Z Sharp Music
meet the team
Josh Zimmerman
Josh Zimmerman created Down Center to be a showcase for the insanely talented to tell their stories. Night after night, year after year, generations of theatre performers have given up their nights and weekends, performed for tiny crowds for tiny stipends, and honed their craft that they may tell other peoples stories more effectively, with greater skill and nuance. This is a chance for them to sing their own stories, surrounded by the people they love, backed up by an amazing group of artists, musicians, and technicians. Live in concert. In the moment. We are lucky to experience such moments! Please Like, Subscribe, add to Playlists, and consider joining our Patreon, where members receive exclusive releases and content. Your support is appreciated, and so very necessary for the continuation of the series! Please enjoy Down Center, and thank you for continuing to support live performance art.
JZ
Beth Rainey
Beth Rainey is a pianist, cellist and vocalist who loves funk and latin music. She has been in love with women singer/songwriters Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, Lauryn Hill, Janelle Monae, Esperanza Spalding, Norah Jones and Alicia Keys for most of her life. Her new loves include KeteKalles, Ozuna, Bomba Estereo, Chicano Batman and Jon Batiste. When not playing music she dives into Spanish language and cultural studies and dances salsa, zumba, shuffling and anything else full of high energy. She has been fortunate to collaborate with many talented artists through music directing and piano accompaniment work since high school in Spokane and Seattle, WA. Her favorite shows she’s played are In The Heights (2015), Big Fish (2017) and Beehive the Musical (2020). Looking forward to sharing more music and theater through all odds for as long as she is able!
Julee Felts
Julee is a classically-trained vocalist and jazz singer native to the Seattle area who just really only ever wants to play funk bass.
Pre-pandemic, she worked in Seattle as a freelance actress, choir section leader, and jazz musician. The last time she was on a real stage in front of a real human audience was at McCaw Hall in Verdi's Rigoletto with Seattle Opera. Previous onstage credits include Puccini's Madame Butterfly (Seattle Opera), Janáček's Katya Kabanova (Seattle Opera), and Legally Blonde the Musical (Twelfth Night). Bass/pit credits include A Charlie Brown Christmas (Taproot Theatre), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (ArtsWest), and Rocky Horror (BAT). She also plays classical bass in Cascade Symphony Orchestra under director Michael Miropolsky for what would have been her sixth year in 2020.
In the past year of quarantine, Julee grasped at the remaining tendrils of her sanity by buying two drum kits and proceeding to spend the summer of 2020 teaching herself how to play all the drum parts to most of the songs in Steely Dan's catalogue. Spending 3-6 hours a day at the drumset in her attic (much to her neighbors' chagrin), attempting to fill the giant shoes of legendary session drummers Bernard Purdie and Steve Gadd by copying their licks note for note, was almost enough to distract her each day from the ongoing global catastrophe. That, and carrying on one-sided conversations with her pet rabbit, Liza Bunnelli.
In addition to learning a bunch of Steely Dan drum covers, Julee spent several of her pandemic months recording, editing, mixing, and filming an aggressively low-tech multitrack using the microphone of an iPhone 8, an outdated version of Garageband on a borrowed 2008 Macbook, and a kitchen pantry lined with sound-dampening pillows from her bed. She played bass, drums, sang lead vocals and backup vocals, edited, mixed, and filmed it over the course of several months alone in her house, and feels like this was a suitable use of her time. You can find her guerrilla patchwork pandemic recording on YouTube. (Click Here)
And now, grateful to play music with folks all in the same room together, she hopes you enjoy the set!
Zac Stowell
Zac is a drummer who has played around the pacific northwest in musical theater pit orchestras and event bands for the last 10 years. He has played on stages all around Seattle and the surrounding area as well as weddings, galas, and private events. He's a big nerd who loves playing and tinkering with the drums all day long.
Currently, he is part of the instructional team for a web development bootcamp and he's planning to complete his move to Portland as soon as possible!
He also built this website and loves writing about himself in the third person. You can see more about him Here.
Enjoy the show!