biggest names in music and entertainment. These are not your typicle PR-polished interviews – they're candid discussions about the challenges, triumphs, and pivotal moments that shape careers. Whether you're a fan curious about the inner workings, an aspiring musician or an industry professional, you'll find actionable advice and inspiring stories in every episode.

Michael Longoria – Drums

Brian Donohoe – Keyboard, Saxophone

Michael Malone – Saxophone

Daniel Durham – Bass

Michael Longoria is an Austin-based drummer and percussionist with more than 30

years as a professional touring and studio musician. Born in 1974 to a music educator

on the Texas-Mexico border, he grew up immersed in the music and culture of “La

Frontera,” which continues to shape his musical identity and approach to rhythm.

After moving to Austin in 1989, Michael began touring with Texas music legend Joe

"King" Carrasco in 1994. Since then, he has toured internationally and performed or

recorded with acclaimed artists including Patty Griffin, Joel Guzman, Stephen Bruton,

Amos Lee, Eric Johnson, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Indigo Girls, Bob Schneider,

Marc Ribot, Mestrinho, Tita Lima, Yaniel Matos, Tomas Ramirez, Pete Rodriguez, and

many others.

A highly versatile, genre-spanning musician, Michael moves fluidly among Jazz,

Americana, Hip-Hop, R&B, Neo-Soul, Latin, Afro-Caribbean,

and World Music. His recent work reflects that range, performing and

recording with artists and projects including Universal Seedz, Atash, Muthabug, JaRon

Marshall, Adrian Quesada, Curtis Harding, Magna Carda, Doppel, Michael Malone

and others.

Michael’s television appearances include Austin City Limits, Late Show with David

Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good

Morning America, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Rooted in the musical traditions of “La Frontera” and shaped by decades of

collaboration, Michael brings a distinctive rhythmic voice and cross-cultural sensibility to

every performance and recording.

Every Wednesday, Monks opens the stage up for a late-night jazz jam hosted by Austin's very own Daniel Dufour.

This livestream is free and open for public viewership!

Rachel Spencer - Trumpet

Jerry Espinoza - Saxophones

Andy Langham - Piano

Liam O’Dell - Bass

Mike Gordon - Drums

Trumpeter Rachel Spencer is a jazz artist, composer, and educator whose sound “balances lyric storytelling with expressive soloing—reverent to the tradition, but never trapped by it” (Occhi).

Spencer has performed nationally and internationally as both a bandleader and freelance artist, including serving as lead trumpet on the North American tour of The Addams Family: A Musical Comedy. She has regularly appeared at venues and events including Monk’s Jazz Club, Parker Jazz Club, the Elephant Room, SXSW, and beyond.

This performance celebrates the release of Spencer’s debut album, The Next Right Thing, which has already received international critical acclaim ahead of its September release. Early press has praised Spencer as an artist who “honors the jazz tradition while expanding it,” with critics lauding the album’s melodic writing, emotional depth, and distinctive artistic voice. Disconecta called Spencer “a blazing star, brimming with technique,” declaring, “this album is a triumph of spectacle from beginning to end.”

Written over five years—from the beginning of the pandemic through the completion of her Doctor of Musical Arts degree—The Next Right Thing features seven original compositions exploring mentorship, imposter syndrome, creative joy, and the search for an authentic artistic voice. The album draws its title from a mentor’s enduring advice—“Just focus on doing the next right thing”—and ultimately reflects the courage to choose art over fear, one step at a time.

Alongside her performing career, Dr. Spencer is a dedicated educator with more than fifteen years of teaching experience and an active clinician and masterclass presenter. Her doctoral dissertation offers the first comprehensive study of the later career of trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and in 2025 she received the Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award in support of her artistic work.

Jerry Espinoza – Saxophone

Chris Cermak – trumpet

Andy Langham – Piano

Bruno Avitia – Bass

Chris Torres – Drums

Born in Laredo, Texas, Jerry Espinoza received his bachelor's degree in Classical Saxophone Performance at Texas A&M in Kingsville, under the direction of James Warth. Jerry also earned a master's degree in 2015 in Jazz Studies at Texas State University, with emphasis in arranging, under the direction of Russell Haight and Hank Hehmsoth. Currently, he serving as adjunct professor of saxophone at A&M Kingsville and performs as a freelance musician across Central Texas. This concert will feature original compositions and fresh arrangements of jazz standards penned by Jerry & members across the bandstand.

Marco Antonio Santos – Guitar

Charles Pillow – Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Alto Flute

James Sutter – Bass

Fabio Augustinis - Drums

Guitarist and composer Marco Antonio Santos brings New York-based woodwind player Charles Pillow to

Monks Jazz on October 2nd for a performance connected to the recording of Santos’s

second album. The concert takes place during a week-long recording session for the

project, scheduled for release next year.

The new music explores immigration through personal and observed experiences, with a

focus on the psychological aspects of being an immigrant in the United States. Santos’s

compositions and arrangements bring together elements of Brazilian music,

contemporary jazz, and chamber music, using improvisation and written material to

approach themes of identity, belonging, displacement, and adaptation.

Charles Pillow is a saxophonist and multi-woodwind instrumentalist whose career

includes work with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker,

John Scofield, Brad Mehldau, Wynton Marsalis, David Liebman, Paul Simon, and Bruce

Springsteen, among many others. His own projects include reworkings of classical

repertoire as well as his Electric Miles recordings, which explore the electric music of

Miles Davis through large-ensemble arranging. Since 2012, Pillow has served as

Assistant Professor of Jazz Saxophone at the Eastman School of Music.

Originally from Minas Gerais, Brazil, Marco Antonio Santos is a guitarist, composer,

arranger, and educator based in Austin, Texas. His work moves between jazz, Brazilian

music, and contemporary composition, with influences ranging from Milton Nascimento

and Maria Schneider to Radiohead and Jakob Bro. His 2023 debut album, About: Silence,

used music alongside visual art, dance, and poetry to explore different meanings of

silence. Santos has performed and recorded with artists including Nenê, Di Melo, Hilda

Maria, Rique Pantoja, Marshall Gilkes, Bryan Carter, Chad LB, and André “Limão”

Queiroz.

This project is supported in part by an Austin Live Music Fund Grant of Austin

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