This collaborative, intergenerational ensemble demonstrates the ongoing creative research that is central to the Arts at UW. Jazz tradition, student composition, and improvisation will combine to create music that is deeply personal and of the moment. Many thanks to the Raynier Foundation for providing support.
Alliance members include:
Rory Somers — Trumpet, MM ’26
Rory Somers is a Seattle based trumpet player, currently a graduate student at the University of Washington pursuing his MM in Jazz and Improvised Music. He received his BM in Jazz and Improvised music from University of Nevada, Reno in 2024, and shortly after moved to Seattle to study with Cuong Vu and Ted Poor. New to the Seattle scene, he is working on establishing himself, performing alongside fellow students and local musicians at various Seattle venues and festivals.
Gus Scharler — Saxophone, BM ’27
Natalie Song — Piano, BM ’25
Natalie Song is a pianist, improviser, and composer native to the Seattle area. She received her bachelor of music in Jazz Studies at the University of Washington this past June, where she studied with Marc Seales, Ted Poor, Steve Rodby and Cuong Vu. She has performed in various groups both at and outside the University of Washington. She looks forward to continuing to play and perform in the greater Seattle area.
Jai Kobi Kaleo’Okalani Lasker — Guitar, BM ’25
Jai Kobi Kaleo’okalani is a Seattle-based guitarist, composer, producer and poet. Graduating in 2025 with a BM in Jazz and Improvised Music from the University of Washington, they studied with Steve Rodby, Cuong Vu, Ted Poor, and Kassa Overall. Often performing under the moniker BLUEs.Weave, her genre-defying work seamlessly blends the sonic worlds and approaches of improvised Black American music traditions and experimental sound design, delivering innovative, immersive sets featuring resonator and electric guitars, drum machines, samplers and electronics. Her work as a soloist began with a DXARTS commission to compose and perform the beat-suite “Let Loose Thy Soul: Black Alchemy and the Upper Arcana” for the 2024 SPAM New Media Festival at the Georgetown Steam Plant. Since then, Jai has presented original music and multimedia performances at the Frye Art Museum, the Jacob Lawrence Art Gallery, and ARTS at King Street Station Gallery. As an accompanying voice, she has had the privilege to perform with internationally renowned and incredible local artists alike including Bill Frisell, Steph Richards, Ted Poor, Luke Bergman, Jahnvi Madan, and Kyra “Wolf” Wolfenbarger. Jai’s debut release, The Blues is Best Sung at Sunrise, hit Bandcamp in February, under BLUEs.Weave. The Jacob Lawrence Gallery displayed the project and its accompanying cover art for two months during the Artists and Poets exhibition.
Ethan Horn — Drums, BE ’26
Ethan Horn is a rising senior pursuing his BS in Mechanical Engineering (Biomechanics) with a minor in music. He has been involved in the jazz program at UW for three years, and performing around the Seattle area with various groups for over a decade. While he plans to work as an engineer in the medical industry, drumming and making music will continue to be a major focus in his life.
Kelsey Mines — Bass, BM ’14, MM ’16 Arizona State Bio
Kelsey Mines is a bassist, composer and educator native to Seattle. She performs regularly with Jovino Santos Neto, Naomi Moon Siegel, Marina Albero, and others. As a band leader, Mines has been featured at the Earshot Jazz Festival, the Ballard Jazz Festival, and the Wayward Music Series. In 2021, she was commissioned by the Sound Ensemble to write,record, and perform “To Actually Create Everywhere,” and won the Earshot Jazz Call for Composers commission to write and perform a 50-minute, 10-piece work called “Compost People.” In 2022, Mines released her debut solo record “Look Like” on Relative Pitch Records and has performed the work in New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle alongside artists including Bobby Branford, Jeff Parker and John Blum. Mines currently has two in-process collaboration albums with Vinny Golia and Erin Rogers slated to be released in 2025, plus a third record under her own name on Origin Records. Mines currently teaches at Cornish College of the Arts and was awarded an Earshot Golden Ear award for Emerging Artist of the Yearin 2019. She was nominated for Northwest Instrumentalist of the Year by Earshot Jazz both in 2023 and 2024.
Cuong Vu — Trumpet, Professor; Jazz Department Chair
Cuong Vu is widely recognized by jazz critics as a leader of a generation of innovative musicians. A truly unique musical voice, Cuong has lent his trumpet playing to a wide range of artists such as Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, and David Bowie.
As a youngster, Cuong’s intense dedication and love for music led him to a full scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his bachelor of music in jazz studies with a distinction in performance. Transitioning from his studies in Boston, he moved to New York in 1994 and began his career actively leading various groups while touring extensively throughout the world. As a leader, Cuong has released eight recordings, each making critics’ lists of the 10 best recordings of their respective years and has received rave reviews from notable publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, the Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, JazzTimes and Downbeat. Each record displays how he has carved out a distinctive sonic territory as a trumpet player, blurring all stylistic borders while developing his own compositional aesthetic and sound world.
Awards and honors that Cuong has garnered include grants from the Royalty Research Foundation, the Donald E. Petersen Professorship, ArtistTrust, 4Culture, CityArts and the Colbert Award for Excellence. Cuong is currently associate professor and chair of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington and was awarded the University of Washington’s prestigious Distinguished Teacher Award in his third year on faculty. In 2002 and 2006, Cuong was a recipient of the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album as a member of the Pat Metheny Group. He’s been recognized as one of the top 50 Jazz Artists in an article called “The New Masters” from the British magazine, “Classic CD” and in 2006 was named the Best International Jazz Artist by the Italian Jazz Critics’ Society. Amazon listed Vu’s “Come Play With Me” on their “The 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time.”
Ted Poor — Drums, Associate Professor; Associate Director, School of Music
Ted Poor is a New York-born, Seattle-based drummer, composer, and producer whose adventurous, soulful playing has vaulted him to the stages of some of today’s most vital artists. Modern Drummer describes his playing as “adventurous, truly dynamic, and forward-thinking.” A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Ted has toured and recorded with renowned artists such as Paul Simon, Marcus Mumford, Bill Frisell, Madison Cunningham, Rufus Wainwright, Lucy Dacus, Lizzy McAlpine, Pat Metheny, Blake Mills, Chris Thile, John Scofield, Cuong Vu, My Brightest Diamond, and Kurt Rosenwinkel.
Having signed with Verve Records (UMG), his debut album, You Already Know, was released in 2020 to critical acclaim. The album, which is co-produced with Blake Mills features Andrew D’Angelo, Andrew Bird, Rob Moose, Paul Kowert and Sebastian Steinberg. JazzTimes calls the album “profound and moving” and states, “intimate, involving, and lasting, You Already Know balms the senses, wakes them up, slaps them around, and offers positive affirmations.”
Ted is a long standing member of Los Angeles based singer/song-writer Andrew Bird’s band; appearing on numerous albums and world-wide tours. He also performed regularly in the house band on the live radio broadcast of Live From Here with Chris Thile (formerly A Prairie Home Companion). Ted is an Associate Professor of Jazz Studies and the Associate Director of the School of Music at the University of Washington in Seattle.
