Seattle Drum School Georgetown Faculty
Bass: Bob Lovelace
Composition: David Marriott, Kevin Nortness
Drums: Zeke Keeble, Davis Martin, Tim Miller, Andy Roth
Guitar: Bob Lovelace, Tim Miller, Thaddeus Turner
Percussion: Zeke Keeble, Davis Martin, Tim Miller
Piano: Ryan Burns, David Marriott, Kevin Nortness
Saxophone: Marc Fendel, Kevin Nortness
Trombone/Tuba: David Marriott
Trumpet: Chris Littlefield, Kevin Nortness
| Ryan Burns has displayed his unique keyboard style to audiences in the Puget Sound and abroad for over a decade. Having studied at Berklee School of Music in Boston, Burns released his first CD as a leader with the 1998 recording "That's the Ryan Burns Trio" (Independent Label). He has since written and performed music for various groups as well as for modern dance and on the Food Network Cable TV show "Food Nation with Bobby Flay." |
Burns continues to lead his own trio, and is an integral member of award-winning jazz groups Bebop and Destruction (2004 Seattle Weekly "Best Jazz/Avant-Guarde Band") and Matt Jorgensen +451 (Earshot Jazz Magazine's "Best Acoustic Group" of 2003). Other collaborative efforts include groups Being John McLaughlin, Steinwagon, and The Black Vinyl All-Stars. One of the Seattle-area's busiest keyboardists, Burns is equally comfortable as a sideman as he is leading his own groups. The Seattle Weekly writes "Burns has a fantastically fertile brain, prodding the music with unexpected voicings and twisted runs; as with the best pianists, his comping is as intriguing as his solos." With over a dozen recording credits, and countless performances, Burns has worked with notable jazz and blues artists such as Rick Mandyck, Mark Taylor, Tom Marriott, Phil Sparks, Jeff Johnson, Hans Teuber, Geoff Harper, Byron Vannoy, Geoff Cooke, Steve Luceno, Edmonia Jarrett, and Jabo Ward; as well as w/ rockers Mike Stone (Crack Sabbath, Devilhead), Peter DiStefano (Porno for Pyros, Jane's Addiction), Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden), Zac Melang (Supersonic Soul Pimps) and Roger Fisher (Heart); and has also performed with the Tacoma Symphony.
Burns is on faculty at northwest universities PLU and UPS, and Seattle Drum School. Burns is also a nationally published writer, his articles featured by All About Jazz.com and All About Jazz-Seattle.
Marc Fendel (saxophone, manager)
| Marc grew up in Portland Oregon, and received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music where he studied with legendary teachers Joe Viola, George Garzone, and Ed Tomassi. After graduating in 1995 from Berklee, headed to Seattle where he helped form the critically acclaimed group Bebop and Destruction with fellow Berklee-ites John Wicks and Dan Heck. The group which has only had two personnel changes in its ten year history has produced four recording and appeared at numerous festivals, including the Earshot Jazz Festival and Bumbershoot. For the last six years, Bebop and Destruction has appeared at Seattle’s Owl n’ Thistle Pub. |
A highly sought-after instructor, Marc teaches saxophone and leads jazz ensembles at the Seattle Drum School and works with students from nationally recognized Eckstein and Washington Middle Schools. In addition to Bebop and Destruction and Swampdweller, Marc has played in a number of other groups including Portland based funk-jazz group Rosewater. He has appeared in clubs and concerts with Leroy Vinnegar, Allan Broadbent, Diana Krall, Bernie Worrell, and many others.
Zeke Keeble (drums, percussion)
| With over 10 years of drum instruction experience, composer and musician Zeke Keeble is a co-founder of locust and leader, drummer, and singer for the band beeprock. He has been playing drums for over 20 years, and has been writing music for over 15. He has recorded and performed with many pop, electronica, rock, and jazz artists, including Phil Sparks, Julian Priester, Tim Young, Reggie Watts, Om Fletcher, Adam McCollom, Brent Arnold, Eyvind Kang, Cake, Jeru the Damaja, and members of The Roots, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Blind Melon. He has been in bands opening up for artists such as Ziggy Marley, Modest Mouse, The Roots, The goats, Old Dirty Bastard, Quasi, and Built to Spill. Zeke has been steadily gigging in Seattle for over 2 years. |
It was at this time he began his tenure in the ‘Seattle Groove Scene', cutting his teeth by playing in many popular clubs such as the '700 Club' & 'Baltic Room' and performing with well known bands like 'Phat Sidy Smokehouse' & 'Crack Sabbath'. Performing on just about any night of the week from straight ahead Jazz to Electronica in some Seattle's longest running club night's such as "Jumbalaya" & "Das Rut", Chris became a regular fixture in the dance club landscape.
