Cornet (and many others), Leader

Dr. Leslie J. Deutsch has had a long and broad musical career. His father taught him to play trumpet early on and began instruction in classical organ and harmony at age 11. He taught himself to play several instruments each year so that now he performs on almost all keyboards, brass, and woodwinds. This helps in his work as a composer of classical and jazz music.

Les also studied Mathematics and combined his two interests while working for his father, the inventor of the first digital musical instruments. Les retired in late 2022 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he was the Deputy Director for Interplanetary Networks - which includes NASA's deep space communications and navigation capabilities. He recieved NASA's Distinguished Service Medal in 2023, the highest award NASA bestows. He holds over 25 patents, mostly in electronic music. 

Les has been the organist at his alma mater, Caltech, since his sophomore year. While in school, Les worked as a concert and church organist, earning money to buy musical instruments. He has played Dixieland since his undergraduate days and has played with the New Bull Moose Party Band, the Hot Frogs Jumping Jazz Band, and the Tenth Avenue Jazz Band before joining the Nightbloomers in 2001.

Les still plays at Caltech. He has played trumpet, trombone, alto and bari sax, clarinet, flute, piccolo, tuba, horn, and percussion with the wind ensemble and trumpet, sax, and piano in the big band. He also plays keyboards in the Ka-Band (a bop group) and reeds in his own band, Living Stereo.  He has been privileged to work with some of the top names in jazz including Eddie Daniels, Al Vezutti, Bill Watrous, Gary Foster, Wayne Bergeron, Gordon Goodwin, and many, many others.

Visit Les' Space too, to see what else he's doing!

Mike Olson

Clarinet and Saxophones

Les Benedict

Trombone

Les started trombone in 5th grade and formed his own band at age 16. After college he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and played in the TAC and PACAF Bands. He performed on Elvis Presley’s "Aloha From Hawaii," the first world-wide live television broadcast.

Accomplished on alto, tenor and bass trombones, Les has also played and recorded on alto flugelhorn, euphonium, tuba, contra-bass bugle, trumpet and Eb cornet. He's performed or recorded with Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bette Midler, Cy Coleman, Joe Zawinul, Clare Fischer, Bob Dorough and Jack Sheldon, Julio Iglesias, Michael Bublé, Mariah Carey and many others. He performed with Mr. Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band for five years of national tours.

Les was a member of the world-famous Disneyland Band from 1982-1993, He played lead trombone with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra and with Buddy Colette's big band. Les played tuba with the 50th Grammy Awards Orchestra and on Ken Burns' Thomas Jefferson and Baseball soundtracks as the co-leader of the California Gold Rush Band. He is a long-time member of the Mark Masters Ensemble, and is featured on a recent release, Blue Skylight on the Capri label. He joined the Los Angeles Police Department Concert Band on euphonium, and performed with the band for the annual Peace Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C..

Les also currently plays with the Jelly Roll Jazz Band.

Les performs on Michael Rath Trombones and Terry Warburton mouthpieces, and endorses LeFreque acoustic bridges.

Piano

Andrew Barrett is from a musical family. He grew up in New York, New Jersey, and California, hearing traditional jazz, swing, and ragtime music since birth. He is currently a professional musician active in the Orange County and Los Angeles County areas of California, has been on the traditional jazz scene since ~1998 and has been on the ragtime scene science ~2001. He has played in local rock and bossa nova bands as a keyboardist and percussionist. To help improve his own and friend's piano styles, he has been enjoying and seriously studying the authentic sounds of vintage pop music, salon music, ragtime, and jazz from original era recordings and music rolls for decades –and also trying to share these riches with the world via pianist-playlists compiled on his YouTube channel, "Great Pianists."

Andrew's main hobby is researching and collecting automatic musical instruments, such as player pianos, orchestrions, band organs, and music boxes He is also interested in and researches/collects reed organs and theater pipe organs. He is a member of the Music Box Society International (MBSI) and the American Theater Organ Society (ATOS), and hopes that some people who read this will go save a great old piano, player piano, reed organ or pipe organ from the dump (since way too many are junked every day, depleting our fast-dwindling original supply) restore it and give it some love so everyone can enjoy the music!

Banjo

A native of Los Angeles, Peter Cho plays many styles of music but loves hot jazz from the 20s and 30s on the banjo! You can see him playing in several groups around town in addition to the Night Blooming Jazzmen: The Jefferson Duo with Katie Cavera or with his instrumental rock trio, the Peter Cho Band.

Bass

Mike Earls has been a resident of Lancaster, California since his early teens. He started playing string bass in high school, following in the footsteps of two bassists, his mother and his uncle. After earning his engineering degree in 1966, he played in a jazz trio, joined a local big band and continued with a spin-off seven-piece group, which played locally for 25+ years. The newly formed Santa Clarita Dixieland Jazz Club gave him his first opportunity to play Dixieland Jazz. He has performed with various Dixieland bands since then, including performances at jazz festivals at Sacramento, Catalina Island and Santa Ana, and a set with Rosie McHargue at the final L. A. Classic. He has performed with contemporary and ‘40s big bands, played in an acoustic folk music group, played in the orchestra for several community theater productions, and accompanied Mr. Ray Sherman in performances with guest artists Dan Barrett, Betty O'Hara, Abe Most and John Smith. He had the privilege of studying with "Senator" Eugene J. Wright (formerly of the Dave Brubeck Quartet).

He was a member of the Paradise Cove Classic Jazz Band, where he first met his predecessor NBJ bassist Don Richardson. This group played several Southern California jazz festivals (San Diego, Big Bear, Cathedral City). He was a member of the Bobby Gordon Sextet, a swinging Chicago-style jazz group which was booked at several jazz festivals, and a member of Hal's Angels (consisting of drummer/leader Hal Smith, Carl Sonny Leyland, Mike Earls and angels Anita Thomas and Katie Cavera). For several years, until the pandemic, he played bi-weekly gigs with Vinnie Armstrong in Baldy Mountain Jazz at a restaurant in Claremont.

Drums

Nick Scarmack has been a professional musician ever since he joined the Army right out of high school as a PFC – Percussionist First Class! This native of Farrell, Pa. and huge Pittsburgh Steeler fan (witness the ever present Terrible Towel in his cymbal bag) served three years as a proud member of the 434th Army Band, Fort Gordon, GA., then utilized the GI Bill to move on to the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he backed artists as diverse as Tiny Tim, comedians Jack Carter and Demond Wilson, John Connors and the Irish Express and guitar powerhouses Reeves Gabrels, Wayne Krantz, and Mike Stern.

From Boston, he made his way to L.A., and here has drummed with, among others, Janet Carroll, Al Jarreau, Diana Krall, Keely Smith, Rod Stewart, The Shotgun Blues Band, and Tammy Wynette. Along with his NBJ duties, he also anchors the Dry Martini Orchestra, the main backing band of both the Hollywood Rat Pack Revue and NickD’Egidio’s Night With Sinatra. He also wears the various hats of a Disneyland musician, where he subs with 4 different bands including the legendary Disneyland Band. Nick has also played drums with the Worship Team and Penninsula Community Church for over 20 years.

Nick lays down the dirving beat while also supporting the band with whatever rhythmic sustenance their musical hearts desire – and he is an excellent jazz vocalist as well!