Our Musicians

Alan Hall

Drums

Before Alan Hall played his first drum lesson, he played concerts. He and his sister would turn on the radio and perf...

Will Boyd

Sax, Flute, Clarinet, EWI

The house in Orangeburg, South Carolina, was a frequency spectrum unto itself. The Isley Brothers and the Manhattan T...

Jesse Lewis

Guitar

Jesse Lewis inhabits the spaces where jazz guitar tradition meets 21st-century sonic exploration, his steel strings s...

Jack Wilkins

Tenor Sax

Jack Wilkins transforms tenor saxophone into a compass for musical exploration, his horn pointing toward everything f...

Josef Butts

Bass

Josef Butts arrived in Asheville from the New Orleans music scene, carrying the harmonic language of the Gulf Coast i...

Jay Sanders

Guitar and Effects

Jay Sanders grew up in Nashville, which means he grew up understanding that music is labor — that behind every song o...

Ryan Ptasnik

Drums

Ryan Ptasnik honed his drumming skills in Pinedale High School band classes in Wyoming, a foundation that would event...

Casey Driessen

5-String Fiddle

Driessen has never taken the standard path in his music career. Described by Zac Brown as “a mad scientist with a fiv...

Jacob Rodriguez

Saxophone

From San Antonio street corners to Michael Bublé's Grammy-winning stages, Jacob Rodriguez has woven a musical tapestr...

Chris Bullock

Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet

Originally from Asheville, NC, Chris Bullock's musical obsession began as a child with early interests in the Beach B...

Dylan Hannan

Tenor Saxophone

Dylan Hannan transforms reed instruments into musical passports, his saxophone, clarinet, and flute carrying stories ...

Justin Watt

Drums

Justin Watt embodies the rare breed of drummer who's equally at home anchoring a world-famous big band or exploring i...

Justin Stanton

Trumpet, Keyboards

From the small town of Elizabethton, Tennessee to Grammy stages around the world, Justin Stanton has built a career o...

Steve LaSpina

Bass

Born in the dance band DNA of Wichita Falls, Texas, Steve LaSpina transformed family musical heritage into a New York...

Tim Fischer

Guitar

Dr. Tim Fischer exists in that rarified space where USC doctoral precision meets street-level groove, where European ...

Brad Walker

Saxophone, Effects

For three years, Brad Walker didn't play the saxophone. He had a degree in classical performance from LSU and a Teach...

Jeff Sipe

Drums

Jeff Sipe transforms drum sets into portals between musical dimensions, his sticks serving as wands that conjure ever...

Steve Alford

Clarinet & Saxophone

Every Monday night at Little Jumbo, Steve Alford transforms his saxophone into a conduit for jazz history, channeling...

Isaac Hadden

Guitar

There's something in the water in southwestern Virginia — or maybe in the hills themselves, in the way sound moves th...

Bill Bares

Piano

From Nebraska to Harvard to Little Jumbo, Dr. Bill Bares embodies the scholarly soul of jazz—a NEH Distinguished Prof...

Andy Page

Guitar

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Andy Page has become a cornerstone of Boone's vibrant music scene as a senior le...

Quinn Sternberg

Bass

Quinn Sternberg doesn't just play bass—he becomes the gravitational center around which musical solar systems orbit, ...

Danny Iannucci

Bass

Danny Iannucci embodies the spirit of musical reinvention, carrying his Western Carolina University jazz education an...

Bill Campbell

Drums

Bill Campbell is a Brooklyn based drummer and songwriter who has performed, recorded and toured around the world with...

Mike Holstein

Vibes, Guitar, Bass

Mike Holstein came to the bass late, which is to say he came to it after guitar, violin, piano, and drums — after lea...

Al Sergel

Drums

The first instrument Alfred Sergel IV ever touched was an 18-inch cymbal his father brought home from the band room. ...

Evan Martin

Drums

In Asheville's Monday night jazz ecosystem, Evan Martin represents the rare breed of drummer who understands that sen...

Alex Taub

Piano

Alex Taub started playing piano at six years old in Silver Spring, Maryland, which is not unusual. What's unusual is ...

Sara Caswell

Violin

In a world where jazz violin often feels like an afterthought, Sara Caswell rewrote the entire conversation. This Gra...

Nick Garrison

Trombone

The trombone is one of the oldest voices in jazz, an instrument that learned early how to sing like a person and cry ...

Zack Page

Acoustic & Electric Bass

On their twelfth Christmas, Pete Page gave one son a guitar and the other a bass. The old man loved Booker T. & t...

DJ Lil Meow Meow

Turntables

Behind the whimsically feline moniker lies a musical curator who understands that the art of DJing isn't just about p...

Kenneth Brown

Drums

When you grow up in a household where your father is jazz visionary pianist Donald Brown and your brother Keith is al...

Peter Dimery

Tenor Sax

It started with his mother's ear. "I'd wanted to play an instrument, but I didn't know which one I was going to pick...

Jean Caze

Trumpet

When Jean Caze lifts his trumpet to his lips, three worlds collide: the ancestral rhythms of Haiti flowing through hi...

Aaron Irwin

Saxophone & Clarinet

Saxophonist, multi-woodwind instrumentalist, and composer Aaron Irwin is from central IL. Recognized as a “lyrical al...

Justin Ray

Trumpet

In a scene filled with talented musicians, Justin Ray has emerged as both a formidable trumpet voice and the kind of ...

Christian Howes

Violin

Christian Howes treats the violin like a conversation starter rather than a statement piece. He's as comfortable teac...

Pavel Wlosok

Piano

A Czech pianist who arrived in Texas in 1995 with one backpack and fifteen hundred dollars in savings, Pavel Wlosok h...

Michael W Davis

Drums

Michael W Davis approaches the drum kit like a master sculptor approaches marble—understanding that the most powerful...

Matt Booth

Bass

Matt Booth decided he was a bass player before he owned a bass. He was in middle school in Pittsburgh, and his friend...

Joe Enright

Drums

Joe Enright transforms every drum kit into a storytelling machine, his sticks weaving rhythmic narratives that bridge...

Charlie Ballentine

Guitar

Charlie Ballantine plays guitar like someone who learned early that the instrument keeps a long memory. There's Wes M...

Brian Felix

Organ

When Brian Felix sits behind a Hammond B3, gospel church pews start swaying in jazz clubs, and cocktail lounges sudde...

Ben Colvin

Saxophone

Some saxophonists arrive on a bandstand announcing themselves. Ben Colvin is the other kind. A fixture of the Ashevil...

Mike Bagetta

Guitar

It has been said that MIKE BAGGETTA is “a guitarist of slippery proficiency” (New York Times), that his performances ...