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Grant Izmirlian is a saxophonist and composer based in the DC metro area. A native of St. Louis Missouri, Grant studied saxophone and jazz performance while working towards bachelors and doctoral degrees in Math. He’s appeared at local clubs such as Twins and An Die Musik, and played commercial gigs at Embassies, The State Department, World Bank, MGM Casino and other venues with a variety of ensembles for the past 25 years.
He owes his Blue Note era hard bop sound to his first teacher, Paul Demarinis, of Webster University, and his style to the many great players here in DC and all over the world that he has had the pleasure of playing with, including Fred Foss, Ted Efantis, Webster Young, Ted Curson, Willie Akins, Rufus Reid, Richard Davis and Butch Warren.
Guitarist, Jonas Bernstein, is a veteran of the Washinton D.C.-area jazz scene who has played with Butch Warren, Lawrence Wheatley, Eric Felten and Peter Edelman.
Russell Byron, bassist, is a native of Melbourne, Austrailia. He has been gigging in the DC area for the past 15 years with some of the best artists on the local jazz scene, and played with a variety of ensembles in a variety of idioms – swing bands, R&B, Rockabilly. In addition, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz recordings and will call tunes by artists you’ve never heard of and then tell you a story about them.
Chris Booher arrived in the DC metro area in 2008. He received his BA in Music Performance with John Floyd and Chip McNeill, playing drum-set in the Virginia Tech Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Labs and New Virginians Jazz Vocal Ensemble. Chris pursued jazz studies at the University of North Texas, @Denton, TX, training with Ed Soph and performing with the 6 o’clock Jazz Band. Later at Texas State, he played with the Texas State Jazz Band, local jazz combos, studying with Butch Miles. In 2007 Chris performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival with the Texas State Jazz Ensemble