John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality have made him an enduring icon.
Dionisio Jesús Valdés Rodríguez, better known as Chucho, is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger whose career spans over 50 years. An original member of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, in 1973 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands.
GRP® Records is a jazz record label founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen in 1978. Distributed by Verve Records, GRP® was originally known for its digital recordings that focuses on its jazz genre.
Giovanni Hidalgo a.k.a. "Mañenguito" is a Latin jazz percussionist.
Douglas Purviance is a jazz trombonist. He began his professional career as a member of the Stan Kenton Orchestra, playing bass trombone and tuba from 1975 to 1977. Mostly, he works as a studio session bass trombonist and is not known for improvising.
Francisco de Jesús Rivera Figueras, known as Paquito D'Rivera, is a Cuban-American alto saxophonist, clarinetist and composer. He was a member of the Cuban songo band Irakere and, since the 1980s, he has established himself as a bandleader in the United States. His smooth saxophone tone and his frequent combination of Latin jazz and classical music have become his trademarks.
Alberto Naranjo [nah-rahn'-ho] was a Venezuelan musician. His mother, the singer Graciela Naranjo, was a radio, film and television pioneer in her homeland. Largely self-taught, Naranjo embarked on a similar musical course, becoming – like his mother – one of Venezuela's icons of contemporary popular music.
Randal Edward Brecker is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B.
Irakere is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés in 1973. They won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording in 1980 with their album Irakere. Irakere were innovative in both Afro-Cuban jazz and Cuban popular dance music. The group used a wide array of percussion instruments like batá, abakuá and arará drums, chequerés, erikundis, maracas, claves, cencerros, bongó, tumbadoras (congas), and güiro.
David Sánchez is a Grammy-winning jazz tenor saxophonist from Puerto Rico.
Wayne Bergeron is an American trumpeter.
Mario Rivera was a Latin jazz saxophonist from the Dominican Republic. Besides saxophone, Rivera played trumpet, flute, piano, vibraphone, congas, and drums.
The GRP All-Star Big Band was a contemporary big band assembled in the late 1980s by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen, the founders of GRP Records. The band played new arrangements of popular jazz pieces from the 1950s and 1960s.
Hilario Durán is a Cuban-Canadian jazz pianist.
Roger O'Neal Ingram is a jazz trumpeter, educator, author, and instrument designer. He played trumpet for the orchestras of Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, Wynton Marsalis, Ray Charles, and Harry Connick Jr.
Michael Philip Mossman is an American jazz trumpeter.
To a Finland Station is an album by trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandoval recorded in 1982 and released on the Pablo label. Dizzy visited Finland 1982 to do a concert with the Finnish Studio Orchestra. By coincidence a Cuban group, led by Arturo Sandoval, was also appearing in Helsinki. Predictably, Dizzy got together with Arturo and in one all-night session that extended into the next morning, recorded this album
Live at the Royal Festival Hall is an album by Dizzy Gillespie and the United Nation Orchestra. It won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1991. The concert was also released on DVD.
Juan Pablo Torres Morell was a Cuban trombonist, bandleader, arranger and producer. He was the director of Algo Nuevo and a member of Irakere, two of the leading exponents of songo and Afro-Cuban jazz in the 1970s and 1980s. He has also directed various Cuban supergroups such as Estrellas de Areito and Cuban Masters. He has been called "one of the best trombone players in the Latin-jazz community of the 1990s".
