Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Ten Freedom Summers, released on May 22, 2012.
Myra Melford is an American avant-garde jazz pianist and composer. A 2013 Guggenheim Fellow, Melford was described by the San Francisco Chronicle as an "explosive player, a virtuoso who shocks and soothes, and who can make the piano stand up and do things it doesn't seem to have been designed for."
Pi Recordings is a jazz record label founded by Seth Rosner in 2001. He was joined as partner by Yulun Wang in 2002. Pi specializes in avant-garde jazz. Its first albums were by Henry Threadgill.
Stomu Takeishi is a Japanese jazz bass player. He generally plays fretless five-string electric bass guitar, as well as a Klein five-string acoustic bass guitar. He often uses looping or other electronic techniques to enhance the sound of his instrument.
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 has 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. In 2014 he received a lifetime appointment as the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, where he is jointly appointed in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies.
Amir ElSaffar is an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. His compositions combine jazz, classical, and traditional Arabic music.
Rudresh Mahanthappa is a New York-based jazz alto saxophonist and composer.
Tyshawn Sorey is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist.
Damion Reid is an American drummer. Critics have praised his "controlled fury" and "microscopically complex beats."
Steve Lehman is a composer and saxophonist in the genres of jazz and experimental music. His compositions have been performed by a number of international performers and orchestras. As a performer, Lehman leads a number of his own ensembles and performs frequently as a sideman with artists like Anthony Braxton, Vijay Iyer, and Jason Moran. His recording Travail, Transformation & Flow was chosen as the #1 Jazz Album of the year by The New York Times. Lehman’s work has been reviewed in Artforum, Down Beat magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Wire, National Public Radio, and the BBC. Lehman was a Fulbright scholar from 2002-2003. He has a B.A. (2000) and M.A. (2002) in composition from Wesleyan University and received his D.M.A. (2012) with distinction in composition from Columbia University. He is currently a professor of Music at the California Institute of the Arts, near Los Angeles.
Rez Abbasi is an American jazz guitarist, composer, and record producer.
The Doris Duke Performing Artist Award is a ten-year, 50 million dollar initiative undertaken by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in partnership with Creative Capital, designed to "empower, invest in and celebrate artists by offering flexible, multi-year funding as a response to financial and funding challenges both unique to the performing arts and to each grantee". Started in 2011, the program supports artists in jazz, theatre, and dance. The program offers two tiers of support: the Doris Duke Artist Award, offering up to $275,000 of individual support, and the Doris Duke Impact Award, offering up to $80,000 of individual support. The Doris Duke Artist Award recipients will be announced in classes of twenty between 2012 and 2016, and the Doris Duke Impact Award recipients will be announced in classes of twenty between 2014 and 2018.
Brandon K. Ross is an American jazz guitarist. He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
In for a Penny, In for a Pound is an album composed by Henry Threadgill for his jazz quintet Zooid, featuring Jose Davila, Liberty Ellman, Christopher Hoffman, and Elliot Humberto Kavee. It was released by Pi Recordings and was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Thomas Morgan is an American jazz bassist.
Reimagining is an album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, which was recorded in 2004, originally released on the Savoy label and reissued in Europe by Pi Recordings. The follow-up to Blood Sutra, the record features nine Iyer's compositions for his quartet with Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto sax, Stephan Crump on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums, and a solo piano interpretation of John Lennon's "Imagine".
Tactiles is an album by jazz guitarist Liberty Ellman, which was recorded in 2003 and released on Pi Recordings. He leads a quartet with Mark Shim on tenor sax, Stephan Crump on bass and Eric Harland on drums. The album also features alto saxophonist Greg Osby on three tracks.
Architextures is the second studio album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer recorded with eight musicians. The album was released on October 13, 1998 via Asian Improv Records label. The tracks 3, 4, 7, 9 were recorded by a trio of Iyer, Brock, and Hargreaves. The tracks 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 were recorded by an octet. The tracks 1 and 12 were recorded solo by Iyer.
In What Language? is a collaborative studio album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and American hip hop musician Mike Ladd. It was released on Pi Recordings in 2003.
Raw Materials is a studio album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and American jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. The album was released on May 23, 2006 via Savoy Jazz label.
