Guitar, Improvisation (All Instruments), Guitar for Songwriters
Danny Ray Martin, a McKenzie, Tennessee native, has been called “West Tennessee’s answer to John Scofield” (The Commercial Appeal 2005). A long-time fan of Shawn Lane and John McLaughlin, the influences of eastern rhythms, funk syncopations and Latin swing can be heard in Martin’s fusion compositions, and his style is reminiscent of both Scofield and Pat Martino.
After completing post-graduate work at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, Martin went on to study privately with the late Shawn Lane. Martin is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Bethel University in McKenzie, TN, Director of the East Nashville School of Music, and leader of The Danny Ray Martin Quartet.
Guitar, Advanced Improvisation (All Instruments), Bagua Tai Chi
Stan Lassiter is an accomplished guitar instructor with a Master’s degree and over 40 years of experience in teaching and performing in all styles, including rock, jazz, country, classical, and experimental theories in improvisation for the guitar.
Lassiter is currently on faculty at Belmont and Fisk Universities as well as the National Guitar Workshop. As an accomplished performer and recording artist, Lassiter has appeared as a sideman for Sonny Stitt. He has also shared the stage with Michael Angelo Batio, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Lenny Breau, and Leo Kottke in addition to appearing at the 2000 NAMM All Star Guitar Night. Lassiter serves as a musical chameleon—able to play in the varied styles of Chet Atkins or John McLaughlin at moment’s notice.
Guitar, Guitar for Songwriters, Studio Recording, Demo Engineer
Andy Gurley is both a player and a teacher. A graduate of GIT, he has played all over the globe at festivals in Switzerland, France and Japan and with artists as diverse as Bob Hope, Blue County, and Steve Vai. Andy is currently the guitarist for the roots rock band Highway 101, a group with six, number one songs and sixteen Top Ten singles. Gurley has been on the faculty of the University of Tennessee, Bethel College, and MTSU.
He teaches all styles, specializing in Rock, Jazz and Country.
Liz Johnson
Voice Coach (All Styles), Saxophone, Flute
An Illinois native, Liz Johnson began her musical study at age 6 with piano and flute. She added alto saxophone in high school and college, playing in jazz bands and combos. After college, she moved to Nashville where she began several years of intensive study of voice and improvisation at the Nashville Jazz Workshop.
She continues to hone her lyric writing and performs regularly in Nashville and around the country. Her second CD, Playground, has received national acclaim and airplay, and in 2004, Liz was a semi-finalist at the Montreux Switzerland Jazz Festival international vocal jazz competition. Liz is also vocalist with the Establishment Big Band of Nashville.
Liz teaches vocal jazz at the Vanderbilt Blair School of Music and at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Liz teaches Voice here at the East Nashville School of Music for all levels and styles. Check Liz out at www.lilyrecords.com.
Ned Luberecki
Banjo
Ned Luberecki has been teaching and playing bluegrass banjo for over 25 years, having been part of Paul Adkins' Borderline Band, Radio Flyer, the Gary Ferguson Band, and the Rarely Herd (the latter won SPBGMA's Entertaining Band of the Year award several times). Ned has appeared on recordings with Chris Jones, Apocalyptic Cowboys, Garrett Grass, Paul Adkins' Borderline Band, The Rarely Herd, Jim Hurst, Bull Harman, and New Strings. Ned was also the banjo player for the soundtrack of the movie Chrystal starring Billy Bob Thornton. Bluegrass Unlimited magazine has declared, "Ned's banjo captures that killer tone and technique banjo players die for."
Now residing in Nashville, he is the banjoist for Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, occasionally tours as second banjoist with Tony Trischka’s Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular Band, teaches private lessons at The East Nashville School of Music, and is a radio personality on Sirius XM Satellite Radio's bluegrass channel “Bluegrass Junction”. His uncomplicated teaching style and fresh, wacky sense of humor has made him a favorite at music camps and workshops around the world, such as NashCamp, Camp Bluegrass, The Maryland Banjo Academy, Midwest Banjo Camp, American Banjo Camp, Banjo Camp Munich and The British Columbia Bluegrass Camp.
Piano, Improvisation (All Instruments), Piano for Songwriters
Pitchfork Magazine called Tyson Rogers"a wayfaring keyboard wrangler.”Tyson plays music ranging from americana/country to jazz and classical with performances spanning from the North Sea Jazz Festival to the Grand Ole Opry. Recent projects include work with Tony Joe White, Chris Stamey & Yo La Tengo, Bob Moses and Han Bennink.
Tyson's own compositions have earned him numerous awards and grants as well as several 'Best of the Year' lists including spots on Downbeat Magazine's "Best CD's of 2005 & 2007". Tyson works actively as a studio musician and live performer in Nashville, TN.
With an undergraduate degree in classical trumpet study from Nashville’s Blair School of Music, a master’s degree in jazz studies from Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and years of professional freelancing (both in the studio and on the stage), Paul Epp is an experienced trumpet player in almost any style of music. He has played in top orchestras at the Aspen Music Festival, in Cincinnati’s famous Blue Wisp Big Band and everything in between, including professional polka and R&B bands, and he has performed from Tenerife, Spain to New York City’s Rainbow Room in the Rockefeller Center. As a pianist/keyboardist, Paul has played numerous venues in and around Nashville, Tennessee and Cincinnati, Ohio and can be heard on his own most recent single release, “This Is My Song.”
