Rochester college student composer Joey Stempien looks to the atmosphere for inspiration on his debut live big band record Wind Vane, arriving March 6.
Recorded live at Bop Shop Records, Wind Vane stays firmly tied to its New York origins. Stempien, a University of Rochester student completing degrees in Music and Environmental Science, leads a local ensemble scheduling performances across the region into late 2026. The Joey Stempien Big Band brings University of Rochester students and regional players altogether in a full big-band lineup of saxophones, brass, and rhythm section. Stempien leads the big band on piano and keyboards. He explains, “this project reflects where I actually am, personally, musically, and geographically.”
For Joey Stempien, meteorology is not just a science but a creative framework, shaping the compositions that make up his debut. The use of meteorology allows the live album to take on a unique meaning, one that overall reflects constant change within the surrounding environment. The live album evolves as Stempien builds a shifting musical world that moves and responds in real time. The wind becomes a metaphor for the aura of jazz itself, and like climate, individual moments shape it, something listeners can only experience rather than control.
Stempien describes the album alluding that “a wind vane points where the air is moving, and this album is exactly that, music shaped by the winds I’ve lived in: jazz, pop, folk, Americana, funk, Rochester winters, big skies, and the voices of the people I get to write for.”
A pre-release listening event is scheduled for March 5 at Bop Shop Records in Rochester, with a $20 door entry that includes a signed and numbered CD. The Joey Stempien Big Band will then perform March 6 at Fort Hill Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua and March 7 at CNY Jazz Central in Syracuse. To learn more ahead of the album’s streaming release, visit the band’s website.
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