The Alan Chan Jazz Orchestra has emerged, since its formation in 2011, as one of the brightest lights on the Los Angeles jazz scene. Last year, Chan gathered a group of topnotch studio and jazz players — 19 pieces in all, plus guest trumpeter Wayne Bergeron — and produced a two-day session. First to be released, in the fall of 2013, was the EP Rancho Calaveras. On July 15, the orchestra’s debut CD Shrimp Tale is due for release on Chan’s imprint, Crown Heights Audio Network.

Chan went on to study jazz arranging with Gary Lindsay as an undergraduate at the University of Miami in the late ’90s (a time and place he nostalgically recalls on “Shrimp Tale”), but he never thought he’d lead a big band. As a doctoral student at the University of Southern California, he primarily studied classical composition. (He acquired his master’s in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City after being part of an exchange program at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.) Read more.