The Woodsiders Collective is a collaborative jazz band based in Woodside Queens, NYC with members from different parts of the world; the saxophonist Luis Sigüenza from Ecuador, the German trombonist Justus Heher, Andrew McGowan from New Orleans, USA on keys, the Japanese guitarist Yuto Kanazawa and Russian/Belgian drummer Ilya Dynov. The band brings a variety of jazz oriented music written by all the members of the collective.

Since February 2024, the Woodsiders began a residency at local cultural and community center, Bula Arts & Culture hosted by it's founder and director, Gabriela Alvarez Castaneda from Guatemala.

The mission of the organization and this collaboration is to bring high level jazz music to the local community in Queens, to include musicians from the neighborhood in our jam session events and to bring the local Queens community together by encouraging people to interact with one other, by creating a safe, inviting space and atmosphere at our events. One important goal of the Woodsiders Collective and the partership with Bula Arts and Culture is to make art accessible. People with limited accessibility and financial status should be able to experience culture at a high level, without having to commute to Manhattan or Brooklyn although we love all the options that the City has to offer. Now more than ever, we insist on creating safe spaces and supportive communities in which both artists and audiences should feel safe and find solidarity among the challenging times we are facing. The Woodsiders Collectiva and Bula, have been working tirelessly to establish local events in the neighborhood since 2017.

The Woodsiders Collective has been hosting jam session events at Legends Bar, Wild Goose and Bula Arts and Culture in Woodside, Sanger Hall and Claret Wine Bar in Sunnyside, inviting legends and Grammy award winning artists such as Steve Wilson, Steve Davis and Lonnie Plaxico to name a few. The band also performed at Woodside Festival twice in 2024 organized by Woodside on the Move. Jam session activities are featured on renowned jazz radio WBGO The Art of the Story program.

Woodsiders Collective also recorded an album with original compositions written by band members in 2021, singles from this album were featured as a cover on Spotify’s All That Jazz playlist and Youtube’s Jazz Hotlist and picked up on Modern Jazz Japan playlist on Spotify and NPR’s Jazz Night in America program as well. The music has been streamed more than 120,000 times across the globe.

Communities Served

The Woodsiders Collective and Bula Arts and Culture, serve the Queens community by being a community based jazz band that performs for people in the neighborhood, invites other musicians from the neighborhood to participate in the events and hosts an environment that encourages local people to engage in conversation and interaction by having food and a space to socialize at the events. On previous events, the Collective proved to have a very diverse audience. The audience, as well the musical participants of the events are always people from different countries, immigrants, native Queens residents, people from the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ community, artists, labor workers, students, minorities an more, everyone is welcome.

By hosting the events in a very inviting venue, in the middle of the Woodside neighborhood, people don’t have to commute to Manhattan to experience live jazz and socialize with other people as part of a cultural experience.

In 2024, the band started Fridays weekly residency at Bula Arts and Culture in Woodside Queens. The event keeps an affordable suggested contribution of $20.00 for regular audience and only $5.00 for musicians who join a jam session with a free meal served in a family style, which was the idea of Jackson Heights based keyboardist Andrew McGowan who’s originally from New Orleans and brought their traditional jazz culture of sharing the experience through jazz music.

This almost weekly event is gaining popularity and a reputation of being very inclusive and welcoming to beginners and professionals, while aiming to create the highest level of jazz music possible by everyone doing their best. The band and venue offers high quality music equipment and sound system as well. We have been serving beginner jazz players, college students, to advanced local musicians who tours with Grammy winning artists as well as local jazz lovers in a diverse ethnicity and identities.

At Bula Arts and Culture, we have also organized events such as featuring women’s composers music on International Women’s Day, and curating collaborative events like Mardi Grass, Dia de Los Muertos, Family Concerts, recitals, classes and more with the regular kids and other school aged community members who come to the educational programs offer by Bula through Bula Kids and Bula Arts. You can learn more about our specific programs and fundraising or support the whole Bula Arts & Culture project's 8th year anniversary here: https://givebutter.com/BulaCommunity

We also hosted a Woodsiders Collective 5 year anniversary and local business networking event which unfortunately didn't have the attendance that we expected nor the collaboration from local businesses which we organically contribute with or local authorities who were invited but didn't attend despite the branding and exposure opportunities that this events might offer. We also want to re-invite small businesses, organizations and local authorities to join this collective effort of bringing art and community together in Queens.

We have live streamed our live concert as well as produced both live music videos as well as radio programs at Bula Arts and Culture. It was promoted on the social media on Woodsiders Collective account as well as band member Yuto Kanazawa’s social media where there are more than 100,000 followers across instagram, facebook and youtube channels.

For the live stream, we generally get 400-2000 audiences, also instagram posts can reach to 10,000 - 20,000 audiences per post across the globe. This is gaining the maximum exposure for the event, we are cultivating jazz lovers world wide about there’s a new jazz spot in Queens. Some of Kanazawa’s students from prestigious Berklee College of Music calls Woodsiders jazz jam session “home”. We are aiming to project more jazz music from Queens as people recognize Manhattan and Brooklyn the mecca of jazz.

Fundraising Campaing

With your support, you will be contributing to reach our goal of $12,000.00 to host 1 jazz jam out of 3 monthly that we offer for 6 months, and recover at least 6 months of our 1st year 36 Friday event plus other collaborations with out any support or financial return. Each event costs at least $1000.00 which till the date hasn't worked out on our favor due to our affordability statement but we need your contributions. This will also help us invite high level jazz musicians such as Grammy winning artists Steve Wilson and other artists who reside in Queens to make our jam session more meaningful for community members.

The Woodsiders Collective, Live at Bula (youtube video)

Artists: Luis Sigüenza sax, Justus Here trombone, Andrew McGowan keyboard, Eunjung Jo bass, Ilya Dynov drums

Title: Mexican Hip Dance - Horace Silver

Year:2024

Venue: Bula Arts & Culture

Videographer/Producer: Yuto Kanazawa

Description: This is the scene from a live jazz concert at Bula Arts & Culture in Woodside Queens NYC. Woodsiders Collective has been hosting a Friday jazz concert and jam session here at Bula since February 2024.

Jazz in Queens with the Woodsiders at Bula

Team Members