It was during this period that Chris began honing his talents as a composer & band leader by forming 6 piece Instrumental Hip-Hop Jazz Band 'Bassackwards' and 10 piece Soul group "Cornucopia". Both ensembles provided the trumpeter with a broad canvas for his compositions & arrangements ,a platform for experimentation of sound through the use of effects processors and incorporation of computers for production.
Shortly after the formation of both his groups, Chris' career was catapulted forward when he joined 'Cinema/Worldbeat instrumental supergroup' "Tuatara". Performing along side Avant-Jazz/Rock saxaphonist Skerik, Screaming Trees drummer - Barrett Martin, Los Lobos sax/flute/keyboardist - Steve Berlin, and R.E.M. Guitarist - Peter Buck. In 2001 Chris became side man for almost 5 years to one of the industries funkiest horn players by joining "Karl Denson's Tiny Universe", where he toured the U.S. extensively and other parts of the world as well.
Through out all of his career as a musician, Chris has sought one thing primarily in performance and creation of music, and that is happiness. It is this pursuit of happiness in life through music that has led to a great amount of experience and knowledge. It is this cumulative knowledge he brings to bear and hopes to convey in teaching his students. With a belief that playing and learning music is hard work but should be enjoyable as well, you can accomplish great things and still have fun.
Bob Lovelace (guitar & electric bass)
| Tyrone "Bob" Lovelace has been playing bass and guitar for over 20 years. He studied formal Jazz and composition at the Settlement School of Music (Philadelphia, PA) and Blues, Country, and Bluegrass with Bob Neuberger (of the 1960's band Noah's Arc). This led to many gigs in the Philadelphia-New York Area. With relocation to Seattle (known for its shortage of bass players) opportunities began to sprout up. A stint with the reggae band Ganja Farmers (with Michel Auchter) provided Bob with a high level of playing and touring experience, and in 1994 he founded the Seattle funk band Phat Sidy Smokehouse, featuring Ernest Pumphry Jr., Chris Littlefield (Karl Denson's Tiny Universe), Brian "Stingshark" Ray, John Ewing (Reptet), Mark Cardeneas (The Time), and Davee C (Boogie Brown, Imij). Honing their chops playing up and down the west coast with everyone from Fishbone to Parliament, they ultimately disbanded after a stadium tour with Steve Miller and Gov't Mule. |
In an artistic change of direction, with members of the local Seattle community he helped form the musical collective Marmalade, consisting of members of Nu Sol Tribe, Adrian Xavier, the Supersonic Soul Pimps, and Stingshark. Marmalade, in its fifth year, is a weekly, all-star jam session that allows the musicians to have fun and mix it up, while keeping a danceable groove. They have toured as far away as France and Spain. Throughout the years Bob has had the opportunity to work with a variety of musicians, including Mike Stone, Shaun Smith, Michel Schrieve, Overton Berry, Wheedle's Groove, Thadeus Turner, Davis Martin, and Laura "Piece" Kelly.
Dave Marriott 
(brass, coordinator)
Described by one reviewer as a "canny and imaginative player whose solos display an extraordinary sense of architecture and conception", award-winning trombonist David Marriott is a musician for the next generation - equally at home as a performer, composer, arranger, and educator. David is co-leader, with brother Thomas, of the Marriott Jazz Quintet, which gained early acclaim for its first CD, Open Season (1997). The group was voted the Best Emerging Group by Earshot Jazz that same year, and Best Acoustic Jazz Group in 1999. Open Season and The High Country , their second CD, have been featured on Jim Wilke's NPR's Jazz After Hours by host Jim Wilke, who picked both as among the top CDs in the Northwest when released. David, who also produced both CDs, wrote and arranged much of the music on them. David also received critical acclaim for his CD project Septology: In The Beginning, a seven-part jazz suite he composed for septet, based on the seven days of creation. Both The High Country and Septology: In the Beginning garnered four stars from the prestigious All-Music Guide.
David also has an illustrious performance background, having won the Eastern Trombone Workshop Jazz Soloist Competition in 1999. He is member of Seattle's highly acclaimed Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and the New York-based Brian Lynch Big Band. David has also been a regular member of the Port Townsend Jazz Festival all-star band, and has been a featured performer at the festival with the Marriott Jazz Quintet on numerous occasions. Other festival appearances include the Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Festival with Ray Vega's Latin Jazz Sextet, Bumbershoot, DuMaurier Jazz, First Jazz Festival (Portland, OR), and Earshot Jazz Festival. With the Marriott Jazz Quintet, he has performed regularly at New York's The Kavehaz, 55Bar and Detour.
