Fred Cavese

 Jazz Saxophonist    Rockledge, Florida

     I am a native of Buffalo, New York.  My first experience with music was at the age of 5, when my father taught me how to read music and play a small accordion. In the fourth grade, I found a niche with the clarinet, and continued playing all through high school and college, with success in many local and statewide interscholastic music competitions.  Late in high school, I began the tenor saxophone and played in the high school and college jazz ensembles.  I also performed with virtuoso pianist Gershon Wachtel in a local klezmer band ("Kosher Jam") and performed at various events before embarking upon a career in law and 20 years of active duty in the US Air Force, which took me to places around the country and throughout the world.

     After retiring from the Air Force in 2008, I resumed playing the clarinet and tenor sax on a regular basis, and I began playing the soprano sax in 2013.   I performed regularly with the St Louis Big Band and Freeburg Big Band in the greater St Louis, Missouri metropolitan area.   My favorite types of music are swing, contemporary jazz, and ballads, with Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Paul Desmond, Stan Getz, and Kenny G among my favorite instrumentalists.   I perform regularly as a soloist at public and private events/venues, as well as in my church's weekly music liturgy.

     A graduate of Canisius College, McGeorge School of Law, and the University of Notre Dame Law School, I now reside with my wife Debbie (a retired USAF nurse) in Rockledge, Florida.