Jazz pianist and composer Tim Chernikoff has been making his mark in the New York jazz scene with a style that has stood out to musicians and listeners alike. His approach to music has been to find his own musical identity through dialogue with the jazz traditions of bebop and swing while exploring personal connections to the music, through a process of purposeful discovery on the piano and composition. Described by jazz performer Dan Haerle as “extremely inventive in his Composition and Improvisation”, his works expand upon the progressive pallet of jazz to express ideas and personal revelations, and their artistic sparks are further illuminated through his collaborative ventures.
     In his budding career, the up-and-coming artist has had experiences across the US performing with world class musicians— in the Bay Area California, Dallas Fort Worth Texas, and New York City.  Educated in the West Coast (Stanford Jazz Workshop), Southwest (North Texas) and East Coast (Manhattan School of Music) regions of the United States, Chernikoff has had a diversity of educational and professional experiences. 
     As a composer, Chernikoff draws influence from a range of  influences from Maurice Ravel and Thelonious Monk to Cecil Taylor and Frank Zappa, Chernikoff appeals to every attitude and emotion that crosses his field of view, with material ranging from wistful and elegant to angry, disillusioned and even crass.  The resulting work in his trio work presents an adventurous musical climate that promises to douse the listener in splashes of catharsis and rumination.            About his compositional style he says “if I didn’t appeal to the quiet serenity and bombastic crassness that I observed in my daily life, then I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.”
     Off the wake of his 2021 Debut release “Pieces of Sanity”, Chernikoff is working towards a new album to be release in late 2025, and will be premiering works in progress at his shows in 2025.

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Todd Tate is a seasoned SF Bay Area musician, audio engineer and producer whose credits include a Grammy nominated recording (audio engineering). You can find his work under Sayla Dobro and Life Love Misery on all digital services.

Enigmatic doesn’t even begin to describe Sayla Dobro’s presence. Consisting of guitarist and vocalist Todd Tate alongside drummer Daniel Guaqueta, Sayla Dobro was brewed up in the Bay Area, between Marin and San Francisco. Originally created as a stage name for Tate’s persona in a now defunct Marin bar-hopping band, "The Deep Sounds of Bobby Peru", Sayla Dobro has since evolved into a much more complex and mature getup.

The band really kicked off after Tate saw dobro guitar virtuoso Jerry Douglas play live - he instantly went out and bought a dobro guitar and starting writing and recording immediately. Now part of his namesake, Sayla Dobro is characterized by Tate’s customized Regal RD-35 square neck dobro. Enter Colombian-raised, Mississippi-born multi-instrumentalist Daniel Guaqueta. The drummer and Tate came together through mutual friend Michael Starita, President of the San Francisco area Grammy chapter. Starita mixed the first two Sayla Dobro singles, “The Way You Move” and “J-Train”. During this time, he introduced Guaqueta and Tate and the rest was history.

Sayla Dobro’s songs hearken seasoned folk-rockers like Beck and Calexico, thoughtfully self-produced and rough around the edges. It’s no surprise that Sayla Dobro has been able to capture such a potent essence - the band’s frontman and lead songwriter Todd Tate’s industry experience runs deep. In the mid-nineties Tate’s main focus was audio engineering at The Blue Room Studios, working on Grammy nominated Latin jazz with Carlos “Patato” Sanchez, and with popular rock artists like Train. On the brink of the millennium, Tate ditched full-time engineering and went to the other side of the glass to focus on making his own music. He made a rock record with a new group Life Love Misery (members of The Starship and Cacophony).

Meanwhile, Guaqueta has a rich musical background of his own. He’s written and released music with artists including Questions in Dialect, Buddy & The Squids, Mainframe Theory, and Storage 24. He’s collaborated directly with Roy Mitchell-Cardenas (of Mutemath) and Mississippi rapper Kamikaze. His diverse background runs further; Guaqueta’s visual artwork has earned honors for his music videos, including the Telly Award, the Addy Award, and the Ruma Award at Crossroads Film Festival.

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