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Past Performance Schedule
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About the Players
About the Alumni Players
"Jazz & Beyond: Carson City
Music Festival" (2016 to 2024)
Audio Samples
The Millennium Bugs
Press Releases
Membership form
Funding Priorities
How to contact us
External Links
Carson City Symphony
David Bugli website
The Mile High Jazz Band Association formed in 2001 as a nonprofit corporation
to support the MHJB and its subgroup, the Millennium Bugs (jazz combo), promote
live jazz performance in northern Nevada, educate the public about jazz, and
enrich the cultural life of the community.
Member benefits include mailings, discounts on admissions, and
invitations to special events, plus the satisfaction of helping big-band jazz to thrive!
To book the Mile High Jazz Band (big band)
or Millennium Bugs (jazz combo),
call 775-883-4154.
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Saxes
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Steve Carmack - alto sax
Steve Carmack joined the band in the summer of 2023. He plays lead alto with
Mile High Jazz Band. He also plays in Rosebud's Dance
Band.
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Randy Seeber - alto sax (plus clarinet)
Background: I began playing clarinet when I was 12 years old. I played in junior high and high school concert bands when, at the age of 17, I was asked to join a local youth band that needed an alto sax player in their jazz band. When I began playing the dance band music, I was hooked.
Musical Influences: There have been many musicians who have influenced me. These include (but are not limited to): Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, the Dorsey Brothers, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Lester Young ….
Musical Ambition: My ambition is to continue striving in being a well rounded musician. My desire is to be able to play any chart at a level of great saxophone/clarinet players of today and yesterday. Additionally, I want to continue my Jazz Improvisation journey (clarinet and saxophone) which is a separate skill unto itself. Sometimes I look at what still has to be learned to achieve these goals and it seems that like such a giant task. But as long as one focuses on the enjoyment learning brings and not the amount one has to learn, you realize that this process is a journey with no true end or destination.
Current and Previous Bands that I have played in:
- 159th Army Jazz Band
- Sacramento City College Jazz Band
- Desert Swingers Dance Band (Ft. Huachuca, AZ)
- Capital City Community Band (Carson City, NV)
- Mile High Jazz Band
- Rosebud’s Dance Band (Gardnerville, NV)
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Jake Page - tenor sax - He writes:
At about the age of 5, my mother showed me how to read the notes on
sheet music and what key to press on the piano for each note. A couple
months later, my dad got rid of the piano. I never understood why.
One Christmas, I got a keyed harmonica. Soon, the most frequent
request was to play "Far Far Away." In fifth and sixth grade I played
trumpet. Once again, I was often asked to play "Far Far Away." That
sure is popular.
I always liked to tinker. Just before my senior year in high
school, I found a broken clarinet in a second-hand store for three
dollars. I figured out a way to repair it with epoxy glue and cotton
sewing thread. I then proceeded to see if I could figure out how to
play it. I just can't believe it -- the most frequent request was to
play "Far Far Away" - some tunes are just classic! In my senior year
of high school, I played the B-flat clarinet in the freshman band for
the first semester. The second semester, I played the much larger
E-flat contra-alto clarinet in the school's concert band.
After graduating from high school, I spent almost 20 years in
the U.S. Air Force. While enlisted, I was in the pest control
field. I later went to college and spent the last 16 years in the
Air Force as a Systems Analyst and Engineering Physicist. During
that time, I played in community bands where they were available on
clarinet and bass clarinet. Whenever I practiced at home, our dogs
would go "far far away." There's always a critic.
I moved to Reno after completing my Air Force career in 1992.
When a local rehearsal big band started in 1995, I began playing tenor
saxophone in that group, learning playing techniques from fellow band
members. I joined the Mile High Jazz Band in 2009.
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Elizabeth Eubanks - baritone sax (plus flute, clarinet, alto sax, as needed)
Liz grew up in far Northern California, earning her AA degree at Shasta College,
BA and CA teaching credential in music at CSU, Chico, and her MA in Music at Southern Oregon
University, American Band College. Some of her undergraduate scholarships include the areas
of double reeds as well as the Bravo Opera scholarship at CSUC.
