Lisa Maxwell
Lisa Maxwell is a composer, arranger, orchestrater, producer, conductor, and performer. Her most recent recording project, “Shiny! Lisa Maxwell’s Jazz Orchestra” received a 4-star review by DownBeat Magazine. She has been part of the Emmy Award-winning music team for Warner Bros., an orchestrator on all 52 episodes of Histeria! and Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish, and a Netflix and Paramount+ contributor. As a sax player, Lisa not only led the horn sections on tour with Guns 'n' Roses and Spinal Tap and has also performed with Bruce Willis, Carole King, Steven Tyler, Lenny Kravitz, Machito Big Band, Gil Evans Orchestra, Charlie Haden, Hiram Bullock, Will Lee, Chuck Berry, Smokey Hormel, and The Joni Mitchell Project.
Lisa's mini playlist
Shiny!
My writing is often influenced by TV themes of the 1970’s that I grew up with, and Shiny is one of them, with a “car chase” boogaloo groove. It features Smokey Hormel and Oz Noy on guitars, Randy Brecker on wah-wah trumpet, and Dave Taylor on bass trombone.
Ludie is a jazz waltz that was inspired by Lalo Schifrin's theme from "Mannix”, and features Randy Brecker on flugelhorn and Carmen Staaf on piano. It’s a feel-good tune!
Son of Creeper
Written by my friend Hiram Bullock, Son of Creeper is a blues he used to play with his power trio (Jaco Pastorius and Kenwood Dennard). I wanted to write an arrangement for big band that captured Jaco’s arpeggiated bass intro and the unpredicatability of where the tune might go during the solos,reflected in the New Orleans detour. It features Mike Stern on guitar, Alex Foster (SNL) on alto, Paul Shaffer on Organ.
-Lisa Maxwell