Biography:

In 1995, a group of talented 6th and 7th grade students from Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School in St. Helena California met with me to form a jazz combo. As their leader, then in my third year of teaching, I had little idea what to expect from the rat-tag group of young upstarts. They had no written music at their first practices, I had yet to discover Jamey Aebersold charts, or any charts for that matter, so the practice time consisted of improvisational jam sessions, listening to jazz tunes, and figuring out tunes together. The group exceeded all expectations by writing their own material, creating their own arrangements of jazz standards, and performing at festivals and events all over the Napa Valley. In the excitement of our last year together, we recorded a cassette tape consisting of eight songs, half of them originals.

In 1997, I moved to Marin County and to teach science at Miller Creek Middle School in San Rafael, Each year, I have worked with one or two student jazz combos, comprised of 5 to 9 students. All totaled, that means there are now nearly 200 jazz combo alumni (more including summer jazz combo players), which makes me feel….old. After recording with the RLS jazz combo, it took me about a decade to get back to the recording studio, and since then it has become a tradition to end the year with a CD demonstrating our best work. The exception was a home made CD recorded in the Miller Creek band room in 2002. All of this music can be found on this site. If you lost your CD over the years, no problem. The songs can be downloaded for free.

I am always thrilled to learn that jazz combo alumni have continued to make music a part of their lives. Some of you received music degrees from colleges throughout the country; others have formed bands that have toured the country; many of you have made recordings of your music. I hope this site will allow jazz combo alumni to reconnect with each other and share your musical adventures and experiences . Send us the links to your current projects. If you happen to have old pictures of your middles school selves playing in a jazz combo, send me the jpeg file and I’ll add it to this site. Make sure to check out the jazz combo photos found in the "photos" link on the Facebook page. Videos of a jazz combo performing? Load them on to Youtube, send me the link, and I’ll add to the video collection.

I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane, and your memories of playing jazz in middle school are as happy (and humorous) ones! Thanks for keeping in touch, and for keeping music alive!

Mike (Mr.) Schulist
August, 2011

Below is a list of the Jazz Combo Alumni through the current year. I apologize if I've left anyone's name off the list - please notify me so I can add it if so!

Jazz Combo Alumni Robert Louis Stevenson

1. Seth Cummings
2. Robert Gastelum
3. Tyler Johnson
4. Alexander Karlman
5. Grant Philipson
6. Jonathan Roudebush

Miller Creek
7. Michael Abbot
8. Matt Abrahm
9. Robert Allen
10. Cameron Arnold
11. Garland Bellicini
12. Dan Birch
13. Michael Blasky
14. Derrel Brushaber
15. Jeff Berlin
16. Dan Birch
17. Christian Brown
18. Greg Capra
19. Nick Castro
20. Aiden Chambers
21. Colby Chipman
22. Andrew Clark
23. Nathaniel Clark
24. Ben Coffee
25. Alex Colthorp
26. Davis Cooke
27. Thea Cristman
28. Jon Decicio
29. Jennifer Decicio
30. Jimmy Decicio
31. Joey Decicio
32. Tony Dedier
33. Chris Devine
34. Noah Dobbs
35. Colin Duffy
36. Ryder Easterlin
37. Daniel Farbman
38. Justin Fordham
39. Ivan Galperin
40. Victor Gavellos
41. Bobby Gehlen
42. Kelly Gehlen
43. Alex Goff
44. Sam Goff
45. Scott Granlund
46. Lucas Hanson
47. Andy Harley
48. Rebecca Hardesty
49. John Hendricks
50. Richard Hertzberg
51. Brian Hinman
52. Elliot Huebler
53. Max Jaeger
54. Corey James
55. Dominic Lecouturier
56. Alexandre Jeffroy-Meynard
57. Stuart Jennings
58. Gabe Johnston
59. Aaron Kammerman
60. Hargobind Khalsa
61. Mira Kirageorge
62. Kevin Kugelmas
63. Noah Lakritz
64. Timmy Mayo
65. Liam Mcnulty
66. Brendan McQueeney
67. Theo Meneau
68. Arthur Meneau
69. Celina Mercer
70. Jack Mercer
71. Katherine Muller
72. Thomas Mykytyn
73. David Namnath
74. Jon Namnath
75. Aaron Nemoyten
76. Ford Nickels
77. Tom Pagano
78. Jeff Peters
79. Nick Pizzino
80. Brian Raphael
81. Andy Ross-Perry
82. Micah Press
83. Noah Ramsey
84. Liam Russel
85. Espen Scheuer
86. Jeff Schwartz
87. Emma Scott
88. Aaron Sholin
89. Dylan Slack
90. Will Silva
91. Alex Smith
92. Brian Smith
93. Elliot Starno
94. Alex Tuttle
95. Jake Vial-Golden
96. Alfred Wallace
97. Eric Ward
98. Patrick Welch
99. John Woods
100. Billy Zhao
101. Katherine Zhao
2012 and beyond...
2012/13 Combo
102. Cameron Arnold (Fall)
103. James Zhao
104. Xavi Greene
105. Kai Nau
106. Tyler Bortel
107. Skyler Swann
108. Connor Kredo-Brown
109. Alex Price
2013/14 Combo (additional players)
110. Patrick McConnel
111. Ian Fouts-Reppun
112. Aydin Oelzturk
113. Sean Lane-Bortel
114. Derek Crosby
2014/15 (additional players)
115. Joe Armstrong
116. Daphne Santoyo
117. Enzo Periero
2015/16 (Additional players)
118. Sofia Oreland
119. Stella Seiler
120. Vaughan Logan
121. Michael Haagens
2016/17 (Additional Players)
122. Aksel Pedersen
123. Hollis Sansing
124. Harrison Valdes
125. Matthew Vasser
2017/18 Combo
126. Jonathan Morrison
127. Charlie Nau
128. Kalyani Ryaru
129. Joseph Zeno
2018-19 (additional Player)
130. Josh Bumgarner
2019-2020 Combo
131. Magnus Hodge
132. Sam Frack
133. Emerson Henry
134. Cole Gibson
135. Lucas Simmons
2021-22 Combo
136. Matteo Dinardi
137. Eden Dunn
138. Spencer Farrington
139. Emerson Henry
140. Arthur Sepan
141. Juniper Williams
142. Cruz Indra
2022-23 Combo
143. Nate Lewis
144. Charlie Meneau
145. Miro Salvado
146. Liam Harbridge
147. James Weidner
148. Owen Hahn
149. Eden Dunn
2023-24 Combo
Nate Lewis
Charlie Meneau
Miro Salvado
Liam Harbridge
James Weidner
Owen Hahn
2024-25 Combo
150. Alex Ikeda
151. Elizabeth Kelly
152. Isaac Matthews
153. Arya Mahmoudi
154. Gabe Stein
155. Conor Esler