Steven Bulmer Welcomes You

Steve Bulmer is a bassist, educator, composer and producer actively performing and recording on upright bass, electric bass and tuba. As an educator, Steve is the Instructor of bass (classical, jazz, upright bass and bass guitar) at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT where he is  also director of all UConn Jazz Combos.

A native New Englander from Connecticut, Steve enjoys a very active career as an educator and performer that spans many musical idioms including jazz, classical, musical theater and pop/rock. He started piano at age 6 but his musical interest drew him acoustically lower and lower, focusing on how performing as a bassist works harmonically and rhythmically.

Education

Steve was formally trained at the Eastman School of Music where he received a bachelor’s degree in both Music Education and Music Performance, planning to be a performer and educator. He received a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University studying with the famous pedagogue and Chicago Symphony Orchestra tubist Arnold Jacobs.

Steve the Bassist

Steve performs as a bassist and tubist extensively with regional and national musicians in many settings. He has performed on Broadway in productions of Chicago (the Musical) and Parade! at Lincoln Center doubling on upright bass and tuba. He is first call bassist in the region when national touring shows hire area musicians, and has played in such productions as Wicked, Back to the Future, Beautiful – The Carol King Story, Spamalot, Pippin, Mary Poppins, Evita!, The Addams Family, Billy Eliot, Victor/Victoria, and Young Frankenstein and has backed such jazz talents as Mel Tormé, Ray Charles, and classical acts: The Three Irish Tenors, and Josh Groban.

Steve performs as a bassist with Connecticut-based symphony orchestras including those in Wallingford, Ridgefield, Waterbury and also the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra. He also plays tuba and arranges for the Constitution Brass Quintet and has enjoyed re-arranging Widor and Vierne symphonic organ classics for brass quintet, acting as producer of many concerts and events

Jazz

Steve is active as a jazz bassist performing throughout New England with many regional artists and ensembles including performances with Phil Woods, John Abercrombie, Earl MacDonald, John Mastroianni, Greg Abate, Jeff Holmes, Ali Ryerson, Kendra Shank, Nick Brignola, Tom Malone, Lou Marini, Matt Parker, Jonathan Barber, Anton Kot, and vocalese artist Giacomo Gates.

As a composer, Steve most recently was commissioned to write music and lyrics for a movement of Jazz and Justice Suite: A Multi-Movement Declaration. A collaboration between UConn Music and the Gladstein Human Rights Institute, his piece Waltz Gaiabetic explored environmental justice and advocacy as inspired by Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. He performed in its world premiere on April 7, 2026 in J. Louis von der Mehden Recital Hall along with members of UConn Jazz faculty

Steve leads his own jazz quintet, The Hall Monitors, comprised of the area’s finest players and passionate educators. He also performs regularly with Sarah Clay and the StarCats where he arranges a variety of songs for this jazz trio.

He is bassist and president of the New England Jazz Ensemble, a non-profit 16-piece jazz orchestra that commissions and performs new works with an educational mission.  Steve is producer of the NEJE’s Peter and the Wolf project, a recording including a Jazz Ensemble version of Prokofiev’s classic tale augmented with four original works inspired by the classical themes. The album was released in April 2018 and has garnered considerable critical acclaim, in jazz and non-jazz circles alike.

Steve has also been the Secretary and a Board member of the Hartford Jazz Society since 2018 and chairs it’s committee focusing on jazz educators.

Steve is a long-term member of the Ethel Lee Ensemble that performs summer Sundays at UNO’s Chicago Bar and Grill in Springfield, MA.

I’m beyond excited to present the Hall Monitors, a group of top-notch jazz musicians brought together through our love of playing, composing, arranging, AND teaching. We are all honored to be jazz coaches at the prestigious Hall High School in West Hartford CT, working with the Director of Jazz there, James Antonucci.

The group performs a variety of intense jazz styles and includes innovative originals in their programs along with original treatments of not-so-standard jazz classics and tributes to jazz legacies such as Harold Mabern, Phil Woods, Roy Hargrove and Benny Golson. It features a classic piano-bass-drums rhythm section with two innovative and complementary saxophonists.

