John Zorn is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". His avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, contemporary, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and world music. In 2020 Rolling Stone noted that "[alt]hough Zorn has operated almost entirely outside the mainstream, he's gradually asserted himself as one of the most influential musicians of our time".
Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist. He is known mainly for alto saxophone, but he also performs on soprano and flute. During the 1960s, Lake worked with the Black Artists Group in St. Louis. In 1977, he founded the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray, Julius Hemphill, and Hamiet Bluiett. Lake worked in the group Trio 3 with Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille. Lake has appeared on more than 80 albums as a bandleader, co-leader, and side musician. He is the father of drummer Gene Lake. Lake has been a resident of Montclair, New Jersey.
Hamiet Bluiett was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. His primary instrument was the baritone saxophone, and he was considered one of the finest players of this instrument. A member of the World Saxophone Quartet, he also played the bass saxophone, E-flat alto clarinet, E-flat contra-alto clarinet, and wooden flute.
The Tiptons Sax Quartet, previously known as The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet, is a jazz saxophone quartet from Seattle, Washington. The ensemble consists of five members. The Tiptons are an internationally renowned saxophone quartet with drums, celebrating over 30 years as a band. Amy Denio is joined by co-leader Jessica Lurie, Sue Orfield, Tina Richerson and Robert Kainar from Salzburg, Austria. The Tiptons' material ranges from micro-Big Band to Gospel, Bluegrass to Balkan, whimsical Chamber Jazz, and nocturnal Funk to Free Jazz Improvisation using saxophones, clarinet, their voices, drums, and inventive percussion to create a genre-busting ‘world soul’ sound. The band takes its name in honor of Billy Tipton, a 20th-century professional saxophonist and transgender man who upon his death was revealed to have been assigned female at birth.
Ned Rothenberg is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer. He specializes in woodwind instruments, including the alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and shakuhachi. He is known for his work in contemporary classical and free improvisation. Rothenberg is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He was a founding member of the woodwind trio New Winds with J. D. Parran and Robert Dick. He has performed with Samm Bennett, Paul Dresher, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, John Zorn, Yuji Takahashi, Sainkho Namtchylak, and Katsuya Yokoyama.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.
Marty Ehrlich is a multi-instrumentalist and is considered one of the leading figures in avant-garde jazz.
J. D. Parran is an American multi-woodwind player, educator, and composer specializing in jazz and free improvisation. He plays the soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass saxophone, as well as the E-flat clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, contra-alto clarinet, piccolo, alto flute, bamboo flute, Native American flute, bamboo saxophone, and nagaswaram.
Robert Dick is a flutist, composer, teacher and author.
Eyvindur Y. Kang is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. His primary instrument is viola, but has also performed on violin, tuba, keyboards and others.
John Raymond Purcell is an American jazz saxophonist.
Kenny Wollesen is an American drummer and percussionist.
Danijel Žeželj is a Croatian comic book artist, animator, painter and illustrator and author of a number of graphic novels.
Richard David Carrick is an American composer, pianist and conductor. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition for 2015–16 while living in Kigali, Rwanda. His compositions are influenced by diverse sources including traditional Korean Gugak music, the flow concept of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Gnawa Music of Morocco, Jazz, experimental music, concepts of infinity, the works of Italo Calvino and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and his work as improviser.
Adramelech: Book of Angels Volume 22 is the second album by Zion80, a musical ensemble led by guitarist Jon Madof, which was released in 2014 on John Zorn's Tzadik Records. It is part of the Zorn's Book of Angels Series, a songbook of Zorn compositions performed by a wide range of performers.
Zion80 is the debut album by guitarist Jon Madof's Zion80 which was released in 2013 on John Zorn's Tzadik Records as part the Radical Jewish Culture series. The album combines music written by Shlomo Carlebach performed in the Afrobeat style of Fela Kuti.
7 NADEs is the debut album by violinist/multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang which was released in 1996 on John Zorn's Tzadik Records as part of the Composer Series.
Dorothy Hindman is an American composer and music educator.
Culmination is an album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Sam Rivers. It was recorded during September 1998 at Systems Two Recording Studio in Brooklyn, New York, at the same sessions that yielded the album Inspiration, and was released in 1999 by BMG France. On the album, Rivers is joined by members of the Rivbea All-star Orchestra: saxophonists Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Chico Freeman, Gary Thomas, and Hamiet Bluiett, trumpeters Baikida Carroll, James Zollar, Ralph Alessi, and Ravi Best, trombonists Art Baron, Joseph Bowie, and Ray Anderson, baritone horn player Joseph Daley, tubist Bob Stewart, bassist Doug Mathews, and drummer Anthony Cole.
