Who We Are
Our founder and owner, Don Sickler, is a well-known figure in the jazz world. He grew up in Spokane, Washington, but moved to New York after graduating from Gonzaga University to attend Manhattan School of Music, where he received a master's degree in trumpet performance. After several years in editorial and management positions with major music publishers, Don realized that they weren't taking jazz seriously. Don knew he had to leave the corporate world and become a jazz advocate and publisher. In 1978, Don founded Second Floor Music (BMI) and Twenty-Eighth Street Music (ASCAP), two full-service music publishing companies specializing exclusively in jazz. With these companies, Don was able to not only secure the copyrights of legendary jazz composers, but develop them further with arrangements and recordings. Don's talents as a producer, arranger, transcriber, educator and trumpeter have not gone unnoticed: his producing credits have earned five Grammy awards; the album "Monk On Monk" which he produced and arranged was selected as DownBeat's Album of the Year in 1998. He has been selected for many other honors, including putting together much of the music for several Mt. Fuji Jazz Festivals (Japan) in the late 1980s; music director and conductor for Verve's 50th Anniversary Carnegie Hall concert, TV special and CD release; serving as musical director for the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competitions for the Thelonious Monk Institute as well as associate producer for the acclaimed "Jazz Icons" DVD series. Don has also taught at Columbia University since 1986.
Maureen Sickler, Don's wife, directs the operations of Second Floor Music and jazzleadsheets.com. If you ever have an issue with your order, Maureen will be the first one to help you! She was legenday engineer Rudy Van Gelder's only assistant (Rudy is pictured with Maureen) and worked with him on releases for major artists and record labels, as well as on our own jazzleadsheets.com productions, for over 30 years.
Osho Endo is our music engraver. He's an expert in the music notation program Score, the premiere notation software. He is responsible for the clarity and beauty of our lead sheets. He also assists with website operations and accounting. Osho is a trumpeter and graduated from Manhattan School of Music.
Saxophonist Elijah Shiffer, with a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music, is essential to our operation, transcribing lead sheets and solos and even performing them for our cameras as well as writing descriptive notes.
We've been lucky to meet and come to know some very talented musicians who have helped with the growth of jazzleadsheets.com. We work with many of the top upcoming musicians in New York. Our piano transcriber is Glenn Zaleski, who has been described by the New York Times as having a "meticulously flowing sound." Evan Hughes, a much-sought after drummer in the Bay Area, runs our Drum Corner. Two bassists helped us with the early Bass Corner: Ben Rubens, a recent graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, and Dave Robaire, a 2012-2014 alumn of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance.
Many days our number is increased by students from Columbia University and nearby NYU and The New School, as word has gotten around that many valuable playing and learning experiences can be had here.
Our early years on 28th Street were documented by neighbor and friend Paul Barth, who has an interest in jazz and fortunately is an accomplished photographer. His images of drummer Philly Joe Jones, sax giant Hank Mobley and pianists Walter Davis, Jr. and Donald Brown, plus others, add depth to our musical community.
The first jazzleadsheets.com website was done by Ben Heller of Spruce Solutions. The current website is designed and developed by Kevin DeBernardi of Analog Lifestyle.
Thank you to the whole jazzleadsheets.com family, as well as to all our composers, the most important part of our team. We strive every day to bring their music to the attention of more musicians and listeners around the world.