The group currently consists of Steven Bulmer on bass, Jen Allen on piano, Matt Parker on saxes and flute, Nathan Edwards on saxes and Ben Bilello on drums.

Please find our press kit here. Check out some recordings from our performances at The Side Door in Old Lyme, CT and the Blue Room, CitySpace, Easthampton, MA.

Blanket Statement by Jen Allen is an energetic tune with a strong rhythmic ostinato and minor-key harmonic motion underpinning a complex and scolding melody.

Hey Lock! is a hard swinging tenor tour-de-force from Johnny Griffin and Eddie Lockjaw Davis using the harmonic contrafact from Body and Soul.

Little Karin is a tune from legendary saxophonist Benny Golson that he released on his 1960 album Take a Number From 1 to 10. Here it is with tenor and flute instead of the trumpet and tenor voicings of the original release with Freddy Hubbard.

Mr Hall, by Matt Parker was originally composed for this group to play at a jam session at Black Eyed Sally’s in Hartford, CT. Everybody gets a chance to shine on this hard-swinging tune.

Queen of Hearts at the Dog Lane Cafe is an original tune by Steve Bulmer. The Dog Lane Cafe is a restaurant next door to the UConn Fine Arts building where Steve is an adjunct professor of bass and jazz. When ordering there, they give you a large playing card that identifies you with your order. This is a tribute to that cafe and the fact that Steve got the Queen of Hearts card a couple times in a row, becoming his muse for this tune.

A Brief History

In May of 2023, the opportunity to launch the group really came together after an invitation to perform at the Blue Room in CitySpace, Easthampton, MA for Carol’s Jazz Night concert series put on by empresario Carol Abbe Smith. The group presented a 90 minute set of 11 tunes, including 5 originals from 3 different band members. All we needed now was a name.

The group’s genesis happened at a special night for Hall High School Jazz Combos at the legendary Hartford nightspot, Black Eyed Sally’s. We coaches were invited to perform after the school combos. Matt Parker penned a particularly potent swinger titled Mr. Hall that brought the house to its feet at the conclusion. The smiles on our faces were sure signs that this could not be a one and done group.

After pushing many failed pun-names around trying to play on the word “Hall,” the Hall Monitors‘ moniker was adopted. (Some rejected names included Hall and Notes, and Jazz Fame of Hallers, thankfully!)

I am president and bassist with the New England Jazz Ensemble. We are a not-for-profit organization promoting the music of the modern big band/jazz ensemble.

Get to know us at www.neje.org ,
at our CD store at www.cdbaby.com/Artist/NewEnglandJazzEnsemble
or on Pandora at http://www.pandora.com/new-england-jazz-ensemble

Our latest project is a jazz ensemble version of the iconic “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev. The CD hit the streets April 22, 2018. Please read the story in DOWNBEAT Magazine.

Our CD Release Concert was Thursday October 25, 7:30 PM at the Roberts Theater at Kingswood Oxford School, 170 Kingswood Rd, West Hartford, CT 06119

Check out some cuts from our arrangement written by Walter Gwardyak with “jazzbretto” written and read by Giacomo Gates.

Check out this review from Jack Bowers at All About Jazz:

“This is an ambitious (and essentially successful) enterprise, designed to please fans of the classical and jazz worlds alike, not an easy task to accomplish. The NEJE does it with outstanding musicianship and expansive imagination. The ensemble is exemplary, the soloists bright and perceptive. And with the jazz flavor added to the mix, Sergei Prokofiev’s memorable epic of Peter and the Wolf has seldom sounded better.” – Jack Bowers

Going back to our previous CD, here’s a little sample audio/video from our live CD Release Party performance of Billy Taylor’s “It’s A Grand Night for Swinging” arranged by Jeff Holmes.  It features solos by our guest artists: vocalist Giacomo Gates, flutist Ali Ryerson and guitarist Jon Abercrombie. There are even a couple of audio cameos by drummer Jon Mele and yours truly on bass.

When I am not off on a bicycling adventure with my wife or family, try me at:

EMAIL

srbbass@gmail.com

OLDMAIL

18 Ranney Rd
Cromwell, CT 06416