All That Jazz
Music-Minded Teens Have Smokin’ Chops
Story and photos by Kerrie Houston Reightley
The seven-piece student jazz band, The Flamingos, a splinter group of the Bainbridge High School jazz program, is the veritable embodiment of modern-day “cool cats.”
Formed in December 2025, The Flamingos feature Cascade Kaseler on alto saxophone, Andrew Domansky on bass, Quintan Faust on drums, Jack Zyskowski on guitar, Sophia Saleh on piano, Lauren Blakemore on tenor saxophone and Stella Saleh on trumpet. The band’s name was the brainchild of Faust, who thought the locally famed plastic flamingos set on the roundabout on High School Road—put up by high schoolers, and then taken down again and again by the City of Bainbridge Island—were “kind of like [playful] civic rebellion, and we thought it represented us well.”
The bandmembers are pleasantly surprised by their success.
“I [advertised] our phone number and email address, but didn’t think anyone would call,” Saleh said. “And then it really took off!” So far, they’ve performed at the Historic Lynwood Theatre, Wing Point Golf & Country Club, Stan Pocock Rowing Center and other venues.
The bandmembers are pleasantly surprised by their success. “I [advertised] our phone number and email address, but didn’t think anyone would call,” Saleh said. “And then it really took off!” So far, they’ve performed at the Historic Lynwood Theatre, Wing Point Golf & Country Club, Stan Pocock Rowing Center and other venues.
The players have eclectic musical backgrounds, with influences including musician parents, summer jazz camps, instrumental competitions, jams with local bands and the video game Guitar Hero.
Their dreams? “We aspire to work with the jazz radio station KNKX and their School of Jazz program,” Saleh said. “We would love to record at their studio and also expand our performances to bigger venues. Our hope is to record some of our signature songs to capture the time we spent together, and maybe put up a few on Spotify.”
