Past Events

If you've been to one of DJ Lil Meow Meow's monthly dance parties at Little Jumbo, you know they are not to be missed! 10pm-1am and always a good time. Follow @djlilmeowmeow for a theme drop!

$5 Cover

This installment of the ensemble will feature the incredible saxophone stylings of Markus Howell. A native of South Florida, and a graduate of Michigan State, Markus had circled the world multiple times while performing and recording with the likes of Christian McBride, Michael Bublé, and Wycliffe Gordon. Fresh off his Grammy win with The Count Basie Orchestra, Markus will bring some of his original music to Little Jumbo in anticipation of his upcoming release on Posi-Tone Records. He will join Jacob, Bill, Zack, and Evan as they explore some more originals by Jacob, as well as a collection of rare jazz compositions and instrumental interpretations of songs by Phoebe Bridgers, Radiohead, Emily King, and others in this two-saxophone lineup. Don’t miss out!

Markus Howell - Alto Saxophone
Jacob Rodriguez - Tenor Saxophone
Bill Bares - Keyboard
Zack Page - Bass
Evan Martin - Drums

Roll the Dice and Sip in Style. The second Wednesday of each month is Backgammon Night at Little Jumbo! Gather your friends, roll 'em bones, and let the games begin. Cheers to strategic moves and fantastic cocktails! Legal moves only! A ha!

The CORE returns to Little Jumbo! Come enjoy piquant cocktails and titillating tunes from Asheville's most prodigious jazz quintet.

Justin Ray: Trumpet
Jacob Rodriguez: Saxophone
Bill Bares: Piano
Zack Page: Bass
Evan Martin: Drums

A multi-instrumentalist specializing in the performance and education of contemporary improvisational music, Steve Alford spent multiple years on the road across the United States and Europe. He settled in Chicago in the late ’90s and began pursuing an in-depth study of harmony clarinets, appearing regularly on both saxophone and bass clarinet in the straight-ahead jazz, modern improvised music, and experimental indie-rock scenes across the Midwest.

Relocating to Asheville, North Carolina, after a decade in Illinois, Alford was serving as an adjunct professor of jazz and contemporary music at the University of North Carolina-Asheville while he completed his master’s degree in jazz at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Concurrently he developed a new contemporary music pedagogy focusing on multilateral ear training, multi-instrumental rhythm section methods class, "mind's ear" sonic exploration and melodic immersion. During a brief return to the northern Midwest United States, he took over as coordinator for jazz and contemporary improvisation studies at the University of Minnesota Morris, bringing his curriculum of modern multi-genre improvisation study grounded in traditional jazz roots to that university system.

During the past decade, he has composed, produced and recorded his most adventurous music to date including his acclaimed 11-piece modern big band, the multi-genre improvisation-based collective known as Rational Discourse; the E.Normus Trio, an alto clarinet, N/S Stick and drums trio within the punk-jazz genre; his quintet METAL, composed of two trash can drum systems, two double bassists, and Alford on electrified contra-alto clarinet and electrified English horn; and his new standards jazz trio and quartets, each reimagining small group jazz through an open and free approach to harmony while remaining grounded in tradition.

Steve Alford: Saxophone
Bill Bares: Piano
Quinn Sternberg: Bass
Alan Hall: Drums

Someone once coined the term “Punk Jazz” to describe Meschiya Lake’s style. From eating glass on the sideshow circuit to fronting the Danish National Symphony, Ms. Lake has led bands and danced across stages the world over. Her recording career has seen her alongside the likes of Mr Tom Waits and netted her the Vocal Jazz Album of the Year at the 2019 Danish Grammy’s, among multiple other music awards. A country music child star, and based out of New Orleans for two decades, she blends her musical roots with her extensive knowledge of traditional jazz. At once contagiously danceable, and emotionally moving, Meschiya Lake swings and croons her way throughout a diverse array of powerful performances.

Jay Sanders is a guitarist, bassist, composer, producer, and bandleader based in Asheville, North Carolina. A master of stylistic variation, Jay’s music is characterized by an overwhelming sense of space, time and genre. He effortlessly mixes jazz, rock, blues, metal, and African influences with years of improvisational study and training. His compositions tend towards the melodic and sublime; expertly traversing from peaceful melodicism to free jazz and cacophonous noise music. He claims his primary influences as Sonny Sharrock, John McLaughlin, Bill Frisell, Dave Holland, Ornette Coleman, and John Hartford.

Jay has recorded over two dozen records and performed in 47 US states and six countries. As a composer he has worked with the ETHEL string quartet, Rational Discourse, and scored several independent films.

