photo: Adam Baker

Electronisist Josh Oxford, born in 1985,  is a composer, arranger, and performer of myriad styles of music. He has performed throughout the world, especially in his native central New York, on piano, percussion, and Moog synthesizer.  After suffering a debilitating car crash in 2010, Josh has devoted his energy to composing.  His music can be heard on releases from Aaron Tindall, Frank Gabriel Campos, Tim Winfield, Lindsey Goodman, Yung-Ju Pan and on the debut CD of his band The OXtet. He holds two degrees from Ithaca College and a masters from Queens College, where he was awarded The ASCAP Foundation Louis Armstrong Scholarship. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at Arizona State University.

Josh Oxford graduated in 2007 with a degree in percussion performance from Ithaca College. Seeking an outlet for his keyboard playing while in school, Josh started a jazz quintet, consisting of drums, bass, vibraphone, trumpet, and Oxford on keyboards. The OXtet quickly evolved into something far more devious than simply playing jazz standards. Over the years guitar and saxophone were added to fill out the ensemble and create the unique blend of acoustic and electronic instruments. The music takes from the rhythmic complexities inherent in the music of Frank Zappa and the Mahavishnu Orchestra; the funk aspects of 80s Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock; and compositional techniques used in modern classical music, such as atonality and 12-Tone serialism. After suffering a debilitating car accident, more personnel were enlisted to further enhance the group’s sound.

Albums

The Oxtet Does Hindemith

Release Date: May 12, 2023
Catalog Number: BR8977
21st Century
Jazz
Guitar
Percussion
Trumpet
THE OXTET DOES HINDEMITH from Josh Oxford is a bold reimagining of classical music in a jazz fusion context. In this album, Oxford revisits some of Paul Hindemith’s greatest works. Hindemith, a late Romantic German composer, lived during the first half of the 20th century and was among the most significant composers of his time. The album contains sonatas for trumpet, tuba, trombone, and more, in which tonically complex horn lines weave above a jazz band. Recorded at Pyramid Sound in Ithaca and at Ithaca College, the timbres of the various horns along with marimba, Fender Rhodes, drums, electric guitar and bass, and more, are rendered in high fidelity. THE OXTET DOES HINDEMITH features the music of this legendary composer as you’ve never heard it before.