Date
Wed, October 14, 2026
This event is made possible by support from Blue Fox Arts
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North Star Jazz Workshops is excited to welcome pianist and composer Michael Ragonese to Jazz Central Studios for a special clinic with his trio, featuring Anthony Fung on drums and Logan Kane on bass.
This clinic will offer a close look at Michael's approach to composition, improvisation, and ensemble playing.
The trio will perform an original composition along with a standard from Michael's recent albums, using the music as a starting point for conversation, demonstration, and deeper exploration.
The session will cover Michael's compositional process, including melody-based and chord-based approaches, writing in odd meters, mixing classical harmony with jazz language, and navigating complex time signatures while keeping the music grounded and expressive.
The clinic will also focus on trio interaction: how musicians blend, shape dynamics, listen, respond, and make collective decisions in real time. Michael will also speak about the importance of learning the history of jazz, especially bebop, and how that foundation connects directly to developing your own sound and understanding the language of the music.
This is a great opportunity for pianists, rhythm section players, composers, improvisers, and anyone interested in modern jazz, creative music, and the inner workings of a high-level ensemble.
Los Angeles–based pianist and composer Michael Ragonese has developed a distinct sound rooted in modern jazz, classical influence, and his Italian heritage.
Los Angeles–based jazz pianist and composer Michael Ragonese has developed a distinct sound rooted in modern jazz, classical influence, and his Italian heritage. He has performed, toured, and recorded with artists including Barbra Streisand, Walter Smith III, Ben Wendel, Mark Turner, Dayna Stephens, Charnett Moffett, Bennie Maupin, Dave Binney, and Engelbert Humperdinck.
With three acclaimed albums — Day to Day, Stracci, and Chasing Calm — Ragonese continues to develop a deeply personal approach to composition and improvisation. Chasing Calm, featuring Walter Smith III, Luca Alemanno, and JK Kim, received international praise from publications including DownBeat Magazine, which called it "a deceptively deep album" that "rewards repeated listening."
Ragonese is also a dedicated educator. He is a member of the jazz faculty at USC, co-founder of The Modern Artist, an advanced high school jazz program, and a founding director of the Libretto Conservatory in partnership with the internationally recognized Libretto Jazz Club.
Logan Kane is a Los Angeles–based bassist, composer, and producer whose work moves between upright bass, electric textures, subtle electronics, and modern production.
Rooted in jazz but unconstrained by it, his music blends pulse, atmosphere, harmonic depth, and cinematic sound design. A central presence in LA's creative music community, Kane's work ranges from large-ensemble composition to experimental collaborations and film and television scoring.
Anthony Fung is a Los Angeles–based drummer, composer, producer, and educator. A prolific bandleader and versatile collaborator, he has worked across modern jazz, hip-hop, and R&B with artists including Terrace Martin, Wiz Khalifa, Common, and Cyrille Aimée.
He is an alumnus of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, now the Herbie Hancock Institute, and serves on the faculty at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and the Modern Artist Jazz Institute.
