Anthony Braxton is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and was a key early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He received great acclaim for his 1969 double-LP record For Alto, the first full-length album of solo saxophone music.
Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator. His career includes more than fifty recordings as a leader and more than 500 published compositions. His ensembles include the Dave Douglas Quintet; Sound Prints, a quintet co-led with saxophonist Joe Lovano; Uplift, a sextet with bassist Bill Laswell; Present Joys with pianist Uri Caine and Andrew Cyrille; High Risk, an electronic ensemble with Shigeto, Jonathan Aaron, and Ian Chang; and Engage, a sextet with Jeff Parker, Tomeka Reid, Anna Webber, Nick Dunston, and Kate Gentile.
Marissa Nadler is an American singer-songwriter. Active since 2000, she is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union, and released her ninth full-length studio album, The Path of the Clouds, in October 2021. Her music has been characterized as blending "traditional folk, Gothic Americana, and dreamy pop into an original musical framework". Her music "is rooted in old-school country and folk but brings in elements of experimental and black metal". Sometimes the term "dream folk" has been invoked to describe her work.
Vinny Golia is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation.
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.
Michael Formanek is an American jazz bassist born in San Francisco, California, United States, and associated with the jazz scene in New York.
Maya Beiser is an American musician, cellist, performing artist and producer who lives in New York City. Beiser was raised on a kibbutz in Israel by her French mother and Argentine father, and graduated from Yale University School of Music. She has been described by the Boston Globe as "a force of nature", "a cello goddess" by The New Yorker and "the reigning queen of the avant-garde cello" by The Washington Post. Beiser is a 2015 United States Artists Distinguished Music Fellow and the Inaugural Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology.
Kit Downes is a British BBC Jazz Award winning, Mercury Music Award nominated, solo recording artist for ECM Records.
Benedict Taylor is a British avant-garde violist, violinist and composer.
Helena Espvall is a Swedish–American musician noted for her participation in the post-millennial psychedelic folk and free improv scenes. Her primary instruments are cello, guitar and voice.
Tomeka Reid is an American composer, improviser, cellist, curator, and teacher.
Darius Jones is an American saxophonist, composer, and professor of African-American music.
Skysaw was an American alternative rock band featuring The Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin along with multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/songwriter Mike Reina and guitarist Anthony Pirog.
Aisha Burns is an American singer-songwriter and violinist. She is a member of the instrumental ensemble Balmorhea, and has toured and recorded with Adam Torres and Thor & Friends, among others. She has released two solo albums on Texas-based label Western Vinyl.
Jessica Pavone is a New York-based violinist, violist and experimental composer. Her jazz-and-classical-inspired avant-garde music combines elements of improvisation and composition.
The Messthetics is an instrumental trio formed by former Fugazi members bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty with guitarist Anthony Pirog. Their music has been described as "jazz punk jam."
Caleb Burhans is an American composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist in the contemporary/modern music scene. He has been commissioned by Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, and the Kronos Quartet. His works have been performed by ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, and eighth blackbird. He is a founding member of Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Signal, and the Wordless Music Orchestra. He has worked with a diverse array of artists from Arcade Fire, The National, and Paul McCartney to Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson, George Crumb, and Steve Reich.
Togetherness is a live album by trumpeter Don Cherry. It was recorded in the spring and summer of 1965 in Paris, France, and was released on LP in 1966 by Durium Records. On the album, which features a five-movement composition titled "Togetherness," Cherry is joined by saxophonist Gato Barbieri, vibraphonist Karl Berger, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and drummer Aldo Romano. In 1976, the album was reissued by Inner City Records with the title Gato Barbieri & Don Cherry.
The Messthetics is the debut album by the band of the same name, featuring bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty of Fugazi along with guitarist Anthony Pirog, best known for his association with the band Skysaw and the duo Janel & Anthony. Recorded by Canty at his practice space in Washington, D.C. during 2017, it was released in 2018 by Dischord Records.
Old New is an album by the Tomeka Reid Quartet, led by cellist and composer Tomeka Reid, and featuring guitarist Mary Halvorson, double bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. The group's second release, it was recorded on April 18, 2018, at Greenwood Underground in Brooklyn, New York, and was issued in 2019 by Cuneiform Records.
