Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. His pioneering works often abandoned the harmony-based composition, tonality, chord changes, and fixed rhythm found in earlier jazz idioms. Instead, Coleman emphasized an experimental approach to improvisation rooted in ensemble playing and blues phrasing. Thom Jurek of AllMusic called him "one of the most beloved and polarizing figures in jazz history," noting that while "now celebrated as a fearless innovator and a genius, he was initially regarded by peers and critics as rebellious, disruptive, and even a fraud."
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins is an American retired jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians.
Wayne Shorter was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary composer. In 1964 he joined Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet, and then co-founded the jazz fusion band Weather Report in 1970. He recorded more than 20 albums as a bandleader.
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.
David William Sanborn was an American alto saxophonist. Sanborn worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 11 and released his first solo album, Taking Off, in 1975. He was active as a session musician, and played on numerous albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Sting, the Eagles, Rickie Lee Jones, James Brown, George Benson, Carly Simon, Elton John, Bryan Ferry and the Rolling Stones. He released more than 20 albums and won six Grammy awards.
Eddie Harris was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-known compositions are "Freedom Jazz Dance", popularized by Miles Davis in 1966, and "Listen Here".
Joseph Salvatore Lovano is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. Though best known as a tenor saxophonist, Lovano has also recorded on alto clarinet, flute and drums, amongst other instruments. He has earned a Grammy Award and several mentions in Down Beat magazine's critics' & readers' polls. His wife is singer Judi Silvano, with whom he records and performs. Lovano was a longtime member of the late drummer Paul Motian‘s trio alongside guitarist Bill Frisell.
David Liebman is an American saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator. He is known for his innovative lines and use of atonality. He was a frequent collaborator with pianist Richie Beirach.
Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon. He is one of the few jazz oboists. He also plays bass clarinet, English horn, flute, penny whistle, tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone, and soprano saxophone.
Magnus Lindgren is a Swedish jazz musician. He studied at the Västerås Music College. He then attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, and began working with the Soul Enterprise. He began playing with Herbie Hancock aged 18, and formed his quartet in 1997. He has also worked with James Ingram, Koop, Barbara Hendricks, Gregory Porter, Till Brönner, Nicola Conte, Marie Fredriksson, Ivan Lins and David Foster. In 2001, Lindgren was voted the best Swedish jazz artist of the year by the Fasching jazz club in Stockholm. He has received a number of awards, including a Grammis award in 2001, and the Arne Domnérus Prize.
Jasper van 't Hof is a Dutch jazz pianist and keyboard player.
Günter Lenz is a German jazz bassist and composer.
Michael Wollny is a German jazz pianist and a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. He has played with international musicians including Joachim Kühn, Tamar Halperin, Marius Neset, Andreas Schaerer, Émile Parisien and Vincent Peirani, and recorded award-winning albums. In his Michael Wollny Trio, he has played with percussionist Eric Schaefer and bassist Tim Lefebvre.
The Deutsche Jazzpreis, also known as the Albert Mangelsdorff-Preis, is, together with the Hans Koller Preis, the most important jazz award in the German-speaking region. Since 1994, it has been awarded every two years by the Union Deutscher Jazzmusiker.
Steffen Schorn is a German jazz musician. He is one of the most outstanding musicians and composers of German jazz and contemporary music. He is also the director of jazz department of Nürnberger Musikhochschule.
Joe Haider is a German pianist and jazz educator.
Sebastian Gramss is a German double bassist, cellist, and composer of jazz and contemporary music. He received the Echo award for double bass in 2013 and 2018.
Julia Hülsmann is a German jazz pianist and composer. Her compositions are often based on literary works, especially poetry.
WDR Big Band is the jazz big band of German public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne, Germany.
Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, often called Luten Petrowsky, was a German jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, flautist, composer and author. He is considered the father of free jazz in East Germany (GDR). He was one of few jazz musicians permitted to play in the West already in the 1960s. Petrowsky played in the 1973 quartet recording Just for fun, the first of jazz musicians from both East and West. He took part in more than a hundred recordings between 1963 and 2016, with groups such as Synopsis and Zentralquartett, and with his singer wife, Uschi Brüning.
