Guitarist Steve Grismore and reedman Paul Scea have a depth of skill and experience which erases the lines between genres. Grismore lives in Iowa City, Scea in West Virginia, but even off the beaten jazz path both have become formidable and busy players and composers.

Scea is currently the Director of Jazz Studies and Associate Director of the World Music Center at West Virginia University. He is heavily influenced by 60's avant-garde (Trane, Ayler, Shepp, Sanders et.al.) but is equally indebted to such players such as Anthony Braxton and Evan Parker. His flute playing shows him to be a direct descendant of the Eric Dolphy, Roland Kirk, Sam Rivers, James Newton line.

Grismore has been playing the guitar for over thirty years and has degrees from the Guitar Institute of Technology(Los Angeles) and his undergraduate and masters degrees from the University of Iowa.

Steve also has a long history jazz education in the state of Iowa. He has taught at several small colleges including Coe, Cornell, Central, Iowa Wesleyan and more. He was Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Iowa from 1990-93.

He has performed with numerous ensembles throughout the Midwest over the years including Johnson County Landmark(in his college days), the Rhythm Rockers, the Often Ensemble, Orquesta de Jazz y Salsa Alto Maiz, the Damon Short Band,the Grismore/Sizemore band, Odd Bar Trio + Trombone and many more.

He is co-founder and Music Director of the Iowa City Jazz Festival. The Jazz Fest is in its fourteenth year and has received national acclaim and has been recorded three separate times by National Public Radio for rebroadcast on Bradford Marsalis's show "Jazz Set".

Catch the music at the Artists' Quarter, 408 St. Peter near the corner of St. Peter and 7th Place in Saint Paul, MN on October 15th and 16th starting at 9:00 PM. (651) 292-1359