Sandon Mayhew is an Idaho native, born in McCall and raised and educated in the Boise area, where he currently lives with his wife, Erika. Sandon started playing saxophone at the age of nine, and started improvising soon after that. He studied saxophone performance with a jazz emphasis throughout high school and college at Boise State University. He had eight years of private classical instruction with the legendary Bill Rankin. Passing on opportunities to relocate to areas with more jazz activity and awareness, Sandon made the decision early in his career to stay in Boise to promote and support the presence of jazz in the local culture (and stay close to Idaho’s mountains and forests).
As a performer, Sandon has played in every conceivable format, style, and size of group, but most frequently in jazz trios and quartets. He currently leads a ‘rehearsal’ big band that meets weekly, and freelances 10-20 dates every month. He is a member of the jazz saxophone quartet called FOUR. His working jazz group , THE NEW TRIO PLUS has been together for 16 years and is frequently commissioned to do special projects –the most recent being a jazz quintet interpretation of Stravinsky’s A SOLDIER’S TALE which premiered in 2008. His list of noteworthy performance credits is vast. He has traded solos with the likes of Arturo Sandoval, Randy Brecker, Eric Marienthal, Richie Cole, Lew Soloff, Bill Watrous, and Gene Harris.
As a recording artist, Sandon’s solos have been featured on over 50 albums, with a dozen of those including horn arranging credits. His latest releases are FOUR: FOURway Stop (2012), FOUR: On A Warm Summer’s Evenin’ (2009), FOUR: With Friends Like These (2006) and THE NEW TRIO PLUS: New Territory (2001).
As an educator, Sandon is in his twentieth year as adjunct saxophone professor at The College of Idaho. He recently stepped down as director of both the C of I Jazz Ensemble and Concert Band, and as director of the Boise State Jazz Ensemble to return to his private studio and devote more time to composing for his various performing jazz groups. Sandon’s private teaching studio was established in 1992, and he has a perpetual waiting list. He is invited to present clinics on the saxophone and on jazz improvisation several times a year in local schools, and frequently adjudicates at regional music festivals. His students consistently win or place in their divisions in competitive solo and ensemble festivals statewide and regionally.
Sandon’s most significant accomplishment is to have cultivated a signature sound, and he is proud to have been a lifelong player of Selmer saxophones. He has been a Selmer endorsed artist/clinician since 2005.
As a performer, Sandon has played in every conceivable format, style, and size of group, but most frequently in jazz trios and quartets. He currently leads a ‘rehearsal’ big band that meets weekly, and freelances 10-20 dates every month. He is a member of the jazz saxophone quartet called FOUR. His working jazz group , THE NEW TRIO PLUS has been together for 16 years and is frequently commissioned to do special projects –the most recent being a jazz quintet interpretation of Stravinsky’s A SOLDIER’S TALE which premiered in 2008. His list of noteworthy performance credits is vast. He has traded solos with the likes of Arturo Sandoval, Randy Brecker, Eric Marienthal, Richie Cole, Lew Soloff, Bill Watrous, and Gene Harris.
As a recording artist, Sandon’s solos have been featured on over 50 albums, with a dozen of those including horn arranging credits. His latest releases are FOUR: FOURway Stop (2012), FOUR: On A Warm Summer’s Evenin’ (2009), FOUR: With Friends Like These (2006) and THE NEW TRIO PLUS: New Territory (2001).
As an educator, Sandon is in his twentieth year as adjunct saxophone professor at The College of Idaho. He recently stepped down as director of both the C of I Jazz Ensemble and Concert Band, and as director of the Boise State Jazz Ensemble to return to his private studio and devote more time to composing for his various performing jazz groups. Sandon’s private teaching studio was established in 1992, and he has a perpetual waiting list. He is invited to present clinics on the saxophone and on jazz improvisation several times a year in local schools, and frequently adjudicates at regional music festivals. His students consistently win or place in their divisions in competitive solo and ensemble festivals statewide and regionally.
Sandon’s most significant accomplishment is to have cultivated a signature sound, and he is proud to have been a lifelong player of Selmer saxophones. He has been a Selmer endorsed artist/clinician since 2005.
