Jazz on the Line is a San Francisco Bay Area jazz sextet formed in the early 1980s by Rent Romus . [1] At its initial inception, it primarily featured the compositions of its co-founders and included notable musicians such as saxophonist/composer Michael Sidney Timpson, saxophonist Dan Magay and drummer Steve Rossi.
In the mid-eighties, Romus, moving to Santa Cruz, took over as primary leader and composer for the ensemble, and gave it greater professional exposure.
The group, under the helm of Romus, continued to perform live throughout the nineties, releasing its first CD "No Boundaries" in 1991. Its most recent CD from 2008, "Thundershine" features notable saxophonist Chico Freeman. [1] Other recordings by the group include the CDs entitled "Strap" also titled Filmtrax-ROBOT (Rats and Other Memos) [2] [3] and "Dark Wind".
Romus also founded the quartet the Lords of Outland, who released the album You'll Never Be the Same, which was recorded live in a San Francisco club in 1995. [4]
AMM is a British free improvisation group that was founded in London, England, in 1965. The group was initially composed of Keith Rowe on guitar, Lou Gare on saxophone, and Eddie Prévost on drums. The three men shared an interest in exploring music beyond the boundaries of conventional jazz, as in free jazz and free improvisation. AMM never achieved widespread popularity, but has been influential in improvised music. Most of their albums have been released by Matchless Recordings, which was run by Eddie Prévost. In a 2001 interview, Keith Rowe was asked if "AMM" was an abbreviation. He replied, "The letters AMM stand for something, but as you probably know it's a secret!"
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.
Jeff Coffin is a saxophonist, composer, and educator. He is a three-time Grammy Award winner as a member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he performed from 1997 until 2010. In July 2008, Coffin began touring with Dave Matthews Band and joined the group in 2009 following the death of founding member LeRoi Moore. He also leads his group Jeff Coffin & the Mu'tet.
John Martin Tchicai was a Danish free jazz saxophonist and composer.
Michael Zilber is a Canadian composer and musician. Zilber was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in his late teens and to New York City in his early twenties. He has performed and/or recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Dave Liebman, Miroslav Vitous, Bob Berg, Dave Douglas, Rachel Z, and Narada Michael Walden, among many others.
Barre Phillips is an American jazz bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he migrated to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972, he has been based in southern France where, in 2014, he founded the European Improvisation Center.
Ryo Kawasaki was a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist, composer and band leader, best known as one of the first musicians to develop and popularise the fusion genre and for helping to develop the guitar synthesizer in collaboration with Roland Corporation and Korg. His album Ryo Kawasaki and the Golden Dragon Live was one of the first all-digital recordings and he created the Kawasaki Synthesizer for the Commodore 64. During the 1960s, he played with various Japanese jazz groups and also formed his own bands. In the early 1970s, he moved to New York City, where he settled and worked with Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Chico Hamilton, Ted Curson, Joanne Brackeen amongst others. In the mid-1980s, Kawasaki drifted out of performing music in favour of writing music software for computers. He also produced several techno dance singles, formed his own record company called Satellites Records, and later returned to jazz-fusion in 1991.
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.
Jason Moran is an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator involved in multimedia art and theatrical installations.
Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist, and bandleader. He is also a composer, arranger and producer.
Stefan Pasborg is a Danish drummer, composer and bandleader, and the founding member of ILK MUSIC, a Danish record label.
Michael Sidney Timpson is an American composer of contemporary classical music.
Burnt Sugar, also known as Burnt Sugar, the Arkestra Chamber, is an American improvisational band. The band's music combines the influences of funk, jazz, rock, reggae, soul, hip hop, heavy metal, and 20th-century classical music. It has been described by one critic as a "funk-rock-electronic-samba-soul-jazz-fusion-whatever ensemble". One critic wrote that Burnt Sugar's music "is not the easiest thing to describe", while another critic wrote that "Burnt Sugar sounds like a big cloud".
The Bay Area Improv Scene is a commonly used name for a loose association of musicians and composers centered in the San Francisco Bay Area who create a style of music that evolved largely from avant-garde jazz and modern classical music, with influences from other areas such as Electronic art music, Free improvisation, and Musique concrète. Other names of this scene tend to use phrases such as "Creative Music" to try to incorporate a wider focus than just the improvisational approach.
Artists Recording Collective (ARC) is an independent music label. Using the Internet and related technologies, it provides an alternative to the traditional recording and promotion business models. ARC is a program of the Burnett Music Foundation, a nonprofit corporation based in Kansas.
Rent Romus is an American saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, music and performing arts producer, and community leader living in the San Francisco Bay area.
Dmitri Matheny is an American jazz flugelhornist.
Arturo Stable is a Cuban master percussionist and composer. His diverse musical experience and unique sound have allowed him to work in many environments, but he is best known as a Latin jazz percussionist. He has performed in many famous jazz festivals around the world, such as the San Francisco Jazz Festival and the Vitoria-Gasteiz jazz festival, and has also played with some of the most notable jazz performers, including Paquito D'Rivera. Esperanza Spalding and David Sánchez,
David "Chase" Baird is an American saxophonist and composer.
Pharoah Sanders Live... is a live album by American saxophonist and composer Pharoah Sanders released on the Theresa label.