During her undergraduate years, she studied with oboist Neil Tatman and Mike Bankhead.
She has worked under several international composers, conductors, and artists such as
Robert W. Smith, Johan de Meij, James Barns, and Francis Macbeth, through her MA studies.
She has taught in the public school system for many years and is now looking to enter the
medical field. She has taught symphonic, concert, jazz and marching band, string orchestra,
as well as beginning through advanced choir, in addition to piano and guitar. While teaching
at Corning Union High School, she coached track & field as well as alpine snowboarding, and
also coached Nordic Skiing at South Tahoe High School.
She has performed in a variety of ensembles - as an oboist/English horn player for
organizations throughout Northern California, such as the Paradise Symphony Orchestra,
Chico Symphony Orchestra, Simpson Sinfonia, and has performed as the principle oboe
for the Shasta Symphony for over a decade. She has performed on baritone saxophone
for the Straight Ahead Big Band and has been a woodwind "doubler" for various ensembles,
organizations, and pit orchestras such as the Redding City Theater Company,
Shasta College theater productions, and for Lake Tahoe Community College.
Liz was principal oboist for the Carson City Symphony and
performed vocally and on oboe/English horn from time to time for TOCCATA (The Orchestra
and Community Choral Artist of the Tahoe Area.) She conducted the Carson Valley Pops
Orchestra as well as Rosebud's Dance Band and also teaches private music lessons.
She enjoys all that greater Tahoe area has to offer. In her spare time, she is an avid
outdoor enthusiast and revels in activities such as rock climbing, skiing, and cycling,
taking delight in many other activities in between.
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Trumpets
Bob Masters - trumpet - Bob currently plays trumpet with the Carson Valley
Pops Orchestra, the Mile High Jazz Band and French Horn in the Carson City Community
Band. When not in the practice room he can be found mountain biking, flyfishing,
hiking and skiing. Bob also maintains a small private observatory that he uses
for both deep sky and solar astrophotography.
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Trombones
Dean Carter
Dean supplied the following information:
Background: I grew up in a musical family, my dad was a high school music teacher that played
trombone. I studied with Lester Lehr (a Remington student while at Eastman) in Sacramento as
a high school student during which time I played in the Northern California Junior
Symphony under Fritz Berens. I came to Nevada on a music scholarship to UNR and
studied under Eugene Isaeff. I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science
and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from UNR.
Experience: I worked as a full time musician, playing trombone, bass trombone and tuba
in the house bands in the Reno/Tahoe area for around twenty-five years. During that time I
worked for Bob Crosby, Nelson Riddle, Burt Bacharach, Henry Mancini and Wayne
Newton. I worked for Paul Anka in a trombone section that included Frank Rosolino,
Carl Fontana and myself. I worked television shows for Carol Burnett, Perry Como,
Andy Williams, the syndicated Sammy Davis Shows, in a section with Kai Winding and the
Mike Douglas shows when he came to Tahoe. I played for many years in the Harrah’s Lake
Tahoe band working for Brian Farnon and for ten years with the Johnny Russell Relief
Orchestra. I have played just about every act that ever came to Reno/Tahoe from Frank
Sinatra (and Frank Sinatra Junior and Nancy Sinatra) to Frank Gorshin. I also played
principal trombone for three years in the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra and I played
Tuba in the Nevada Brass Quintet for close to 10 years. Currently I play in the
Carson City Symphony, the Mile High Jazz Band and the Reno Jazz Orchestra, and have
a day job as a software engineer. Now I get to play for fun.
Dean can be reached at dean@tenorbone.com. His
website is at http://mysite.ncnetwork.net/resu5r8u.
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Paul Jorgensen trombone - Paul is active in the Mile High Jazz Band, Carson City
Symphony, Zephyrus Brass Quintet, and the Carson Valley Pops Orchestra, of which he used to
Treasurer. Besides music, he is also an avid bridge player.
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CJ Birch (bass trombone) - CJ Birch served as band director at Carson Middle School and Carson High
School. He is retired and enjoys fishing. He enjoys studying about the American Civil War
and making presentations on the making of long rifles.
