Musician Carl Fischer performing a trumpet solo under a bright spotlight. Fischer is wearing a dark suit jacket and a pink button-down shirt, holding the trumpet with both hands in a focused, emotive pose against a dark stage background.Carl Fischer Credit: CFtrumpet / Facebook

Billy Joel famously treats his band members like gold. As the piano man works up to a return to the stage following a diagnosis with a balance-altering brain condition, the musicians are staying sharp.

Carl Fischer’s been on Joel’s payroll for 20 years playing trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, and saxophones. He also spent more than a dozen years playing with famed horn player Maynard Ferguson.

For this matinee, Fischer leads a band of Bay area players including fellow Ferguson collaborator saxophonist Mike MacArthur, multi-instrumentalist Patrick Bettison, monster fusion bassist Tim George, and The Golden Boy of the drums, Luis Alicea.

Tickets to see Carl Fischer’s Sunshine City Brass play Mainstage Theatre at HC Ybor in Ybor City on Sunday, March 8 are still available for $30.

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This article appears in Mar. 05 – 11, 2026.

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Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief…
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