Getting younger: High school musicians lead their own quartets in Saturday’s North Bend JazzWalk

Published 10:34 am Wednesday, April 20, 2016

While the North Bend Jazz Walk brings in many professional musicians from the Seattle area, it also serves as a showcase for more local talent. This year two groups of students from Mount Si High School, The Will Crandell Project and The Max Cannella Quartet, will be performing at The Swirl in North Bend as part of the jazz walk.

Both of these groups got the chance to play at the jazz walk through Boxley’s founder and music teacher Danny Kolke.

“Danny, in December of 2014, asked me to come up with a group and we played at Boxley’s about once a month and were able to do KPLU (School of Jazz),” said Will Crandell, drummer and senior at Mount Si High School. “So he asked me a couple weeks ago if me and my group would like to have a spot at the jazz walk, we said we would love to.”

Crandell said his group is comprised of twins from Roosevelt High School, Santosh and Ravi Sharma who play tenor saxophone and guitar respectively, and bass player Luis Ross from Edmonds-Woodway High School. Ross won’t make it to the jazz walk performance, so Mount Si bassist Johnathan Henrikson will fill in.

Despite all going to different schools, the bandmates all met through a jazz camp, Crandell said.

“There is a jazz camp in Port Townsend that happens every summer called Centrum,” Crandell said “I met them at Centrum. Last summer we started playing together and working on different tunes. It will be our first time at the Jazz Walk, but I’ve played with Mount Si’s jazz band before.”

For their jazz walk debut, Crandell has picked a setlist of 10 tunes from the late ’60s primarily by Herbie Hancock, John Coltrain, Wayne Shorter, and Miles Davis.

Max Cannella, pianist and junior at Mount Si High School, had a similar story. Kolke, who is Cannella’s piano teacher, gave him the opportunity to play in venues like Boxley’s, which led to an invitation to play at the jazz walk.

His group was formed completely within Mount Si High School. The Max Cannella Quartet began playing together in the summer of 2015 in local wineries.

“We’ve had experience playing in that environment at Boxley’s, Danny supports us and that’s how we got to where we are now,” Cannella said. “At first we went by the Max Cannela Trio. In jazz it’s traditional to name after the lead instrumental. We picked up a singer, but I still manage the group.”

Including Cannella on piano, the quartet is made up of drummer Nick Mardon who Cannella credits as being a co-founder of the group. Their bassist is Nate Sharp, and their newest edition is Sage Eisenhour, a vocalist they met in the big band program this year.

“The audience loves her and she’s great to have around,” Cannella said. “We are all really good friends. Our group and the music that we do is built off of support. We couldn’t do anything without each other, my instructors and our fellow musicians.”

The Will Crandell project will be playing at The Swirl in North Bend from 6 to 7:10 p.m., followed by the Max Cannella Quartet from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m.

For tickets and information, visit www.northbendjazzwalk.com.