Tyler Burchfield is a Brooklyn-based saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, improvisor, music director, and educator. Well versed in traditional and modern jazz, funk, R&B, chamber music, Brazilian music, Afrobeat, and more, Tyler offers the unique ability to sound at home in a host of styles, all while maintaining a personal sound rooted in bold rhythms and melodic sensibility.
Since moving to New York in 2018, Tyler has been performing regularly with eclectic brass outfit Dingonek Street Band and the Revenge of the Cool Nonet, both led by trumpeter Bobby Spellman. He has also performed regionally with the legendary Four Tops and the Temptations, as well as locally with the Terraza Big Band, the Manuel Valera New Cuban Express Big Band, Atomic Funk Project, Larger Than Life Entertainment Group, the Kevin Blancq Big Band, and Brooklyn-based large ensemble collective, Apartment Sessions. In March 2021, Tyler released his debut solo EP, Overruled, entirely self-composed, performed, and recorded the previous month, as part of the annual international RPM challenge. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tyler teamed up with his good friend and long-time colleague Emily Pecoraro to co-direct the Quarantined Woodwind Ensemble, a virtual collective showcasing large woodwind ensemble arrangements, featuring a rotating cast of over 150 top-call woodwind musicians, arrangers, percussionists, and special guests from the Broadway, jazz, and adjacent scenes in greater NYC.
A former Boston-area freelancer, Tyler maintains his musical connections in New England, having recently recorded two albums with Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble, arranging music for City Ballet Boston’s Urban Nutcracker, the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, jazz vocalist Elise Roth, and serving as the keyboardist and music director for top-rated wedding and event band, The Ward Eights. In March 2018, he and guitarist Pedro Vituri released their album Metonímia as co-leaders of the Burchfield-Vituri Project, a culmination of five years of collaborating and a sendoff for their respective moves to New York and São Paulo. He also performed regularly with traditional jazz and swing groups, such as Dan Gabel and the Abletones, Dan Gabel’s High Society Orchestra, and the Late Risers.
Originally from Gainesville, Florida, Tyler was exposed to many musical influences growing up, beginning Suzuki piano lessons at age 4 and listening to classic oldies on the car radio. Throughout middle and high school, he added many instruments to his skill set, including guitar, bass, drums, flute, and clarinet, with saxophone becoming his primary instrument in his teen years.
Tyler holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami Frost School of Music and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He currently lives in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York with his cat, Franklin, and works as a freelancer on tenor, baritone, alto, and soprano saxophones, as well as clarinet, bass clarinet, keyboards, and flute. He serves on the faculty at the Great Neck Music Conservatory and the Ridgewood School of Music, in addition to having a small roster of private students in Brooklyn, teaching saxophone, clarinet, piano, improvisation, and composition.