David has been an active participant in the "recording process," having appeared on ten recordings with his trombone, and has also served as a producer and graphic designer on several occasions. In addition to his recordings with the Marriott Jazz Quintet and his own Septology project, David has worked with such artists as Stuart Dempster, Mark Taylor, Jim Knapp, Steve Korn, Seattle's Young Lions, and, most recently, saxophonist David Liebman. In other areas of the music business, David also continues to work as a copyist and/or arranger, with such clients as David Liebman, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Kenny Garrett, and Delfeayo Marsalis.
In addition to David's work as a performer, he is a passionate educator, both as a private instructor and in the classroom. With experience teaching in public and private high school programs, summer jazz workshops, guest clinician appearances, Hunter College, Manhattan School of Music's Preparatory Division, and most recently at the University of Washington, David works avidly to teach young musicians not only the mechanics and history involved in playing and learning about jazz music, but also how to find their own voice as an improviser, find their own path in the jazz tradition, and find their own, individual passion about jazz. As a teacher of improvisation, theory, and history, David continues to pass the jazz tradition along to others with the establishment of a new jazz workshop tailored to each group of students; the Astoria Jazz Workshop officially opened on October 19, 2002 and served many students while David lived in New York. He is now bringing this model back to Seattle, to be launched in the fall of 2006.
| Davis Martin (drums) |
Some of these players such as vocalist and keyboardist Reggie Watts had also been sidekicks of the drummer's in a series of performing ensembles under the direction of composer and producer Steve Fisk. As if literally standing astride a pair of tall tom-toms, Martin has managed to straddle two contrasting sides of the Seattle music scene: free improvisation, which tends to totally avoid any kind of regular rhythm, and groove music, which survives on the heartbeat pulse as if a vampire out for the evening feeding. Martin has also performed and recorded with the Spice band and the Sharpshooters, a hip-hop duo. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
Davis currently plays with Maktub and Leroy Bell and we are very fortunate to have him as an drum instructor when he is not on tour opening for bands such as BB King and Etta James. This October 2007 Davis is opening up for soul ledgend Al Green live at the House of Blues in Chicago!
Tim Miller (drums, percussion, guitar)
| Tim Miller is a master of world percussion including hand drums, frame drum, djembe, congas, and Middle Eastern drumming. Tim is also well versed at playing and teaching drum set, guitar, and bass! Tim has toured extensively throughout North America, and is equally at home with many styles of contemporary music. His all-inclusive gentle teaching style encourages students (and occasionally parents) to actually make music during their lesson. |
Andy Roth (drums)
Andy Roth has been recording and performing drums in the Seattle area for more than twenty years. After attending Central Washington University studying jazz and big band drumming, Andy had the opportunity to study with jazz greats Mel Lewis, Mickey Roker, and more extensively with Jeff Hamilton. After moving back to the Seattle area in the mid ‘80’s, Andy played with a variety of musicians including Brad Shepik, Jay Thomas, Jim Knapp, and Jay Clayton among others. Andy also performed and recorded with local reggae/ calypso band The Groove playing many popular northwest clubs and private functions.
During the past twelve years, Andy has toured the U.S and Europe extensively and recorded many cd’s with the bands Zony Mash and Wayne Horvitz’s Sweeter than the Day. Andy has also had the opportunity to record and perform with many artists such as Bill Frisell, Robin Holcomb, Tim Young, and Danny Barnes. Andy has also worked on a wide variety of different recording projects ranging from commercial advertisements for radio and television to various movie soundtracks and many different singer/songwriters’ cd projects. Andy is currently performing with Wayne Horvitz’s Varmint, Karen Pernick, reggae/calypso singer Andy O, and the Jon Hyde Band.
Thaddeus Turner (guitar)
A highly sought-after musician in studio circles, Thad’s meticulous rhythm tracks and soaring guitar solos are a most integral sound of 206 Ribshack. Seen everywhere in town and playing with everybody, Thad plays with the award-winning group Das Rut and also stars in Seattle’s top group Maktub with fellow Rock School instructor Davis Martin. Both Thaddeus and his brother Gerald are the next generation in the prestigious Turner family musical dynasty. Their father Gerald Sr, a local educator and executive producer, is a former sideman of the Jazz Crusaders in the 1950s.
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