Margaret Marian McPartland OBE, was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and writer. She was the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio from 1978 to 2011.
Maurice White was an American musician, best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter and chief producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, also serving as the band's co-lead singer with Philip Bailey.
Oscar Brown Jr. was an American singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, civil rights activist, and actor. Brown discovered The Jackson 5. Aside from his career, Brown ran unsuccessfully for office in both the Illinois state legislature and the U.S. Congress. Brown wrote many songs, 12 albums, and more than a dozen musical plays.
"The Christmas Song" is a classic Christmas song written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé.
Jon Weber is a New York City and Chicago-based jazz pianist and composer whose compositions and performances have met critical and popular acclaim in many countries around the world. Largely self-taught, Weber has perfect pitch and remarkable melodic recall. He serves as host of Piano Jazz With Jon Weber on NPR.
Richard Hyman is an American jazz pianist and composer. Over a 70-year career, he has worked as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, electronic musician, and composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters fellow in 2017.
"It Might as Well Be Spring" is a song from the 1945 film State Fair. which features the only original film score by the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. "It Might as Well Be Spring" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for that year.
Julian Clifford Mance, Jr., known as Junior Mance, was an American jazz pianist and composer.
Feed the Fire is a 1994 live album by the American jazz singer Betty Carter. The album was recorded at London's Royal Festival Hall during Carter's European tour. It was Carter's first live album since 1990's Droppin' Things, and her only album recorded outside of the United States.
Robert Broom Jr. is an American jazz guitarist, composer, and educator. He was born and raised in New York City, then moved to Chicago, which has been his home town since 1984. He performs and records with The Bobby Broom Trio and his organ group, The Bobby Broom Organi-Sation. While versed in the traditional jazz idioms, Broom draws from a variety of American music forms, such as funk, soul, R&B, and blues.
"(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" is an R&B song written by Gary Jackson, Raynard Miner, and Carl Smith. It was recorded by Jackie Wilson for his album Higher and Higher (1967), produced by Carl Davis, and became a Top 10 pop and number one R&B hit.
Larry Gray is a Chicago musician known for his compositions and skill on the double bass and cello. His primary teachers were Joseph Guastafeste, longtime principal bassist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and cellist Karl Fruh.
John Serry Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer, as well as a composer of contemporary classical music works that feature percussion, on which he also doubles. He is a son of the accordionist and composer John Serry. His debut solo album was 'Exhibition', for which he received a Grammy Nomination for his composition, 'Sabotage'.
"Day by Day" is a folk rock ballad from the 1971 Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak musical Godspell. It is the third song in the show's score and is reprised as the closing number for the 1973 film version.
Dirty Three are an Australian instrumental rock band, consisting of Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White (drums), which formed in 1992. Their 1996 album Horse Stories was voted by Rolling Stone as one of the top three albums of the year. Two of their albums have peaked into the top 50 on the ARIA Albums Chart, Ocean Songs (1998) and Toward the Low Sun (2012). During their career they have spent much of their time overseas when not performing together. Turner is based in Melbourne, White lives in New York, and Ellis in Paris. Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane described them as providing a "rumbling, dynamic sound incorporated open-ended, improvisational, electric rock ... minus the jazz-rock histrionics". In October 2010, Ocean Songs was listed in the book 100 Best Australian Albums.
Greg Spero is an American pianist from Highland Park, Illinois. He has toured with Halsey and the Miles Electric Band and has composed music for film and television. He leads the jazz band Spirit Fingers. He also runs a label called Tiny Room, which runs live streamed sessions from its studio in Los Angeles and has been featured on NPR Live Sessions. When the coronavirus pandemic caused live music to cease in 2020, he launched a startup called weeBID which is the first fan initiated crowd funding platform. Spero was described as "a new breed Of record exec, at vanguard of big changes in music industry". He outlined his vision for weeBID at the Center for Creative Entrepreneurship, Chicago in August 2021.
Judy Carmichael is a Grammy-nominated jazz pianist and vocalist who specializes in a form of early jazz called "Stride Piano". She has been honored as a Steinway Artist. In 1992, Carmichael became the first jazz musician sponsored by the United States Government to tour China.
Jackie Allen is an American jazz vocalist. Influenced by jazz, folk, and pop singers, Allen is perhaps best known for interpretations of classic jazz ballads. According to critic Scott Yanow, she brings out "the beauty of the lyrics". Critic Thom Jurek said, "her gift with more pop-oriented material is utterly distinctive and even innovative, since there isn't another singer out there who phrases like her".
Willie Pickens was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and educator.
Pat Moran is an American jazz pianist.
