Trombanga

Rhythm Section:

• Malo Castro
• Seth Littlefield
• Rick White
• TJ Clement

Trombones:

• Eric Ordway
• Richard Lopez
• Bud Parker
• Tim Scharts
  

TROMBANGA BAND MEMBER'S BIOS

Bud Parker - Trombanga Leader, Arranger and Bass Trombonist:

Bud was origanlly from San Francisco and has been playing trombone since the late 50's. He played and recorded with Stan Kenton in the 60's and went on to play in Nevada in the Las Vegas, Reno, Tahoe triangle where he played in many groups and worked regularily with the Harrah's Club show orchestra. Bud has been in Seattle since the early 1970's where he has played bass trombone with many jazz and show bands. Over the years he has played in show orchestras backing such entertainers are Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Bill Cosby, Andy Williams, Tex Beneke, Ann Richards, and many others.

TJ Clement – Keyboard:

Richard Lopez - Trombone:

Richard lives in Olympia with his wife and five kids and works as a chaplain for the Olympia Fire Department. When not performing with Trombanga, Richard performs with the Olympic Jazz Senators under the direction of Norm Wallen, and leads his own jazz sextet, Native Blue. He is a graduate of The Evergreen State College and holds a masters degree from Nothwest Nazarene University. In 2003 Richard won 1st Place in a local Chili Cook-off and his most odd job was being a body removal employee for a local mortuary.

Rick White – Bass:

Rick’s background as classically trained composer and jazz bassist combine to make both his compositions and his playing truly unique. His first experiences as bassist were in R & B bands playing clubs all over the Western U.S. giving him strong roots in groove-oriented music. After this he chose to pursue a more formal music education attended Northern Illinois University where he received his masters in Music Composition and then the University of Northern Colorado where he is currently ABD. While in school Rick was a teaching assistant in both the Jazz and Music Theory departments and played in many of the top ensembles. At the UNC groups he received three Downbeat Awards. During Rick’s time at both of these schools he was able to maintain a busy schedule as a sideman as well as back up for many guest artists such as Tito Puente, Clark Terry, Mark Murphy, and Bob Mintzer to name a few. Currently, Rick is the director of Instrumental Music at the Olympic College in Bremerton. There he teaches both years of music theory, Jazz theory, bass lessons, and conducts both the Jazz and Wind ensembles.

Seth Littlefield – Timbales:

Seth is currently finishing his music degree at Central Washington University. He has studied with Steve Smith, Garey Williams, and Chuck Silverman. While in Cuba, Seth studied with Raul “Lali” Brito and Miquel Fernandez. Seth performs, records, and teaches a variety of styles, including jazz orchestra, hip-hop, rock, afro-Cuban and fusion. Seth started on the trap drums and now is the hot on the timbales.

Eric Ordway – Trombone:

Eric Ordway was born July 27, 1978 and is a native from Northeast Harbor Maine. As a freshman in high school he began to win many awards and competitions on his trombone. Some of those awards were Maine's top Jazz trombone soloist for combo and Maine's top trombone soloist for big band. After accelerating out of the school he reported to Navy Band New Orleans. Auditioning for colleges, he was awarded the Stan Kenton Scholarship to attend University of North Texas. He has become a very active freelance musician in the Northwest. Eric Ordway has performed with many great artist throughout his musical career such as: Pete Chrislieb, Bobby Shew, Jay Thomas, Slide Hampton, Bill Ramsey, Dan Higgins, Stefan Karlson, Lou Fisher, Steve Haughton, Clay Jenkins, Walt Johnson, and Mike Smith to name a few.

Tim Scharts - Trombone: