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Welcome to the Bio page, for a condensed account of Jeff's career. Jeffrey Alan Tassin, like many other 60’s dreamers, began singing and writing music at age twelve during the 1965 Beatles craze. But his fascination with instruments had begun well before that. His father, Harold Tassin, had become acquainted with the guitar during the 50’s and is a dedicated audiophile to this day. Jeff’s Mother, Margaret, also played the piano. These talents bled over into all five Tassin children in some way or other. Inevitably, both Parents contributed musically to some of Jeff’s first music recordings. Harold seemed always to be experimenting with some kind of audio equipment. During Jeff's teen years his parent’s living room transformed into a recording studio and did not return to normal till he and his older brother Rick were long gone from the house. Needless to say, his folks were very supportive. Through the sixties and seventies Jeff and brother Rick, a talented drummer/songwriter himself, developed their talents alongside a flock of local musicians in bands such as The Holidaze (correct spelling) Page Five, The Poor Souls, The Chimes of Freedom. In 1967, during Jeff's sophomore year of high school, at age sixteen, his then current band, The Spindle had begun recording in the Tassin front room studio and pitching the songs to record companies. Those recordings landed them the first artist contract with Jerden Records in Seattle, along with acts such as ‘The Bards’, Jeff Afton and the Springfield Flute’ and George Washington and the Cherry Bombs. The group enjoyed the success of a couple of single releases, most notably with a song called, ‘Little Lies’, written by Jeff, John Carter and Tom Wilson. These original recordings have been recently been released as part of the collection of the History of Northwest Rock, Volume 3. The seventies were full stories of the road, with a procession of gigs through every front room, bar, stadium or strip club they could find. During these years Alaska proved to be a profitable avenue for making more money in less time. Alaska was truly the last frontier. With that six hour, six day a week schedule, a musician could make enough money in three months to last the rest of the year and log enough road stories to last the rest of your life.o:p> Through the mid to late 70’s Rick and Jeff formed a band called, ‘Jarat’, consisting of Jeff, Rick and Tom Cox, a talented guitar, bass player, vocalist and writer. Jarat enjoyed much local success, rising to the top of the Seattle circuit during their first year. On the shoulders of this success, the band was able to arrange showcase gigs in Los Angeles in clubs like the Whiskey and the Troubadour. They also managed to sneak onto the studio musician roster at A&M Studios in Hollywood. Jeff was adopted by Steve Diamond and the Midnight Band as a regular there at The Troubadour on Monday nights. As a band, Jarat caught the ear of the folks at ABC Dunhill and were signed to an artist contract. But Jeff soon became dissatisfied with the image they were forced to adopt. It was much more of a harder rock image than he was comfortable with. By that time, Jeff had begun to incorporate the influence of tunesmiths such as Ron Davies, Tim Hardin and Joni Mitchell and players like Jimi Hendrix, Joco Pastorious and Charlie Bird. He had begun writing a broader palate of material in styles which tended to be overlooked there at ABC Dunhill. So Jeff packed up his acoustic guitar and headed back to Alaska, embarking on his first solo gig, in an effort to perfect his writing skills. Jeff spent the better part of nine years in Alaska, wintering in the Yukon a few times, gathering experiences that could never really be forgotten. He intermittently returned to Los Angeles and then pressed on to Nashville as his studio chops and song catalog matured. He moved to Nashville in 1979 and slept in his car for several months, until he got signed as a staff writer to Tree Publishing, at that time the largest publishing house in Nashville.. Jeff published his first song, “'Movin’, I Might Decide to Stay” through Little Chickadee Publishing. The song is now owned by Warner-Chapel and is still paying royalties as it has become somewhat of an underground bluegrass standard in Europe. While struggling to be seen in Nashville he logged many road miles with various Nashville luminaries, touring with, or recording with the likes of, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Pardon, Jerry-Jeff Walker, Joni Mitchell, The Oak Ridge Boys, Statler Brothers, Gail Davies, Charlie Daniels, Ronnie Milsap, Delbert McClinton and Bonnie Bramlett. He was able to mix it up with world renown session players such as Leeland Sklar, Albert Lee, Billy Pain, Michael Baird, Max Bennet, Buddy Spiker and Terry Macmillan. He split a few road gigs with musicians who may not so easily be brought to mind, though they are some of his favorite songwriters and players, like Kevin Welsh, Walker Iglheart (Bangles), Michael Peterson and Paulette 'Polly' Carlson of Hiway 101. As beautiful a country that Tennessee is, it was not the country Jeff preferred.
In Jeff’s words, “With chiggers in the grass, ticks in the trees and the extreme weather… you can’t really use any of it.”
Having settled in his home area by the mid-eighties, Jeff began writing scores for KCTS channel 9, PBS features and sound track work. He has garnered three Emmy's for music composition and other distinctions for his work in television and with independent producers. He is currently producing local talent while returning to Nashville and Los Angeles on occasion to play guitar for various projects, such as the Ron Davies Tribute album at Curb Studios in Nashville.. Ron Davies, raised in Port Orchard, was a close friend of Jeff’s. Ron was an unusually gifted poet and songwriter who died October 2003. Some of the worlds greatest writers, singers, performers and producers gathered to pay Ron the kind of respect he would have appreciated most... they sang, played and produced Ron's songs. Jeff was invited to play Ron’s guitar parts, a guitar style known intimately by only those few who persist in unraveling Ron's intricate constructs. In those sessions, Jeff used a guitar which he talked Ron out of years earlier, a deep throated, light weight, Delgoto Brothers flamenco. Currently, Jeff writes and produces his own material whenever he finds a gap between writing TV scores and producing other artists. He also has recently finished the score to the PBS documentary Generation 9, which airs February 15th 2007 and again throughout the season.
As a result of fans of the Ajak Articles series, Jeff is currently developing the series for release soon. We’ll keep this site posted on that. In addition we’ll keep adding newly finished material to this site, so you may want to drop by occasionally to see how it’s growing. Check the gig page occasionally so you can drop by the gigs and keep Jeff company.
"I greatly appreciate your interest and your ears, without them… I’d have to get a strait gig.” -Thanks again! Jeff Tassin.
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