Tucson jazz saxophonist Michael Moynihan will release his debut CD “Chronicles” this weekend, a project that he proudly says is a totally Tucson record.
“All the players on it are from Tucson. The artwork is from Tucson. It was recorded here. It’s a very Tucson record,” Moynihan said, noting that the only step in the process not done in Tucson was mastering, which was done in Phoenix. “I think it turned out great.”
The CD, recorded with his quartet — Jack Wood on bass, Matt Mitchell on guitar and Tim Rachbach on drums — comes 10 years after Moynihan, 27, graduated from Catalina Foothills High School. And it caps a circuitous journey that ended where it began: with music.
Moynihan left Tucson soon after he graduated high school and set out on a scholarship-backed journey to Indiana University to major in music. At the end of his third year, he had what he described as a quarter-life crisis, questioning his career choice.
“I wasn’t sure where I was going, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he recalled.
He came home to Tucson and enrolled in the University of Arizona to study biology.
But the lure of music tugged at him.
“It was so weird because I started just playing music on the street again. I couldn’t stop playing,” he said.
Busking turned into several guest turns with local bands and a regular gig with The Key Ingredients of African Soul, the Tucson African folk (Afro-pop, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean) ensemble that has developed a loyal following since it formed in 2008. Through that group, Moynihan was introduced to Thomas Mapfumo, the influential and popular Zimbabwean vocalist who invited Moynihan on his 2009 European tour.
Moynihan dropped out of the UA and leaped at the chance. “I was 21 at the time and very young. I said heck yeah, let’s do it,” he recalled.
The tour lasted two weeks, and once he came home, Moynihan threw himself back into his music, taking freelance jobs in theater and with bands and spending eight months on a cruise ship before going back out with Mapfumo, to Canada in 2011.
In the years since, he’s played in the pit for Broadway musicals including “Book of Mormon” and “Chicago” last season. In February, he landed in Frank Sinatra Jr.’s band at Desert Diamond Casino.
“It was just so great to be playing music with such experienced veterans,” Moynihan said of the Sinatra gig. It was one of Sinatra Jr.’s final performances before he died of a heart attack in March. “He had a lot of guys in his band who played with Frank Sr. in his band. It was great to be involved with that level of musicianship and the high caliber of musicians.”
Moynihan, who earned his bachelor’s degree from the UA in 2014, plays weekly gigs at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort on Friday nights and at Pastiche with the Pete Swan Quintet on Sundays.
At 6 p.m. Sunday, June 5, he and his quartet — Gibb Mandish replaced Rachbach on drums — will play a free “Chronicles” CD release show at Monterey Court, 505 W. Miracle Mile. Details: moynihanmusic.com
