Eli Uttal-Veroff coordinates and books the music at Carson’s Food and Drink. If you are interested in performing at Carson’s, or enjoy the music you heard there and would like to book a band, please fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page.

Eli maintains an active career as a freelance bassist. He performs regularly in Jazz trios and quartets. Additionally he serves as principal bassist for the Lexington Chamber Orchestra During his career he has shared the stage with artists such as Matt Wilson, JD Allen, Clay Jenkins, Hector Del Cuarto, Byron Stripling, Steve Allee, Noah Preminger, Jim Pugh, Peter Mazza, Kenny Phelps,  and many others.

At the age of 10, Eli Uttal-Veroff took after his father and chose electric bass as his first instrument. A fateful miscommunication occurred between Eli and his parents and the ambiguity of “bass lessons” turned out to mean upright bass lessons. Soon, Eli was playing the string bass in his school orchestra, and studying the instrument with Fred Schrank, the principal bassists of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Schrank exposed Eli to jazz bass playing and passed on a love of the instrument.  Later in his high school career, Mr. Uttal-Veroff continued studies with Brad Townsend, lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater who led him to study bass playing in the style of virtuoso Gary Karr.

After graduating high school, Eli pursued further studies in bass at Butler University (B.A.) and the Eastman School of Music (M.M.). At Butler University, he studied bass with Professor David Murray, and Jazz Studies with Dr. Matt Pivec and Gary Walters. Initially, Eli intended to study classical bass and moonlight in the jazz ensembles at Butler University. However, after meeting several members of the Indianapolis Jazz scene, he fell in love with not only Jazz, but also the community that goes with it. From that point on Mr. Uttal-Veroff has continued to strive for excellence in Classical, Jazz, and several other styles of music.

In more recent endeavors, Mr. Uttal-Veroff developed a fascination with Brazilian Music after discovering Francisco Tenorio Jr’s recording Embalo. Ever since, Eli has dove deep into the music of Brazil. In particular, he has taken interest in an era of music called Samba Jazz, which is a distant cousin of Jazz, and represents an incredibly important exchange of musical language and culture.

While at Butler University, Eli had the chance to perform Halloween concerts with Los Angeles-based composer Christoper Young. In addition to performing cues from several of Young’s works (Spiderman 3, Hellraiser, Copycat, and others), the orchestra performed film classics like Bernard Herrman’s score from Psycho and Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Later, at Eastman, he performed with Jeff Beal, a leading composer in the industry. Beal is most famous for his work on House of Cards, and the concert was the first performance world wide of Beal’s House of Cards Symphony. The concert was a multimedia presentation that synchronized live music with clips taken from the various films and television series. On the same concert Donald Hunsberger (famed conductor and co-author of “The Art of Conducting”) conducted a performance of Phantom of the Opera performed as an authentic recreation of the experience of silent films from the 1920s.

In 2015, Uttal-Veroff led a recording project called This is Grit and Wit, which synthesized his various interests. The project included original compositions, arrangements and traditional Brazilian songs.
To hire one of Eli Uttal-Veroff’s ensembles fill out the following contact form.