Originally from Nashville, TN, Jay grew up surrounded by the immensity of Nashville's music scene. He has early studies with Regi Wooten opened his mind to the concepts of fundamental vibration, sacred geometry, and the Music of the Spheres. Jay later moved to Knoxville, TN, where he cultivated his curiosity through a series of extended conversations with former Sun-Ra drummer, Samurai Celestial. He formally studied music at Belmont Univeresity and the University of Tennessee.

Jay Sanders: Guitar and Effects
Will Boyd: Reeds
Zack Page: Bass and Effects
Evan Martin: Drums and Percussion

When the originators of the Asheville Original Music series—bassist Mike Holstein and drummer Justin Watt—teamed up with pianist Dr. William Bares (Harvard ethnomusicology Ph.D and professor of music at UNC Asheville) a decade ago to create a working jazz piano trio, the result was a new musical concept that has blurred the lines between art and entertainment, structure and spontaneity. The group has has evolved a sound that combines elements of global music, Americana and jazz in ways that are recognizably artistic and quintessentially Ashevillian.

Billl Bares: Piano
Mike Holstein: Bass
Justin Watt: Drums

If you've been to one of DJ Lil Meow Meow's monthly dance parties at Little Jumbo, you know they are not to be missed! 10pm-1am and always a good time. Follow @djlilmeowmeow for a theme drop!

$5 Cover

Twin brothers Andy and Zack Page have been playing music together since.... conception? Their shared life experiences result in a unified sound and unusual affinity whenever they share a bandstand. As the Page Brothers Quartet, the brothers are joined by creative, like-minded sidemen who share the desire to present a diverse program of material that honors the jazz tradition while looking to the future.

Zack Page: Bass
Andy Page: Guitars
Jacob Rodriguez: Sax
Geoff Clapp: Drums

Roll the Dice and Sip in Style. The second Wednesday of each month is Backgammon Night at Little Jumbo! Gather your friends, roll 'em bones, and let the games begin. Cheers to strategic moves and fantastic cocktails! Legal moves only! A ha!

The CORE returns to Little Jumbo! Come enjoy piquant cocktails and titillating tunes from Asheville's most prodigious jazz quintet.

Justin Ray: Trumpet
Jacob Rodriguez: Saxophone
Bill Bares: Piano
Zack Page: Bass
Evan Martin: Drums

Join us at Little Jumbo for CRAFT: Authors in Conversation, a series conceived by New York Times bestselling author Denise Kiernan. In March, Kiernan will be joined by author Sophia Nguyen Eng, author of The Nourishing Asian Kitchen.

*Doors open at 4:00 PM. Conversation starts no later than 4:30 PM. No registration is required. Seating is first come, first served. *

Little Jumbo staff will create a specialty cocktail or mocktail for each CRAFT event. Little Jumbo offers free parking at 5 Points Restaurant across Broadway. There is also street parking nearby. Find more information at denisekiernan.com/craft.

Sophia Nguyen Eng is a first-generation Vietnamese-American who left a successful career in growth marketing in Silicon Valley to start a five-acre permaculture farm in the Appalachian region of eastern Tennessee. During her time in the tech industry, Eng led successful growth marketing campaigns for startups and Fortune 500 companies like WorkDay, InVision, and Smartsheet, which led to opportunities to develop a certificate training program with CXL Institute and being a founder of the tech organization Women in Growth. A sought-after speaker, she has presented at Google HQ, GrowthHackers, and the global SaaStalk tech conferences. Now she draws on her experiences speaking on stage and her knowledge of food, farming, and health to present at homesteading conferences. Eng is also a Weston A. Price Chapter Leader and the founder of the website Sprinkle with Soil. With her husband, Tim, she raises grass-fed dairy cows, beef cattle, laying hens, broilers, ducks, sheep, goats, turkeys, and grows a variety of produce for her multi-generational family and local community. Sally Fallon Morell is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author or coauthor of many acclaimed books, including Nourishing Traditions, The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care, and Nourishing Broth.

Denise Kiernan is an author, journalist, producer, and host of “CRAFT: Authors in Conversation.” Her new young reader’s book, We Gather Together: Stories of Thanksgiving from then to now, arrives September 2023, and is a companion title to the popular adult nonfiction book, We Gather Together, and children’s picture book, Giving Thanks. Her book The Last Castle was an instant New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback and was also a Wall Street Journal bestseller. She is also the author of The Girls of Atomic City, which is a New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and NPR bestseller and has been published in multiple languages. She lives in North Carolina.

Jacob Rodriguez Quartet