We are a Saxophone ensemble similar in style to the great ensembles of the Blue note era artists such as Hank Mobley, Sonny Stitt, and Dexter Gordon. We offer a full spectrum of soundscapes, from lush ballads to snappy latin numbers to exhilarating up tempo numbers. We appeared regularly at clubs such as Twins Jazz, An Die Musik and Hank Dietles during recent years through the present, in addition to steady corporate gigs in between. We are all highly accomplished and dedicated to our art.
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 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, Clyde Stubblefield and Butch Warren.
Guitarist Jonas Bernstein has been the house guitarist at the Green Island Cafe, formerly Columbua Station, and prior to that at One Step Down, three of the highly storied top rated jazz clubs in the area– which is to say hes been on the local jazz scene for a very long time.
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