Elliot M. Scozzaro, M.M.

Elliot Scozzaro is a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator from Buffalo, NY. While in high school, Elliot was a member of the Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra and received an Outstanding Soloist Award at the Charles Mingus High School Competition and Festival in 2010. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music at Capital University in Columbus, OH, where he studied with Dr. Michael Cox. At Capital, Elliot won the Kenneth R. Keller and Nicholas J. Perrini awards for outstanding performance. In 2012, he was named lead alto saxophone in the Jazz Education Connection of Ohio Intercollegiate Jazz Ensemble directed by former trombonist and arranger with the Woody Herman Orchestra, Vaughn Wiester.

 

Following his time in Columbus, Elliot received a Master of Music in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas (UNT), where he played lead alto saxophone in the seven-time Grammy-nominated One O’ Clock Lab Band. As a member of the One O’ Clock, Elliot headlined the Generations in Jazz Festival in Mount Gambier, Australia, was featured as a soloist on Lab 2016, and performed with Dennis Mackrel, James Morrison, Danilo Perez, and Sean Jones. While at UNT, Elliot also served as a Teaching Fellow of Saxophone, directed lab bands, and was mentored by Brad Leali.

 

In 2016, Elliot was named a semi-finalist in the North American Saxophone Alliance Jazz Competition. After spending several months in the great city of Chicago, Elliot joined the renowned Glenn Miller Orchestra, under the direction of Nick Hilscher, in January 2018. Elliot toured the United States, Canada, and Japan with the GMO and performed in venues such as Yoshi’s Oakland, Severance Hall, the Cotton Club (Tokyo), and Bunkamura Orchard Hall. Elliot has continued to perform with the orchestra nationally and abroad throughout the last few years.

 

For several months in early 2019, Elliot played woodwinds in the showband on the American Duchess, a riverboat based on the Mississippi River. Afterward, he returned to Buffalo, where he maintains a busy schedule as both a leader and sideman throughout the Western New York region. Elliot has performed at festivals throughout the United States and Canada, including the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Northwest Jazz Festival, the Columbus Jazz and Rib Fest, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

 

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Elliot toured with Al Stewart and The Empty Pockets. He appears on Al Stewart & The Empty Pockets Live (Wallaby Trails Recordings), which was released in August 2024 and debuted at #6 on the Billboard Americana/Folk chart. He is also featured with the Empty Pockets on Live in Buffalo (MT Pockets) which premiered at #10 on the Billboard Blues chart in May 2025. Elliot is currently a member of Louis Prima Jr and the Witnesses and performs throughout the country with band, continuing the rich tradition of Prima music into the 21st century. Additionally, Elliot has played at venues both in the greater Buffalo area and throughout the Northeast with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Bright Eyes, Debby Boone, Guster, and Father John Misty.

 

An active composer, Elliot has written compositions and arrangements for both small and large ensembles. In 2019, he was commissioned to write an arrangement of Brad Leali’s “Carla Ann” for a performance with the U.S. Navy Commodores at the 2020 International Saxophone Symposium in Washington D.C. In 2022, he was awarded a Statewide Community Regrant by Arts Services Inc. and the New York State Council on the Arts for the premiere of his project “Sounds of Buffalo: A Series of Compositions and Arrangements for Tentet.” His compositions and arrangements for jazz saxophone quintet, sextet, octet, and big band have also been performed by ensembles at various high schools and colleges.