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Multi-instrumentalist, Dick Poccia, is a versatile performer who has been a mainstay in the northeast jazz music scene for decades. He currently performs with the Amherst Jazz Orchestra (http://amherstjazzorchestra.com) on baritone sax. AJO is one of the premier bands in Massachusetts and plays everything from rare and historical big band works to some of the newest original music for contemporary jazz orchestra.

Poccia also plays soprano sax, clarinet and bass clarinet with Reflections, a chamber jazz trio (http://dlpoccia.wix.com/reflections-2). The name Reflections, from the Thelonious Monk ballad, indicates the group’s emphasis on improvisation and the trading and elaboration of ideas from each of the instruments in solo mode. In addition to Poccia, this eclectic group includes a cello and guitar.

 He also performs regularly in Massachusetts with the Eclectic Jazz Quartet, the Lowe-Jaffe Repertory Big Band and the Abletones Swing Orchestra, and has subbed in Latin and Afro beat ensembles. His credits include backup bands for the Temptations, Ernie Watts, Claudio Roditi, Yusef Lateef, John Abercrombie, Steve Turre, Al Cohn, Peter Erskine, John Fedchock, Karrin Allyson, Arturo O’Farrill and Rufus Reid and full orchestra directed by Gunther Schuller. He has been on two jazz tours in Russia and performed on Portuguese television. He can be heard on a live recording of a performance of the Sacred Music of Duke Ellington with the AJO and Monadnock Chorus (A Tribute to Duke Ellington, Birchwood Recording, 2012).