I have a couple exciting things to announce! First and foremost:  I will be presenting a new music recital at NIU on October 31st at 8pm!  It will feature the works of Jason Mulligan, Aaron Gage, and Kyle Krause.  Most of the pieces will be world premiers and all of them will be regional premiers.  Hopefully you can make it to the recital hall after your trick-or-treating! Second, I’ve added some hidden pages to my website for various projects I have running. For more information on “CARIJAZZ!” visit www.schwebkemusic.com/carijazzFor more information on the Jazz Trials at the Law Office visit www.schwebkemusic.com/jazztrials[…]

It’s that time again… a brand new year!  I just want to take a few minutes to think back about 2017 and think forward to 2018! 2017 started slow from a performance perspective.  Kyle Krause and I applied for a grant to put together and premier a concerto for steelpan and orchestra and I was introduced to Callaloo Chicago.  The monthly Jazz Trials at the Law Office continued with decent crowds early in the year.  The most exciting stuff in first quarter was getting completed pieces Aaron Gage and Jason Mulligan (more on that further down).  I first performed with Callaloo in April and have subbed[…]

The CariJazz show is just one week away! Come on down to the Law Office on Friday the 15th to hear Dave Katz on trumpet, Aaron Rybksi on tenor sax, Mike McSweeney on percussion, Jonny Gifford on drums, Eric Smith on bass and Mark Nelson on keyboards.  I will be playing steelpan and a little percussion.  The tunes we are playing are really hip and not stuff you get to hear very often live!   I hope you all can make it! The Facebook event can be seen HERE. See you all around! — mike

2017 has been a great year for the Jazz Trials Jam Session at the Law Office Pub & Music Hall in Yorkville.  We have had many amazing musicians come from all over the Chicagoland and the midwest to come hangout and play!  The FINAL Jazz Trials for 2017 is happening NEXT WEEK!    NOVEMBER 30, 7-10pm!     Facebook event HERE.   Playing at the Law Office Regularly has given me an opportunity to put a band together to perform some of my favorite Carbbean jazz tunes.  Most of them are rarely performed live in the US.   On December 15th, I am hosting[…]

I haven’t made much effort in the past to promote my personal artist Facebook page.  Looking into the next year or so I think it will make sense to make it availible to everyone!  Between this blog and my FB page, there will be many new photos, video and updates! Check it out!   Mike Schwebke, Steelpan and Percussion There will be updates like news about the Jazz Trials, the Caribbean Jazz Show that I will host at the Law Office in December and my upcoming New Music for Steelpan Recital next fall! Thanks for checking in! — mike

It’s coming into August and the fall schedule is starting to fill up: clinic engagements, marching band, Jazz Trials, Paa Kow Band Shows (and “Cookpot” album release), as well as travels and PASIC in November. The rest of August holds 2 events at the Law Office Pub & Music Hall that I am very excited about!  We are hosting Paa Kow Band on Tuesday the 29th and the Jazz Trials are on Thursday the 31st!   Paa Kow is an amazing drummer, and I love taking every opportunity I have to play with his band.  Every single one of the guys in the[…]

The Jazz Trials event, hosted once a month at the Law Office Pub and Music Hall in Yorkville, has grown in a huge way in the last 11 months.  July 2017 marks the one year anniversary of the very first Jazz Trials! In the last year we have had over 50 different musicans from Illinois, Indiana and Iowa join us on stage.  Ron from Iowa drove over 2 hours to sit in on the jam session, and Ed from Indiana has driven over an hour on multiple Thursdays evenings to play!  The jam session is held one Thursday a month[…]

Last week I was very lucky to be able to fly out to Burbank, California to record for the “PanRocks LA 2017” video project. The project entailed using 25 pan players with a rock and roll rhythm section to record a few rock/metal classics!  The video element was covered by an award-winning crew that handled 360 degree (VR compatible) video of the recording studio time as well as player interviews and 2D action videos of all the players. The rythm section featured Stephen Perkins on drums (Jane’s Addiction, 9 Inch Nails), Billy Sheehan on Bass (UFO, David Lee Roth Band,[…]

2016 was a wild year – good and bad.  The music community lost Lemmy, Prince, David Bowie, George Michael, Greg Lake and others.  The loss has hurt, but will never kill the art.  The legacies of these musicians will live on forever thanks to their CDs, records, videos, and the fans that will continue to enjoy the music for years to come. 2016 was an exciting year for me musically.  Back in February I was on the road with Paa Kow Band for a week.  We played some clubs in Iowa and I got off the tour bus in Chicago[…]

Next month brings a new jazz event to my calendar, the monthly First Fridays event that happens city wide in Aurora! The quartet will be made up of Michael Barton on bass, Mark Nelson on keyboards, Frank Check on drums and myself on steelpan.  We will be playing jazz standards and maybe even having a few guests sit in!  We will be hosted from 7-9pm at Culture Stock.  There is a facebook event for the show and there will even be a poetry/spoken word performance there at 10pm. Thanks, I hope you can all make it out! Mike