François Gilbert Léopold Silly, known professionally as Gilbert Bécaud, was a French singer, composer, pianist and actor, known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are "Nathalie" and "Et maintenant", a 1961 release that became an English language hit as "What Now My Love". He remained a popular artist for nearly fifty years, identifiable in his dark blue suits, with a white shirt and "lucky tie"; blue with white polka dots. When asked to explain his gift he said, "A flower doesn't understand botany." His favourite venue was the Paris Olympia under the management of Bruno Coquatrix. He debuted there in 1954 and headlined in 1955, attracting 6,000 on his first night, three times the capacity. On 13 November 1997, Bécaud was present for the re-opening of the venue after its reconstruction.
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards.
Richard Galliano is a French accordionist of Italian heritage.
Enrico Rava, is an Italian jazz trumpeter. He started on trombone, then changed to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis.
Marc Alan Johnson is an American jazz bass player, composer and band leader. Johnson was born in Nebraska and grew up in Texas. He is married to the Brazilian jazz pianist and singer Eliane Elias.
Larry Grenadier is an American jazz double bassist.
Stefano Battaglia is an Italian classical and jazz pianist, as well as a soloist and bandleader. He has played more than 3000 concerts as an improviser in many important festivals and international appointments over the world. He has also recorded more than 100 CDs and received many awards for his solo piano and trio recordings. He is currently working on an anthology of recordings called the Book of Jazz.
Gabriele Mirabassi is an Italian jazz clarinetist.
Enrico Pieranunzi is an Italian jazz pianist. He combines classical technique with jazz.
Huw Warren is a Welsh jazz pianist and composer whose work crosses several genres. He is known as co-leader and founder of the jazz quartet Perfect Houseplants.
Leon Parker is a jazz percussionist and composer. He is known for occasionally using a minimalist drum set with fewer components than usual, "sometimes consisting only of a snare drum, bass drum and a cymbal."
René Urtreger is a French bebop pianist.
Stéphane Belmondo is a French jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, and drummer. Including recordings made with his brother Lionel Belmondo and Yusef Lateef, he won the best French album category (L'Album français de l'année) in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the best artist award (L'Artiste ou la Formation instrumentale française de l'année) in 2003 and 2004. in the French Victoires du Jazz awards. Along with his brother, he is noted for tribute albums that involve the musicians being honored.
Tiziano Maggiolini is an Italian former professional footballer. Maggiolini spent most of his career at the third highest division.
Eric Ineke is a Dutch jazz drummer who started his career in the 1960s. After a few years of lessons of John Engels, he gained his first experience as a jazzdrummer with singer Henny Vonk and tenorsaxophonist Ferdinand Povel. Thanks to Pim Jacobs, Ruud Jacobs, Wim Overgaauw, Rita Reys and Piet Noordijk, Eric became well known in the jazz scene. In 1969 he made his first record with tenor saxophonist Ferdinand Povel and through the years he has played with the Rob Agerbeek Quintet and trio, the Rein de Graaff/Dick Vennik Quartet, the Ben van den Dungen/Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet and the Piet Noordijk Quartet. During his career he has also played with numerous international, mainly American soloists like Hank Mobley, Phil Woods, Lucky Thompson, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, George Coleman, Shirley Horn, Dizzy Gillespie, Al Cohn, Grant Stewart, Jimmy Raney, Barry Harris, Eric Alexander and Dave Liebman, recorded numerous CD's and appeared at many national and international jazz festivals. For more than 40 years he has been the drummer of the Rein de Graaff Trio and since 2006 has led the Eric Ineke JazzXpress, a quintet in the hard-bop tradition. With this quintet, Ineke got invited in 2011 by the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City with jazz singer Deborah Brown where they did a few performances, including one on Kansas Public Radio and a CD recording produced by Bobby Watson. In October 2016, the JazzXpress presented its latest album Dexternity on the Dutch television in "Vrije Geluiden" of the VPRO.
Éric Legnini is a Belgian jazz pianist and bandleader of the Éric Legnini Trio.
Flavio Boltro is an Italian trumpet and flugelhorn jazz player.
Yuri Goloubev is a jazz musician, composer and double bass player. He switched to jazz in 2004 after over a dozen years as a bass player in classical orchestras, and has achieved success in jazz also as a performer with "perfect pitch, flawless execution and an improviser's imagination". He is also praised for his arco playing. Ian Patterson, writing in All About Jazz wrote "There are few better exponents of arco, and his tone has the warm resonance of a cello."
CAM Jazz is an Italian jazz record label founded in 2000. It is part of group that also manages the labels CAM Jazz Presents, Black Saint/Soul Note, and DDQ. The label's musicians have received several Grammy Award nominations.
Kiyoshi Kitagawa is a Japanese-American jazz double-bassist.
