Overview

SRJO's extensive and growing repertoire is drawn from the 100-year history of jazz, from turn-of-the-20th century ragtime to turn-of-the-21st century avant-garde. This includes works by America's most famous jazz composers, among them Fletcher Henderson, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Thad Jones, and of course, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. In addition, SRJO's repertoire grows each year as the ensemble adds previously unpublished works to its library or commissions original works by leading jazz musicians. In 1994 Acox was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame followed by Brockman in 2020. SRJO includes many of the region's best-loved jazz soloists and bandleaders: trumpeters Jay Thomas, Nathan Breedlove, and Michael Van Bebber; bassist Phil Sparks; saxophonists Alex Dugdale, Mark Taylor, Sidney Hauser, and Travis Ranney; trombonists Dan Marcus, Scott Brown, and Bill Anthony, drummer D'Vonne Lewis, guitarist Milo Petersen, and pianist Randy Halberstadt. The ensemble is the recipient of numerous awards, including Golden Ear awards from Earshot Jazz for "Best Acoustic Jazz Group" and three times for "Concert of the Year," plus two "Starlight Awards" from the Kirkland Performance Center. Several members of the all-star group have been named to the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame, and many have won individual awards for "NW Best Instrumentalist," "NW Emerging Talent," "NW Best Recording" and more.