In the small hours of the morning, on a headlong collision into history, ambition, and magic, a trumpeter wails in the apocalypse. "You are making it happen. All the deaths. All the destruction." Tom is a solid, but not great, musician. While his bandmates are happy to play gigs for themselves at their own clubs, drinking free beer and shooting the breeze, Tom aches for the next level, whatever that is. And as musicians are wont to do in magical fables, he meets a mysterious stranger with a seemingly simple offer: take a battered old trumpet for free, and just enjoy it, no exchanges and no strings. Whenever Tom plays it, the extraordinary music blows away his growing throngs of fans, and deadly mishaps start to follow. Tom may not have sold his soul for the music of the heavens, but he seems to have bargained away something much more serious. From the critically acclaimed jazz musician Dave Chisholm, Instrumental is a high-spirited, suspenseful, formally inventive, visually musical graphic novel, an epic yet intimate riff on our longing search for what's next. Dave Chisholm is a trumpet player, songwriter, composer, bandleader, educator, and visual artist currently residing in Rochester, NY. The breadth of Chisholm's artistic output is exemplified in a long string of widely varied projects including the big-band jazz of his debut album Radioactive (2010), the post-rock-meets-jazz-improvisation soundscapes on Calligraphy (2011), his soulful indie-rock singer-songwriter project Talking Under Water, the blistering straight-ahead jazz performed by Utah group John Henry, and the upstart jazz big bands Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra and Colossus. As a trumpet player, Dave has garnered international acclaim. In 2012, he performed six nights at the Umbria Jazz Festival as part of Ryan Truesdell's "Gil Evans: Centennial" project. In 2009, he was one of two recipients of the Downbeat Student Music Award for outstanding collegiate soloist. He has also received numerous accolades and awards at both the Reno Jazz Festival and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Festival. Dave wrote and illustrated his first graphic novel, LET'S GO TO UTAH!, in 2009, followed by short comics in MYSPACE DARK HORSE PRESENTS, and Locust Moon's Eisner Award-winning anthology, DREAM ANOTHER DREAM. He currently teaches at State University of New York at Brockport and at the Hochstein School of Music and Dance.

Instrumental

Comics & Graphic Novels

Chisholm, Dave

Manga

Z2 Comics

The graphic novel tells the story of Bird's time in L.A. starting in December 1945, where Bird and Dizzy Gillespie brought frenetic sounds of bebop from the East Coast jazz underground to the West Coast for a two-month residency at Billy Berg's Hollywood jazz club. This marked the beginning of a tumultuous two year-stint for Bird bumming around L.A., showing up at jam sessions, crashing on people's couches, causing havoc in public places, and recording some of his most groundbreaking tracks, "A Night in Tunisia" and "Ornithology," as well as "Relaxin' At Camarillo," inspired by the end of his time in SoCal at the Camarillo State Hospital. The novel explores Bird's relationship with the characters and events he encountered during his time in L.A. including recording some of his signature songs with Dial Record founder Ross Russell, a brief but influential stay at the home of famed jazz photographer William Claxton, a party for the ages at the ranch home of artist Jirayr Zorthian, and others who found themselves in the orbit of the jazz genius. Chasin' the Bird is named for Charlie Parker's 1947 standard, and adapts one of the sunnier, but darker chapters in the life of Bird, beautifully told by Dave Chisholm The book will include an exclusive flexi disc record featuring a recording from Parker's time in Los Angeles. The deluxe limited edition will include a vinyl 45 with two tracks to be announced ahead of release. In conjunction with the graphic novel, Verve Records/UMe are currently working on a new album spanning Bird's L.A. period that will be released in September as well.

Chasin' The Bird: A Charlie Parker Graphic Novel

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

What begins as one woman's search for her own artistic courage unravels into a stunning look into what jazz music can teach us about our search for the truest versions of ourselves.\nFor decades, seasoned players on the scene have spoken in whispered tones about The Blue: a mysterious meeting place for jazz history - a place where ghosts from this music's storied past spring to life for those courageous enough to enter.\nWhen Jessie Choi's mentor Jimmy Hightower collapses at a gig and loses consciousness, she finds herself reluctantly pulled back into the jazz scene she abandoned years earlier. In investigating the music and mystery behind Jimmy's comatose state, every thread leads to the same question: is Jimmy somehow trapped in this enigma known as The Blue? In her search to save her teacher, Jessie rubs shoulders with legends, uncovers the secret history of Blue Note Records, and faces her own deepest fears.

Enter the Blue

Graphic Novels

Canopus is a psychological sci-fi written and illustrated by Dave Chisholm that, within its tense narrative of an astronaut marooned, explores themes of resentment, forgiveness, memory, and identity. Helen wakes up marooned on a lifeless alien planet 300 light years from Earth with no memories beyond a hazy sense of extinction-level urgency to return to Earth. Joined by Arther, her strange robot companion, she explores the planet to find materials necessary to repair her ship. However, circumstances are not as straightforward as they seem. Along the way, Helen's most painful memories return as monstrous manifestations hell-bent on her destruction. In Canopus, author/illustrator Dave Chisholm pushes the storytelling language of the comics medium to stunning new places while retaining its psychological sci-fi beating heart, finding the sweet spot for both fans of formalist graphic novels (Asterios Polyp, Rusty Brown) and fans of trippy, pulpy sci-fi (Annihilation, Black Science, Descender).&nbsp; &nbsp;

Canopus

Scout Comics

Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound