Michael Arenella & His Dreamland Orchestra

While making a living busking in the subway upon his arrival to NYC in 1998, Michael Arenella made a name immersing himself in the virginal Jazz of the 1920s. This immersion went on to give birth to a cultural phenomenon, a good decade before it became hot in popular culture: the rebirth of the Jazz Age. As tens of thousands began pouring through the gates of his now famous Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island in NYC, a restlessness started to beckon to him. The pandemic of 2020 galvanized this. A year without a place to be, a sense of purpose indefinitely suspended – gave him the opportunity to reunite after 15 years with his first and natural voice: the trombone. With this, the desire to tear down the gates and evolve became an urgent need.

Though Arenella is now focused on expression untethered to an era, a sense of swing and soul remain his timeless imprimatur. Today, Michael and his band are among the world’s most sought after interpreters of Early Jazz, Swing, Bossa Nova and Brazilian Jazz.