Guido May International Quartet

On his latest CD “Flow”, drummer Guido May combines all elements of his playing and influences from his 30-year musical career.

In addition to a tribute to his long-time bandleader and funk icon Pee Wee Ellis, there are also original compositions as well as arrangements of jazz standards and favorite pieces by Charles Fambrough and Donald Brown, among others.

The band consists of long-time New Yorkers Jure Pukl (ts) and Marko Chunchetz (p) from Slovenia, as well as bassist Ameen Saleem from Washington, sideman of Roy Hargrove and Kenny Garrett, among others.

At an audition for a professorship, Guido May met Jure and Marko, who were given to him as a band. During the rehearsal he knew that the two of them understood his musical attitude and implemented it the way he listens to music. He met Ameen Saleem on two European tours with the Italian pianist Antonio Faraó.

An international quartet has been found that plays across all styles in all directions: from modern jazz to Afro, from odd time signatures to funky beats, from Latin to hard swinging modern jazz. (press release)

Guido May – Drums / Germany
Studied at “Drummer Focus” / Munich and attended various jazz workshops: Burghausen, Erlangen, Ingolstadt, Vermont Jazz Center. Appearances and CD productions with, among others, Barbara Dennerlein, Klaus Doldinger, Peter O'Mara, Till Brönner, Wolfgang Schmid, Thilo Wolf Big Band, Johannes Enders, Mose Allison, Johnny Griffin, Don Menza, Diana Krall, Claudio Roditi, Chico Freeman, Bamberg Symphony Big Band feat. Kenny Wheeler. A permanent member of funk icon Pee Wee Ellis since 1996.
Goethe Institute tours with Hennessy Jazz Award winner “Café Du Sport” in West Africa, India and Turkey. Since 2000 tours, concerts and CD productions with Benny Golson, The New York Voices, Lynne Arriale, Paul Kuhn, Don Grusin, Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Larry Coryell, Biréli Lagrène, Joey DeFrancesco, Antonio Faraò, Carleen Anderson Soul Trio, Guido May “Groove Extravaganza” feat. Rick Margitza, Lionel Hampton Celebration Orchestra feat. Jason Marsalis, ...

Jure Pukl – tenor saxophone / Slovenia
Studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and the Conservatory of The Hague. Scholarship at Berklee College of Music (Joe Lovano/George Garzone). Master at the University of Music and Performing Arts/Graz.
Concerts and recordings with Lee Harper's Little Big Band / “Plays Wayne Shorter”/2005), Igor Lunder & Zagreb Saxophone Quartet, Howard Curtis/Christian Grobauer (ORF-TV-Jazznacht), European Jazz Orchestra of the European Broadcasting Union in Coimbra. New Yorker by choice since 2015. Recordings with Vijay Iyer, Joe Sanders and Damion Reid “Abstract Society”. Daniel Nösig/Jure Pukl NYC Quintet with Tzumo Arpad, Josh Ginsburg and Gregory Hutchinson / Steyr Jazz Festival. Mattija Dedic “Hybrid” with Melissa Aldana, Matt Brewer and Jonathan Blake. E.J. Strickland Quintet “Warriors for Peace”.

Marko Churnchez - piano / Slovenia
Classical training on the accordion. Master at the University of Music and Performing Arts/Graz. Performances with, among others, Seamus Blake, Bob Mintzer, Don Menza, Michel Philip Mossman, Ron McClure, Luis Bonilla, Gary Chaffee, Melissa Aldana, Marco Minnemann, Stjepko Gut, Marcus Gilmor, Joe Sandres, Armando Gola, Suresh Talwalkar, Jonathan Powell, Gwen Hughes, Stefan Milenkovich, Bosko Petrović. CD productions under his own name: “Signature”, “Moral Interchange” and “Devotion” with Mark Shim, Chris Tordini and Justin Brown. Own trio with Chris Tordini and Damion Reid since 2019.

Ameen Saleem - bass / U.S.A.
Grew up in Washington, DC. Studied at the District of Columbia Youth Orchestra and Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Bachelor's degree magna cum laude from North Carolina Central University. Masters at Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College. In New York concerts and recordings with Winard Harper “A Time for the Soul”, Farnell Newton/Marcus Reynolds Quintet, Roy Hargrove, Mamiko Watanabe, Chris Parker, Eric Wyatt, Frank Lacy and Sullivan Fortner. 2013 debut album “The Groove Lab” with Roy Hargrove, Stacy Dillard, Cyrus Chestnut and Gregory Hutchinson. 2020 Ameen Saleem Quartet with Josh Evans, Tadataka Unno and Jason Brown. 2022 tours with Antonio Faraó and Kenny Garrett, among others.

Program and cast

Guido May: drums
Jure Pukl: tenor saxophone
Marko Churnchetz: piano
Ameen Saleem: bass