For those unaware, Jazz vocalist, upright bassist, and bandleader Anthony Caceres brings a rare combination of crooner warmth, instrumental command, and working-musician experience to his music. Equally at home singing while accompanying himself on bass, Caceres has developed a sound rooted in swing, shaped by the jazz vocal tradition, and informed by the discipline of a musician who has spent years leading from within the rhythm section.

Based in Houston, Caceres maintains a long-standing residency at Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, where he performs regularly with his trio. His path to the bandstand began after a four-year commitment in the United States Navy aboard the USS George Washington, followed by studies at San Antonio College, Houston Community College, and the University of North Texas, where he earned a degree in Jazz Studies. His teachers included Joe LoCascio, Dennis Dotson, Bill Miller, Lynn Seaton, and Jeff Bradetich.

Caceres also comes from a notable musical lineage. His grandfather, violinist Emilio Caceres, performed with artists including Jack Teagarden and Harry James and appeared on Benny Goodman’s Camel Caravan radio program in 1937. His grand-uncle, Ernie Caceres, was a pioneering baritone saxophonist associated with Eddie Condon, Jack Teagarden, and the original Glenn Miller Orchestra. From 2004 to 2006, Anthony toured internationally as bassist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, bringing that family history into direct conversation with his own career.

After leaving the orchestra, Caceres focused on developing his own voice as a singer, bassist, and bandleader. An unexpected opportunity to sing during a salsa performance helped lead him toward the distinctive skill of singing while playing upright bass, and by 2007 he had formed his own group and established himself on the Houston jazz scene.

Across his career, Caceres has performed with a wide range of artists, including Marvin Stamm, Bill Mays, Greg Abate, Conrad Herwig, Rosanna Vitro, Jeff Hamilton, Joe Farnsworth, Tamir Hendelman, Carl Fontana, and Bill Watrous. As a leader, his recordings include Don’t Call It Love, Crooner, Something’s Gotta Give, and his brand new album Let’s Take a Trip (out now via Jig in G).

On this new album, vocalist and upright bassist Anthony Caceres brings the warmth of a jazz crooner and the grounding of a bassist-bandleader to a personal program shaped by marriage, fatherhood, memory, and musical life. Centered by three originals and expanded through standards, jazz repertoire, and pop songs recast in a swing vocal style, the album connects autobiography with the language of jazz interpretation.

1. What a Little Moonlight Can Do
2. Elevators and Escalators
3. Let’s Take a Trip
4. Sebastian’s Waltz
5. Blinding Lights
6. Strangelove
7. Stolen Moments
8. A Slow Hot Moment
9. I Just Dropped By to Say Hello

On what is a very personal jazz vocal statement from a singing bassist-bandleader, shaped by family, memory, swing, and the working life of the bandstand, Anthony opens his new recording on the furtively spirited What a Little Moonlight Can Do, the upbeat, perky and decidedly all-embracing Elevators and Escalators, the soulful Let’s Take a Trip, with the decadently smooth Sebastian’s Waltz along next.

Then we get the joyfully alluring Blinding Lights and that is backed seamlessly by the adorable dancefloor hipsway of Strangelove, the emphatically, at times breathlessly rhythmic scat of Stolen Moments, the set rounding out on Anthony coming to the upright bass fore on A Slow Hot Moment, coming to a close on the delicately-hued piano ambiance of I Just Dropped By to Say Hello.

With Let’s Take a Trip, Caceres offers a personal jazz vocal statement built from the materials of his life: marriage, fatherhood, friendship, memory, pop influence, and the discipline of the bandstand. The result is an album that connects autobiographical detail with the enduring language of jazz interpretation.

PLAYERS, INSTRUMENT:
Anthony Caceres — vocals, upright bass, producer
Tamir Hendelman — piano, co-producer
Jostein Gulbrandsen — guitar
Joe Farnsworth — drums

www.anthonycaceres.com