And some of those ideas become songs for his band, The Assembly.

Minton said he may bring an idea to jam session and let the group “flesh it out,” and make the song more complete.

“It’s not a group to write heavy material lyrically,” Minton said. “So lyrics are tricky because finding non-sad or (non) heavy material is not easy to come by.”

So he keeps his ideas lite.

The Assembly performing live.

Chris Tiberio, the Assembly’s bass player, and Minton, who plays keyboards and saxophone, also get together a lot to hash out ideas.

Recently, Minton said, he penned lyrics and the chord progressions for an original song, “Something About Us,” with the intent to write a song that would be akin to something that would be found in “The Great American Songbook.”

According to thesongbook.org, The “Great American Songbook” is the canon of the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards from the early 20th century that have stood the test of time in their life and legacy. Often referred to as “American Standards,” the songs published during the Golden Age of this genre include those popular and enduring tunes from the 1920s to the 1960s that were created for Broadway theatre, musical theatre, and Hollywood musical film.

“Trying to write a song with that level of sophistication in mind, and to embody the “Standard” Jazz song tendencies, I worked on it for quite a while,” Minton said. “I realized it wasn’t really hitting that goal for whatever reason, and brought it to the band, who gave it some new life with different playing styles, some variations on chord changes than I had used. After we played it out several times, I decided the melody was still too rigid and plain, so I changed it around a little bit, adjusted some weird intervals (distance between two notes) that didn’t sound good, took some notes off of the downbeats, and that’s how we recorded it.”

And the song is available on Soundcloud and Spotify.

The rest of the members are Chris Wakefield, trombone, Jamie Smith, guitar, Lena Morano, vocals, and Roger Chagnon, drums.

The Assembly, Minton said, is comprised of friends, fellow musicians, teachers and music teachers.

“I arrived at that name after deciding what it (the band) was,” Minton said.

The Assembly is in the jazz idiom blended with funk and blues, he added.

Minton, a music teacher in the Frewsburg Central School District loves music and loves teaching it, and knew he wanted to teach since he was a senior in high school.

“I love (teaching) it, and then I love to play it,” Minton added.

Because his students see music not just as a class, but maybe as a lifestyle or profession, they like to talk with him about playing music outside of school. He connects music with their lives, he said.

“They value it being a part of their lives,” Minton said.

And a unique aspect of The Assembly is there is just not one band. To cover any kind of event, Minton said there is a six-piece band, a quartet, a trio, a duo, and solo piano.

For more information visit theassemblychq.com.