Night Blooming Jazzmen Home

The Nightblooming Jazzmen
continue into a new era!

It is with much joy that we announce the continuation of the Night Blooming Jazzmen. Chet Jaeger's family has decided that the band should continue to perform, spreading our usual excitement while also paying tribute to Chet's legacy to the jazz community.

Les Deutsch has moved from the piano chair to play cornet and lead the NBJ. Trumpet is actually Les' first instrument - and it is a whole lot easier to lead a band from the cornet position. Check out this interesting sample of Les' cornet playing (in fact, he pays all the parts on this video!) Andrew Barrett will take the piano chair. The remainder of the NBJ remains intact.

Mike Olson is taking over the business manager duties. As such, if you are reading this and wish to hire the NBJ for a fesitval, jazz club, worship service, or private party, please contact Mike. You can reach him at piano-88@hotmail.com or by phone at (909) 694-9021.

The Night Blooming Jazzmen (NBJ, or "Nightbloomers") is a traditional, or dixieland band, formed in October 1975 to represent the Society for the Preservation of Dixieland Jazz at the third Sacramento Jubilee. There were very few jazz bands in existence then – not enough to put on a festival. The NBJ was started as an ad-hoc "pick-up band." It was not expected to survive – but the NBJ were so well-received and had so much fun that they stuck together. Since then, they have played thousands of concerts, church services, funerals, house parties, grand openings, jazz clubs, wedding receptions, dances, etc .. AND several dozen cruises and land trips to China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, Hawaii, the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, the Amazon, the Mediterranean, and many other parts of Europe.

The Night Blooming Jazzmen has been one of the busiest bands in the nation – and they hope to be so again soon! They have a lot of fun with their audiences and each other – and despite this their music is top-quality. They play well and put on a great show. The band's Sunday morning "hymn-a-long" often typically has the largest attendance of any event at a festival.

Currently, the band personnel is:

Les Deutsch - Cornet & Leader
Mike Olson - Reeds
Les Benedict - Trombone
Andrew Barrett - Piano
Peter Cho - Banjo
Mike Earls - Bass
Nick Scarmack - Drums

Memorial Service for Chet and Eileen Jaeger

As you already know, Chet Jaeger, the founder of the Night Blooking Jazzmen, passed away in January 2022. His spouse of 79 years, Eileen, passed away in August, 2024. As per their wishes, there was a memorial service for them together at their longtime church, Claremont Presbyterian, on October 5, 2024. This was a family affair - but don't fret, their family is so large they had no trouble filling the church! The Night Blooming Jazzmen played (pun inteded) a key part in the service. Feel free to download the program from this event so you can see what they looked like a longt ime ago and peruse the list of family members!

Personal changes!

Our long-time reed player, Jim Richardson, has retired from the NBJ. He sold his home and is living his dream, traveling around the USA. We will miss Jim.

Mike Olson has moved from the banjo chair to the reed chair. You likely have heard Mike playing clarinet or sax with the NBJ as a double, or with his own South Burgundy Street Jazz Band.

This left the banjo chair open - but no worries as Peter Cho has joined us, bringing his virtuosic playing to the band and lowing our average age by quite a bit in the process.

Finally, Les Benedict has joined the NBJ as our new trombonist. We are very excited to have Les, and all of his experience, with the band - and it means there are now two of us named "Les."

Long-lost NBJ Cazoo Songbooks!!

Here's an item I'll bet fans have been searching for... offical Night Bloomin Jazzmen "Cazoo Song Books." Yes, the NBJ used to spell "kazoo" as "cazoo", and, yes, these were recently discovered in a local archeological site - Chet's house. There are two versoons, "red" and "pink" named for their cover colors. They are actually identical except for the cover page. The blue version contains a photo of the band that is very old - but nostolgic. These are free for download – simply click on either version.

NAMM 2025 Oddities

Each year, Les attends the giant NAMM Show to see all the new musical instruments - and maybe buy some to use with the NBJ. See some of the things Les found that were a bit strange at the 2025 show. You can still see 2023 oddities here and 2020 oddities here.

Downloadable NBJ Hymn-a-Long Book!

Any of you who have attended an NBJ "hymn-a-long" know how much fun it can be to sing along with the band. The custom NBJ hymn books have been a part of this experience for many years. Now you can have your own book simply by downloading here - without having to pay us $2.50!

Special NBJ Concert featuring Theater Organ

The Nightbloomers gave a special concert at Spring Valley's Trinity Facility featuring Les Deutsch on the Mighty WurlitZer theater organ - part of the Theater Organ Society of San Deigo's concert series. It was a rare melding of jazz band and jazzy pipe organ. The concert was recordedand you canwatch and listen to some of the tunes on Les' YouTube channel.