Rhode Island, a state of the United States in the New England region, is known for a diverse and thriving music scene.
Ellery Eskelin is an American tenor saxophonist raised in Baltimore, Maryland and residing in New York City. His parents, Rodd Keith and Bobbie Lee, were both professional musicians. Rodd Keith died in 1974 in Los Angeles, California, and became a cult figure after his death in the little-known field of "song-poem" music. Organist Bobbie Lee performed in local nightclubs in Baltimore in the early 1960s and provided Eskelin an introduction to standards from the Great American Songbook as well as inspiring an early interest in jazz music.
Peter Evans is an improvising trumpeter who specializes in free improvisation and avant-garde music.
Dennis González, often credited Dennis Gonzalez, was an American jazz trumpeter, artist, and educator from Texas. He hosted Miles Out on KERA-FM for over twenty years.
Gerald Cleaver is a jazz drummer from Detroit, Michigan.
Sylvie Courvoisier is a composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 and was named Pianist of the Year for 2023 in the international critics poll of Spanish jazz publication El Intruso. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead has encapsulated the distinctive character of Courvoisier’s art this way: “Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier treats it like a playground.”
Kevin Norton is an American percussionist and composer active in the New York City jazz and contemporary music scenes. He has performed and recorded with a diverse group of musicians, including Anthony Braxton, Paul Dunmall, Milt Hinton, Fred Frith, David Krakauer, Joëlle Léandre, Frode Gjerstad, Wilber Morris, James Emery, Bern Nix, and many others. In 1999, he founded Barking Hoop Recordings, a record label dedicated to releasing new and original music. Kevin Norton has also spent summers at camp Encore/Coda in Maine teaching music theory classes and private percussion classes. The label has released 11 CDs to date, which feature Norton's own groups as well as artists such as Anthony Braxton, Kevin O'Neil, Billy Stein, and the String Trio of New York.
Ken Filiano is an American jazz and orchestral bassist based in Brooklyn, New York.
Roy Jay Nathanson is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and teacher. He became the leader and principal composer of the Jazz Passengers, a six piece group that he founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. They have toured Europe many times and played at major festivals in Finland, Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland, as well as the J.V.C. Festival in New York, the Du Maurier Festival in Canada and toured throughout the United States and Canada. The band has recorded eight albums since their debut release.
Nasheet Waits is an American jazz drummer.
Eivind Opsvik is a Norwegian jazz musician and composer, the son of the Norwegian interior and furniture designer Peter Opsvik.
Sounds is an album by American jazz saxophonist Rob Brown recorded in 2006 and released on the Portuguese Clean Feed label. Instead of the conventional sax-bass-drums trio, it features an alternative combination with Brown on alto sax, Daniel Levin on cello and Japanese Satoshi Takeishi on a percussion set completed with taiko drums.
We Are Not Obstinate Islands is an album by The Diplomats, a collective trio consisting of saxophonist Rob Brown, trombonist Steve Swell and drummer Harris Eisenstadt. It was recorded live in Rochester, New York in 2004 and released on the Portuguese Clean Feed label. Swell played previously on Brown's album Radiant Pools.
Beautiful Existence is an album by American jazz guitarist Joe Morris, which was recorded in 2004 and released on the Portuguese Clean Feed label. He leads a new quartet consisting of the trio with whom he recorded Age of Everything with the addition of alto saxophonist Jim Hobbs.
Paradoxical Frog is the eponymous debut album by a collective trio consisting of Kris Davis on piano, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor sax and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. It was recorded in 2009 and released on the Portuguese Clean Feed label.
Kaja Draksler is a Slovenian pianist and composer.
Christian Lillinger is a German drummer, composer and percussionist. He was born in Lübben, grew up in the German village of Kuschkow, and has been living in Berlin since 2003 working as a musician and composer. Christian has performed in concerts and at festivals in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the US. He has played with Joachim Kühn, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Beat Furrer, Miroslav Vitouš, Dave Liebman, Wadada Leo Smith, William Parker, Evan Parker, Louis Sclavis, Joe Lovano, Peter Brötzmann and Tony Malaby.
Michael Blake is a Canadian-American saxophonist, composer and arranger. Blake is based in New York City where he has led a robust career leading his own bands. As a sideman Michael has performed with Charlie Hunter, The Lounge Lizards, Steven Bernstein, Ben Allison and Ray LaMontagne. The New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff wrote,"Mr. Blake, on tenor especially, is an endlessly engaging improviser, and an inquisitive one".
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.
Samo Šalamon is a Slovenian jazz composer, guitarist, and bandleader. He has performed on over 35 releases and is credited with over 300 compositions.
