John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for his unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and for his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a distinctive sound.
Melbourne Robert Cranshaw was an American jazz bassist. His career spanned the heyday of Blue Note Records to his later involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins. Cranshaw performed in Rollins's working band on and off for over five decades, starting with a live appearance at the 1959 Playboy jazz festival in Chicago and on record with the 1962 album The Bridge.
Idris Muhammad was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He had an extensive career performing jazz, funk, R&B, and soul music and recorded with musicians such as Ahmad Jamal, Lou Donaldson, Pharoah Sanders, Bob James, and Tete Montoliu.
Eric Alexander is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator. Having placed second at the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition behind Joshua Redman and ahead of Chris Potter and Tim Warfield, he was soon signed by a record label and has since recorded over 20 albums as a leader and over 300 as a sideman.
Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.
An organ trio is a form of jazz ensemble consisting of three musicians; a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player. In some cases the saxophonist will join a trio which consists of an organist, guitarist, and drummer, making it a quartet. Organ trios were a popular type of jazz ensemble for club and bar settings in the 1950s and 1960s, performing a blues-based style of jazz that incorporated elements of R&B. The organ trio format was characterized by long improvised solos and an exploration of different musical "moods".
James Robert Rotondi was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator, and conductor.
The Deep Blue Organ Trio was an American, Chicago based jazz organ trio, made up of jazz guitarist Bobby Broom, Hammond B3 organist Chris Foreman and drummer Greg Rockingham. In their individual careers they have performed and recorded with many prominent musicians in the field of jazz and blues. The group disbanded in 2013 after opening for a few Steely Dan summer tours.
John Ore was an American jazz bassist.
Nicole Mitchell is an American jazz flautist and composer who teaches jazz at the University of Virginia. She is a former chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Peter Andrew Bernstein is an American jazz guitarist.
Joseph Allen Farnsworth is an American jazz drummer.
Dana Hall is an American jazz drummer, percussionist, composer, bandleader, and ethnomusicologist. After spending the first few years of his life in Brooklyn, New York, he relocated with his family to his mother's hometown of Philadelphia. There, Hall was exposed to jazz and soul music at an early age through the recordings of his mother Diane, his uncle Earl Harris, and his large extended family. His family's interest in creative music, and their “open door” policy toward Philadelphia jazz musicians of the era sparked Hall's curiosity, passion and ultimately career in music.
Jerry González was an American bandleader, trumpeter and percussionist of Puerto Rican descent. Together with his brother, bassist Andy González, Jerry Gonzalez played an important role in the development of Latin Jazz during the late 20th century. During the 1970s, both brothers played alongside Eddie Palmieri and in Manny Oquendo's Conjunto Libre, and from 1980 to 2018 they directed The Fort Apache Band. From 2000 to 2018, Jerry González resided in Madrid, where he fronted Los Piratas del Flamenco and El Comando de la Clave. In October 2018, he died of a heart attack after a fire in his home in Madrid.
Stuart Broomer is a Canadian editor, music critic, pianist, writer, jazz historian, and composer. He is a former editor with CODA magazine and currently works as an editor at Coach House Books. As a music critic he has written articles for Amazon.com, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Life, Down Beat, Musicworks, Cadence Magazine, ParisTransatlantlic and Signal to Noise. He has also authored more than 60 liner essays for musicians internationally. His book Time and Anthony Braxton (ISBN 978-1551281445) was published by The Mercury Press in 2009. He is a member of the music faculty at George Brown College.
Ben Paterson is an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and Steinway Artist.
The Bobby Broom Organi-Sation is a Chicago based jazz organ trio composed of jazz guitarist Bobby Broom, Hammond B3 organist Ben Paterson and drummer Kobie Watkins. Broom is a 2015 DownBeat Readers Poll and multi-year Critics Poll honoree for his work as one of the top jazz guitarists in the world, McCraven and Watkins also perform with Broom's main group, The Bobby Broom Trio.
Kobie Watkins is an American drummer and percussionist in Jazz, Latin, and Gospel music genres, and a music educator.
The Bobby Broom Trio is an American jazz trio based in Chicago, Illinois, that was founded by guitarist Bobby Broom in 1992. The group began under the name, Bobby Broom and the Big Deal Trio, and included then-electric bassist Dennis Carroll and drummer, George Fludas. They held a weekly, Sunday-night engagement for two to three years at a club called The Underground Wonderbar.
Chad Taylor is an American drummer, percussionist, and composer. Taylor leads both the Chad Taylor Trio with Brian Settles and Neil Podgurski and Circle Down with Angelica Sanchez and Chris Lightcap. He is a founding member of the Chicago Underground along with Jeff Parker and Rob Mazurek. In 2024, he was selected to lead the University of Pittsburgh's Jazz Studies Program while holding the university's William S. Dietrich II Endowed Chair in Jazz Studies.
