James Louis Johnson was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.
James Minter Knepper was an American jazz trombonist. In addition to his own recordings as leader, Knepper performed and recorded with Charlie Barnet, Woody Herman, Claude Thornhill, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, Gil Evans, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin, and, most famously, Charles Mingus in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Knepper died in 2003 of complications of Parkinson's disease.
Toshiko Akiyoshi is a Japanese-American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader.
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra was a jazz big band formed by trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis in New York in 1965. The band performed for twelve years in its original incarnation, including a 1972 tour of the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. The band won a Grammy Award for the album Live in Munich and in 2009 for the album Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard. The collaboration ended in 1978 with Jones suddenly moving to Copenhagen, Denmark, after which the band became the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Since the death of Lewis in 1990 it has been known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. They have maintained a Monday-night residency at the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York for five decades.
Jim McNeely is a jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Douglas Purviance is a jazz trombonist. He began his professional career as a member of the Stan Kenton Orchestra, playing bass trombone and tuba from 1975 to 1977. Mostly, he works as a studio session bass trombonist and is not known for improvising.
Desert Lady / Fantasy is the fourth recording released by the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin. Not to be confused with the 1989 Lew Tabackin (Quartet) Concord Records release, Desert Lady. The album received two Grammy award nominations in the "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance" and "Best Arrangement on an Instrumental" categories.
Monopoly Game is the sixth recording released by the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin. The three tracks, "Kyoto Paradox", Caribbean Dream" and "Urban Rhapsody" make up the three part "Suite for Koto and Jazz Orchestra" commissioned jointly by the San Francisco Jazz Festival and UCLA. The song "Jazz Club" was commissioned by NHK Radio.
The jazz big band album Hiroshima - Rising From The Abyss is the eighth audio recording released by the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin. It was released in 2001 by Video Arts Music in Japan and True Life in the USA. Tracks 2-7 form the "Hiroshima - Rising From The Abyss" Suite.
Britt Woodman was an American jazz trombonist.
Since her debut recording for Norgran Records in 1954, jazz pianist, composer, arranger and big band leader Toshiko Akiyoshi has recorded continuously – almost exclusively as a leader of small jazz combos and of her big bands – averaging one studio album release per year for well over 50 years. She has also recorded several live albums in solo, small combo and big band settings, including three big band concert videos. Akiyoshi has released multiple albums for Victor / BMG, Nippon Columbia, Toshiba, Discomate, Nippon Crown and other labels in Japan and for Norgran / Verve, RCA, Columbia / Sony, Concord and her own Ascent label in the US. All of her big band recordings and nearly all of her other early works have been re-issued on CDs over the years.
Donald Paul McCaslin is an American jazz saxophonist. He has recorded over a dozen albums as a bandleader in addition to many sideman appearances, including on David Bowie's final studio album, Blackstar (2016).
John Bernard Riley is an American jazz drummer and educator. He has performed with Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Milt Jackson, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Scofield, Bob Mintzer, Gary Peacock, Mike Stern, Joe Lovano, Franck Amsallem, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, John Patitucci, and Bob Berg.
Peter Washington is a jazz double bassist. He played with the Westchester Community Symphony at the age of 14. Later he played electric bass in rock bands. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in English Literature, and performed with the San Francisco Youth Symphony and the UC Symphony Orchestra. His growing interest in jazz led him to play with John Handy, Bobby Hutcherson, Harold Land, Frank Morgan, Ernestine Anderson, Chris Connor and other Bay Area luminaries. In 1986 he joined Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers and moved to New York City. Beginning in the 1990s, he toured with the Tommy Flanagan trio until Flanagan's death in 2002, and has played with the Bill Charlap trio since then. He was a founding member of the collective hard bop sextet One for All and is a visiting artist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Duduka Da Fonseca, born Eduardo Moreira Da Fonseca is a Brazilian jazz drummer who is a founding member of Trio da Paz with Romero Lubambo and Nilson Matta. He leads the Duduka da Fonseca Trio, with David Feldman and Guto Wirtti.
Coming Through Slaughter: The Bolden Legend is the first large ensemble jazz album by composer Dave Lisik. It features trumpeter Tim Hagans, saxophonist Donny McCaslin, trombonist Luis Bonilla, and drummer Matt Wilson. The title and inspiration of the music and recording comes from the novel Coming Through Slaughter from the author Michael Ondaatje.
Walt Weiskopf is an American jazz saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, author, and educator. He has released 16 CDs as a leader and performed on countless other albums as a sideman, having worked with artists such as Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, and Steely Dan. Author and journalist Cicily Janus regards Weiskopf as "one of the best unknown musicians in the modern scene", and JazzTimes Magazine considers him to be underrated and "a highly potent tenor saxophonist who demonstrates a strong Trane-Rollins influence".
Ryan Keberle is an American trombone player, composer, arranger, and educator. Described by The New York Times as a "trombonist of vision and composure", he leads Ryan Keberle & Catharsis, a New York-based indie jazz quintet. Keberle has performed with David Bowie, Maria Schneider, Wynton Marsalis, Darcy James Argue, Alicia Keys, and Sufjan Stevens, among others, and has appeared on five Grammy Award-winning records.
Jay Anderson is an American jazz double-bassist and studio musician.
Hector Martignon is a Colombian pianist and composer of Italian descent living in New York City. Two of Martignon's albums have been nominated for a Grammy Award: Refugee (2007) and Second Chance (2010). Martignon is known for crossbreeding the improvisational language of Jazz with diverse musical idioms, such as Classical European, Latin American folklore and World Music. On its exhibit Latin Jazz, the Smithsonian Institution lists Martignon among the leading artists “exploring the regional sources of Latin Jazz”.
