Manazma Sheen is a Seattle instrumental band dedicated to playing original compositions and arrangements, and tunes outside the regular jazz cannon.  Much of our repertoire focuses on groove, melody, and improvisation.  This group features Al Marra (vibrophone), and ::Davy Nefos:: (drums).  We are fortunate enough to play with a rotating cast of other stellar Seattle musicians including Jun Iida (trumpet), Jackson Cotugno (sax), Tyler Rogers (sax), Jeremy Ueckert (drums).

::Manazma Sheen's Website::

Adam Chmaj is a Saxophonist and educator in the Seattle Area.  This video is from our Boxley's gig in Summer 2024.

This group is named for the highway of crows that fly from the north end of Lake Washington into Seattle every day.  During human rush hour, you can often observe the crow rush hour traveling -- as the crow flies.  This not-so-standard instrumental lineup focuses on playing unique arrangements of jazz standards.

::Commuting Crows Orchestra Website::

For several years, Sonic Nodilus ran one of the weekly Seattle Jam sessions.  We started at Europub, then moved to The Nitelite, then to the Lookout before eventually reaching a dead end.  Aside from this, we played at many of the mainstays of the Seattle Music scene.  This band features David Erickson (sax), David Sandman (guitar), and ::Remy Morritt:: (drums).

::Sonic Nodilus Website::

One of the first group of musicians I met when I moved to Seattle was through ::Ev Stern's:: Jazz Workshop.  The title of this group pays homage to this, obviously.  This group was primarily David Erickson (sax), ::Charlotte Dike:: (piano), and Will Lone (drums), but often featured other musicians like ::James Sloan::, Tai Taitano, Yelena Bagdasarova, Al Angel

The Van Meyers was formed by guitarist Doug Meyers and percussionist Kevin Van Walk to explore unorthodox aspects of jazz and improvisation. Originally a duo, Meyers and Van Walk opened the doors to include musicians of all backgrounds and interests as a sort of creative music collective. The duo frequently collaborate with the regions finest artists in both live and recorded settings.  You will find a few albums that I was involved with during my stay in Corvallis.

Cadillac Lunch was a band I helped form in Corvallis.  The drummer, Zeppy, responded to a Craigstlist Ad that I posted seeking musicians when I moved to town.  We formed a trio that practiced regularly on our lunch breaks from our various duties at Oregon State University.  We built up a repertoire of Jazz Fusion takes on standards and pop tunes and played regularly around the town.  It is because of this band that I ended up in Seattle, where we reunited after temporarily following our individual "dancing lessons from god."

Stemming from a benefit concert, I played a string of gigs wit Saxophonist Chaz Lipp and American Idol Finalist Sanyaja Malakar [and also Charlie Hiestand (piano) and Chris Patin (drums)].  This culminated in us recording an album ::The Good Merlin::.

In 2009, ::Jason Prover:: organized the "Jazz Appreciation Student Society," a group of musicians loosely affiliated with the University of Florida.  We played weekly at a local dive bar.  This is where I got my start playing small combo jazz.  This collective grew and changed over the course of my college career.

In college, I lived with several musical roommates, and we spent our free time recording covers and making music videos.

In my senior year of High School, I ran a large combo/small jazz band.  We played several times around Venice that year, including our School's talent show, a few holiday events, and the Venice Art Show.  The Group is {Julie McCay, Alexis Humphrey, Jenna Dufficy, Brent Billington, Greg Anderson, Alex Sarnowski, Chris Heath, Nick Gissal, Emily Young, Megan McCay, Connor Lawhorne}