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Rhythm Section and vocalist
David Bugli - Piano and Leader
David C. Bugli has a Bachelor of Science
Degree in music education from Ithaca College, New York, where he studied
composition for four years with Karel Husa. He has a Master of Music Degree
from the University of Massachusetts. He has participated in Conductors
Workshops presented by the American Symphony Orchestra League in San
Francisco and St. Louis. In addition to conducting, he plays classical and
jazz piano, tuba, and trombone, and he composes and arranges music.
David Bugli conducts the Carson City
Symphony and was Assistant Conductor of the
Foundation Orchestra in Reno. For the Carson City
Symphony, he arranges music that features guest artists on the Symphony's
annual Holiday Treat and Pops Party concerts. In the past he organized the
annual Reno TubaChristmas event and led the annual Capitol Tree Lighting on
the steps of the Nevada State Capitol in Carson City. The latter featured
performances by the Holiday Brass Ensemble (generally about two dozen players)
and a group of about two hundred elementary school singers. Along with his wife Ellie, and
with the Brewery Arts Center, he has been instrumental in creating and running an annual multi-day jazz festival
in Carson. Originally called "Basie @ 100" (2004) and "Basically Basie" (2005), the festival is
now called "Jazz & Beyond" and features over 20 performances. He is the recipient of the 2007 Nevada
Governor's Arts Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts.
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Steve Hayes - guitar - As a big band guitarist, Steve follows the tradition of Freddie Green,
playing an acoustic orchestral guitar strictly as a rhythm instrument.
Steve played trumpet at 8, banjo at 14, and picked up guitar at 17
studying with a local jazz guitarist, Vern Older, in Palo Alto, CA. He
played rock and blues until one night in college he heard "Kind of Blue"
by Miles Davis, which transformed his outlook on music and improvisation.
Steve's big band experience included a two-year stint in the late 1970s
with a rehearsal band comprising retired and ex-Count Basie members.
He was in the No Fault Big Band and the Russ Button's Swing Orchestra in
the SF Bay area in the 1990s.
Throughout his musical career Steve has taught guitar, played recording
sessions, casual and stage engagements. He has been an active
participant in jam sessions throughout the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, and
Northern Nevada. Steve continues to seek opportunities to play
improvisational electric guitar in a jazz and blues vein.
Contact Steve via electronic mail via:
lefty.guitar (at) charter (dot) net
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Frank Iannetta - bass - Frank writes:
I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio. I started playing upright bass after I saw an
old Kay in the window of a music store; I paid $100. I started taking lessons from
a graduate student from The Cleveland Institute of Music. That was 1972. Aside from
that, I'm largely self taught. I moved to Lake Tahoe in 1975. I played electric bass
with numerous cover bands in the '70s and '80s. I worked with Brian Farnon with the
Lake Tahoe Community Orchestra.
I joined the Tahoe Dance Band in 2006. I've maintained a roofing business since
1988. I've been married to my wife Phyllis for 25 years. I'm an avid golfer. I also
like to mountain bike and ski, and have a strong interest in military history.
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Jakki Ford - Vocalist - Jakki Ford is an accomplished and versatile performing
artist. She enjoys a growing reputation, nationally and internationally, as an outstanding
vocalist with a 4-octave vocal range. As a professional actress and talented dancer,
she is widely recognized for her artistic sensitivity, gracefulness and extraordinary
magnetism on stage, television and film.
Jakki holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Wayne State University, Detroit,
Michigan, majoring in Speech and Theater, and has completed many post-graduate courses
in Vocal, Music and Drama at the University of Nevada, Reno, learning from acclaimed
Master Artists. She has sung with the University Choral and Symphonic Choirs, toured
the United States singing back-up for a major recording artist and joined the Nevada
Opera Company as First Soprano in Verdi's Italian opera Macbeth. Jakki performed
in the French production, Samson and Delilah. She has also performed with
the Reno Jazz Orchestra and the Carson City Symphony.
To read more about Jakki, go to her website at jakkiford.com.
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