Jazz Circuit Riders

His middle school orchestra director, “Doc” Daycleth Walker, got him into jazz. Two years of lessons later he joined the Doc Walker trio as a high school sophomore — his first paid work as a musician. He’s been playing jazz, on and off, for fifty years since — these days with his son Wes.

Suzuki violin at five, and thirty years playing across the Midwest since. Tenor guitar, mandolin, violin, bass and drums. He holds weekly residencies at the Valiant and the Last Word, and plays with the Ben Daniels Band, the Screaming Goats, Pherotones and Yellowhammer.

Pianist, composer and producer, out of jazz and classical with a long-running soft spot for electronica. He toured with his own quartet, Fast Tracks, has scored for PBS, CBS Sports and Turner Classic Movies, and has produced or arranged for artists including Billy Strings. Six records of his own, most recently a 2024 work for choir and orchestra.

Trumpeter, flugelhornist, and independent artist. He currently performs with the ensembles Cici Blind and the Spectacles, the Macpodz, Rhyta Musik, Jive Colossus, the Pherotones, Yellowhammer, and the Rollie Tussing Trio. In addition to instructing trumpet students ranging in age from 9 to 65, by necessity he’s become an arranger, composer, transcriptionist, producer, director, recording artist, tour manager, copy writer, and bandleader. In cases of emergency he can be a sound engineer and run the chuck wagon. Ross is also the musical director of the beloved Ebird and Friends Holiday Show, which plays the Ark each December.

Drummer, vibraphonist and chamber percussionist based in Ann Arbor. He plays drum set with Chelsea’s own Jess Merritt, drums and mallets for Cici Blind and the Spectacles, and vibraphone with the retro lounge exotica outfit Yellowhammer. He’s a member of the Portland Percussion Group, whose album Patterns and Form is out on New Focus Records, and he performs regularly with the Jackson and Toledo symphonies. He teaches privately and leads the Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor Steel Drum Ensemble.

Versatile pianist, composer and producer out of Indianapolis, in Jackson since 2023. An in-demand sideman, he has worked with Rob Dixon, Tony Cheeseborough of the Ohio Players, Goldie Ingram and Wendy Reed, and played Indy Jazz Fest in 2023 with Ingram and the festival’s Legacy Band. He is a third of the Northside Exchange, which co-headlined the first Carmel Jazz Fest and opened for the Branford Marsalis Quartet at the Palladium in 2024. He trained at Franklin College with Joshua Espinoza and Clare Longendyke. Jazz, classical, pop, funk, R&B, gospel and hymns are all in his repertoire.

Joe Fee has been an active member of the Southeast Michigan music community since the early 2010’s, appearing in a wide variety of ensembles and contexts playing upright bass, bass guitar, and tuba. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theater, and Dance, but please don’t ask him to act or pirouette.