Album Notes

We, the String Jumpers are a collection of jazz and acoustic musicians who make our home in an enchanted place the Native Americans called "the valley of the flowers." Bozeman, Montana is where we live, and acoustic swing jazz is collectively, what we do. What we may lack in big-city artistic infusion and inspiration, we find compensation for in our gorgeous sunrises over the Bridger Mountains and mind-bending sunsets on the Tobacco Root Mountains. Not to mention the crisp, clean air and sparkling, tumbling mountain streams everywhere you go. All of which provides a congenial environment for creativity and, hopefully, a little virtuosity.

We came together as a band with a common affinity for swing and early jazz, believing that the first half of the twentieth century was one of the greatest eras of songwriting and genre-creation ever. Our members include accomplished jazz veterans and hot young acoustic musicians, and our modus operandi is having fun and enjoying each others' company.

Our veterans who are putting their music degrees to good use in this band are Craig Hall on upright bass and hollow body electric (love that Halfling guitar), Krista Arledge singing those pure, authentic interpretations, and Adam Greenberg holding down percussion with great flair and precision. Our younger musicians include Ian Fleming, a student at MSU, playing hot leads on his Beourgois guitar, and James Schlender belying his age (he was 15 when we started this project) with violin solos that help define the band. Doug Schlender, James' dad, fills it out with rhythm guitar on a super-fine Weber arch top (thanks, Bruce Weber). We hope you enjoy this CD, our debut album, because if you do, it encourages us to keep doing this jazz thing.