His arrangements and compositions have been performed by groups such as the Nashville Jazz Orchestra, the CCM Philharmonia symphony orchestra, and the Rohs Street Big Band, a group that he co-directed. Paul has been and continues to be involved at the W.O. Smith Community Music School and has been a faculty member at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. He has taught classes and ensembles at the college level and private lessons to students of all different ages and abilities. He is an adjunct faculty member at Nashville State Community College and can be heard frequently soloing with the Establishment at the Tin Roof and other venues in Nashville.
James Westerfield
Classical Voice, Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass
A versatile musician and gifted teacher, Nashville-born musician James Westerfield is dedicated to music through education and personal growth. Westerfield has a very diverse background in the musical arts. He has served as violinist and violist in many orchestras and ensembles. He has also sung in opera, oratorio, master-classes and recitals as a countertenor soloist.
As a strings educator, he has served on the faculties of the Cumberland Arts Institute, W.O. Smith School of Music, Murfreesboro City School System, and the Community School of Arts at Austin Peay State University. He has taught hundreds of students in various formats ranging from one-on-one studio settings to entire youth symphony orchestras. He has been active as an adjudicator, participant, and member of various competitions and education-related conventions.
He also maintains membership with various educational organizations such as the American String Teacher’s Association, Music Educator’s National Conference, and Early Music America. He has directed various youth orchestra programs and summer music programs, and has served as the conductor and musical director of the Clarksville Youth Orchestra.
James teaches voice, violin, viola, cello and contrabass at the East Nashville School of Music. Westerfield's students have auditioned, been selected and have performed in the Mid-State and All-State Choir and Orchestra Festivals. His students have also performed in several professional and amateur functions across the Southeast
Bob Bowers has been a professional musician for over 25 years. In that time he has played almost every style of music all over the world. The instruments he plays most often include the saxophones, flutes, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, keyboards, and guitar. He's performed or recorded on almost every woodwind instrument, often in circumstances that could fairly be described as 'colorful.'
"My first paid gig was with a circus," Bob recalls. "I was seventeen, playing an old, war-weary bari sax. We were sight-reading these illegible copies of every march John Philip Sousa ever wrote, at warp-speed tempos. The stench from the elephants was overpowering. All in all, a wonderfully representative introduction to the music business!"
Since that auspicious beginning, Bob has performed with and arranged for some of the biggest names in show business, including: Vassar Clements, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Dan Martin, Gladys Knight, Percy Sledge, Cab Calloway, 'Truth', The Glen Miller Orchestra, Bobby Vinton,The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, The Guy Lombardo Orchestra, BB Kings House Rockers, Lake Charles Symphony Orchestra, Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, Anita Bryant, Shoji Tabuchi, Syndicate of Soul, The McGuire Sisters, Radio Daze, Clarence Dobbins, The Jimmy Church Band, Danny Ray Martin, and Hershel Bailey
Bob has been teaching as long as he's been playing. Students of all levels are welcome. He believes in developing complete musicianship, so topics in arranging, theory, and ear-training can be covered as well as the mechanics of playing.
Anything involving elephants will require a small additional charge.
Rachel Bryan
Mandolin, Violin / Fiddle
Rachel Bryan is a versatile and talented musician who at a young age has already spent years playing with guitar legend Norman Blake and her father James Bryan—one of the most respected old-time fiddlers in the country.
Her tasteful, melodic playing, be it on mandolin, guitar, or fiddle, has won the respect of many fine professional and student musicians alike. She has appeared on Garrison Keeler’s Prairie Home Companion and The Grand Ole Opry. Her teaching experience includes Elkins Old Time Week, The Swannanoa Gathering, and other old-time festivals across the country.
Most recently, she has recorded with Norman and Nancy Blake, along with Irish legends The Boys of the Lough. Rachel is a recent transplant to East Nashville where she lives and performs with her husband and fellow fiddler Matt Combs.
Michael Walter
Drums
Michael Walter began playing the drums at age 6 and began playing professionally at the age of 15. Having studied at the University of Pittsburgh and Berklee College of Music, Michael has gotten a chance to study and play with some truly amazing musicians -- David Throckmorton, Roger Humphries, Gregg Humphries, Bob Gullotti and Johnny Rabb -- just to name a few.
After moving to Nashville in 2003, Michael quickly established himself as a dedicated and unique instrumentalist while playing at Muzik Mafia nights and with acts such as Shanna Crooks, Ben McKay, Transit Three, Dianna Gatto, the DirtPharm, Michelle Cummings and, of course, The Danny Ray Martin Quartet. Michael now plays with Chrysalis Artist Will Champlin and Epic Recording Artist Cheyenne Kimball.
Michael will teach to any student willing to learn regardless of level of experience or style of playing. He believes in a firm understanding of technique and musicianship and will provide the student with a good basis to further develop his/her unique voice.
Travis Vance
Bass
Travis Vance started playing piano at five and bass at fourteen. He also has experience playing tuba, trombone, guitar, and percussion. Travis attended Berklee from 1998 to 2003, studying with Anthony Vitti, Kenwood Dennard, and Jamey Haddad. He has played with Oblio, Ben McKay, Joel Fry, Jonathon Scales, Dianna Gatto,and Danny Ray Martin.
With over ten years professional recording and performing experience,Travis is known around Nashville for his incredible, solo bass shows and for his work in funk, jazz, Latin, fusion, rock, metal, country, bluegrass and classical. Travis plays four, five and six string bass, both fretless and fretted.
Eslinger Film
Electronic Press Kits, Music Video and Film Production
Bio coming soon...
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