John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a distinctive sound.
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, and then co-founded the jazz fusion band Weather Report. He has recorded over 20 albums as a bandleader.
Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz. In a career lasting over 80 years, he has played swing, bebop, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz and is considered a pioneer of jazz drumming. "Snap Crackle" was a nickname given to him in the 1950s.
DownBeat is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. It is named after the "downbeat" in music, also called "beat one", or the first beat of a musical measure.
Roy Anthony Hargrove was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved worldwide acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles of jazz in 1998 and in 2002. Hargrove primarily played in the hard bop style for the majority of his albums, but also had a penchant for genre-crossing exploration and collaboration with a variety of hip hop, soul, R&B and alternative rock artists. As Hargrove told one reporter, “I’ve been around all kinds of musicians, and if a cat can play, a cat can play. If it’s gospel, funk, R&B, jazz or hip-hop, if it’s something that gets in your ear and it’s good, that’s what matters.”
Susie Ibarra is a contemporary composer and percussionist who has worked and recorded with jazz, classical, world, and indigenous musicians. One of SPIN's "100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music," she is known for her work as a performer in avant-garde, jazz, world, and new music. As a composer, Ibarra incorporates diverse styles and the influences of Philippine Kulintang, jazz, classical, poetry, musical theater, opera, and electronic music. Ibarra remains active as a composer, performer, educator, and documentary filmmaker in the U.S., Philippines, and internationally. She is interested and involved in works that blend folkloric and indigenous tradition with avant-garde. In 2004, Ibarra began field recording indigenous Philippine music, and in 2009 she co-founded Song of the Bird King, an organization focusing on the preservation of Indigenous music and ecology.
Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.
Vijay Iyer is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer and writer based in New York City. The New York Times has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway". Iyer received a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Grammy nomination, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. He was voted Jazz Artist of the Year in the DownBeat magazine international critics' polls in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2018. In 2014, he received a lifetime appointment as the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, where he was jointly appointed in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies.
Robert Broom Jr. is an American jazz guitarist, composer, and educator. He was born and raised in New York City, then moved to Chicago, which has been his home town since 1984. He performs and records with The Bobby Broom Trio and his organ group, The Bobby Broom Organi-Sation. While versed in the traditional jazz idioms, Broom draws from a variety of American music forms, such as funk, soul, R&B, and blues.
Luis Diego Bonilla is an American jazz trombonist of Costa Rican descent. He is also a producer, composer, and educator.
Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller and Lionel Loueke.
Nicole Mitchell is an American jazz flautist and composer who teaches jazz at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a former chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental ensemble led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalists, League described Snarky Puppy as "a pop band that improvises a lot, without vocals".
Noah Preminger is an American jazz saxophonist.
Michael Blum is an American record producer, singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 2020, he was named an inaugural recipient of ASCAP's Peggy Lee Songwriter Award, and he was named the "Rising Star" guitarist in the 63rd Annual Critics Poll in DownBeat magazine.
Matthew Stevens is a Canadian jazz guitarist and composer.
Samuel Blaser is a Swiss trombonist and composer.
Dezron Lamont Douglas is an American jazz double bassist, composer, and producer. He has produced Louis Hayes, and Brandee Younger.
Michael Blake is a Canadian-born American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Over the course of his career he formed the bands Blake Tartare, Hellbent, Mr Carefree, Elevated Quartet, The Eulipion Orchestra, The Variety Hour, Red Hook Soul, Blake & Brass XL, Chroma Nova and co-lead the groups Made in China and Slow Poke. As a sideman Michael has performed with Charlie Hunter, The Lounge Lizards, Steven Bernstein/Henry Butler and the Hot 9, Ben Allison, Nicole Mitchell, Hamid Drake, Oliver Lake Big Band, Dafnis Prieto Big Band, Ricki Lee Jones and Ray LaMontagne.
Brian Charette is a jazz pianist, Hammond organist, and electronic music producer. He took 1st place in the 2014 "Downbeat Magazine Critic's Poll Rising Star: Organ" category and "Fan's Decision Jazz Award for Best Organist 2015" in Hot House Magazine. Charette has recorded and performed with music artists such as George Coleman, Oz Noy, Jaimoe, Michael McDonald and Cyndi Lauper.
