The Stage Time board is made up of working musicians with decades of experience as performers, bandleaders, and booking agents. We've all come up hustling gigs, from Bellingham and Seattle to Seoul and Hong Kong. Over the years we've run jam sessions, taught clinics, visited schools, and worked with venues, and we've seen firsthand how much young musicians gain from sharing the stage with seasoned pros.
We're always looking for people who are passionate about live music and have experience with nonprofit organizations. If you'd like to get involved, please reach out.
Scot Ranney – Founder & President
Piano
Scot worked at a regional talent agency in the mid-1980s, learning the business side of music while starting his career as a jazz pianist. In 1991 he landed a house gig at J.J. Mahoney's in the Grand Hyatt in Seoul, South Korea: six nights a week, four hours a night, for nearly a year and a half. The bandleader for the first four months was James "Curley" Cooke, one of the founding members of the Steve Miller Band, and the lessons Curley taught him about performing and working with venues are still with him today.
Scot has always said that stage time matters more than talent, and the long-term house gigs he's played over the years have only proven it. Experience playing in front of a live audience is what gives a musician the edge.
In the late 1990s, Scot launched LearnJazzPiano.com (LJP), one of the web's first jazz piano discussion boards, along with a series of free jazz piano lessons. Scot and other experienced pros have answered questions from musicians of all levels ever since. In the early days, before the web had many forum sites, LJP was as busy as Grand Central Station. Activity slowed as sites like Reddit grew, but the information is still free and still valuable. Over the years, many pianists have told Scot that LJP gave them their start, including touring pros, university jazz department heads, a couple of people who opened their own music schools, and players Scot now hires as subs for his own gigs.
Stage Time is a natural next step. LJP shares what the pros know. Stage Time gives young players the stage to learn the rest.
Scot has organized jazz jam sessions in Bellingham and elsewhere for years, because jams are fun and because they're where students learn from seasoned pros in front of a live audience. He brings creative energy, a dogged determination to make ideas happen, a passion for playing and teaching jazz, and some computer-geek wizardry to the Stage Time crew.
Andrew Simmons – Treasurer
Bass
Andrew's story is similar to Scot's in some ways. He played his first long-term gig overseas, went on to other long-term gigs, and has decades of experience working with venues as both an agent and a musician. He knows the business of music as well as anyone. He has formed several bands, plays with a wide range of musicians, and has performed with iconic artists such as Willie Nelson and Larry Carlton.
Andrew brings a level head, an eye for the big picture, and strong networking and administrative skills to the group.
Travis Ranney – Secretary
Saxophone and Woodwinds
Travis is a Seattle jazz pro and a first-call tenor saxophonist for many bandleaders. He plays with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO) and the Seattle Symphony, has been a sideman in more bands than you can count, spent several years on the road with Rusty Jebbia, and has worked alongside some of the great saxophonists, playing in Pete Christlieb's small group and alongside him in big band sax sections, and sharing the stage with Branford Marsalis as part of a two-sax front line. He's also one of the region's premier saxophone repair technicians.
Travis knows just about everyone in the Western Washington music scene, including donors, venue owners, festival organizers, and other movers and shakers in Pacific Northwest music. He's able to bring Stage Time to the attention of many people who can help us grow.
