Origins

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Will “Red” Hawley was born just outside of Birmingham in October 1993 and immediately began immersion into a musical household. Childhood was filled with music from all walks of life thanks to his parents Anne and Joe’s bountiful collection of CD’s. His two older brothers, Matt and Mitch both are incredibly passionate about music and pushed him even more to being a musician. Will’s formal music education started at 5 years old on the piano, and continued on trombone in 6th grade. To cap off the early years, Will played in both the middle and high school band programs.

In 2012 Will moved to New York City to study at the prestigious Juilliard School under James Burton III, Steve Turre, and Elliot Mason; graduating with a BM in Music from the Jazz studies program in 2017. During his time at Juilliard is where the name “Red” began, thanks to a one time off handed remark by artistic director Wynton Marsalis; partly due to origins in Alabama and partly due to the thick red beard. In the last 2 years of undergrad, Red began exploring other types of music closely related to jazz such as funk and hip hop. Shortly after, a crave for the “one” began, and Red started working in hip hop and funk. While still attending school, Red began gigging in places like Dizzy’s, Swing 46, Club Bonafide, the Django and many more.

Red’s first move into a more modern music was with Hollywood Anderson at the beginning of 2018, with whom he recorded a music video, and performed 4 shows in the tri-state area. Following the tiem with Hollywood Anderson, he moved on to working with the Swedish-Swiss singer Helena Hallberg; recording an album in August of 2018 and currently performing together in the New York City area.

On September 1, 2018 Red’s new band JEFF debuted at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2. It was an instant hit with the crowd who stayed past 1am dancing and grooving with us. Since then the band has played over 10 different venues in the city, hosted its own private party in Brooklyn, and recorded a full length album.

Red Hawley is a Best American Craftsman artist and plays a B.A.C. Custom trombone.