Mark Vinci is a saxophone player who has performed, toured, or recorded with Maria Schneider, Joe Lovano, Stefon Harris, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Zoot Sims, Benny Carter, Tommy Flanagan, Clark Terry, Mel Lewis, Michael Feinstein, Joe LaBarbera, and Gene Bertoncini.
As a soloist he has toured Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, and the United States where he has performed in such places as "One Step Down" and "The Nest" in Washington, D.C., "Catalina Bar and Grill" in Los Angeles, and "Birdland" in New York City.
Vinci played lead alto with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band conducted by Jon Faddis. Vinci also played in the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra and John Fedchock’s New York Big Band. Vinci is also a featured soloist for many big bands in the USA and Europe, performing arrangements of his songs and original compositions.
In addition, Vinci is a veteran of Woody Herman and Gerry Mulligan big bands. [1] He has performed at festivals such as North Sea, Kool, Montreaux, Monterey and Nice.
Vinci has recorded on many noteworthy record labels, such as Bluenote, Capitol, Concord, Telarc, Sony, and Enja.
Joe Williams was an American jazz singer. He sang with big bands such as the Count Basie Orchestra and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and with his combos. He sang in two films with the Basie orchestra and sometimes worked as an actor.
Simon Phillips is an English jazz, pop, and rock drummer and record producer. He worked with rock bands during the 1970s and 1980s and was the drummer for the band Toto from 1992 to 2014.
Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator, renowned for both his playing and for his expertise in the field of music education. Upon his first appearance on the scene, he became known for his ability to closely mirror the sound of trumpet icon Dizzy Gillespie, who was his mentor along with pianist Stan Kenton and trumpeter Bill Catalano.
Tim Hagans is a jazz trumpeter, arranger, and composer. He has been nominated for three Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Composition for "Box of Cannoli" on The Avatar Sessions ; Best Contemporary Jazz Album for Animation*Imagination ; and Best Contemporary Jazz Album for Re-Animation.
Sir George Albert Shearing, was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, including the jazz standards "Lullaby of Birdland" and "Conception", and had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. He died of heart failure in New York City, at the age of 91.
Giuseppe "Joe" Venuti was an Italian-American jazz musician and pioneer jazz violinist.
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.
Vocal jazz or jazz singing is an instrumental approach to the voice, where the singer can match the instruments in their stylistic approach to the lyrics, improvised or otherwise, or through scat singing; that is, the use of non-morphemic syllables to imitate the sound of instruments.
Randal Edward Brecker is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B.
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the Big Band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues as a 'ghost band'.
Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, composer and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space." Chestnut enjoys mixing styles and resists being typecast in any one niche, though his gospel sound is apparent on a number of his recordings.
Alexander William Tamba Dankworth is an English jazz bassist and composer.
Danny Gottlieb is an American drummer. He is probably best known as the original drummer of the Pat Metheny Group, as co-founder of the group Elements with Mark Egan, and as a member of the Gil Evans Orchestra until Evans's death in 1988. He also toured and recorded with the Blues Brothers Band, the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, and the WDR, NDR, SWR, and HR Radio bands of Germany. In 2004 he became the drummer for Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan Band. Gottlieb has performed on over 400 albums, earning 14 Grammy Award nominations and four wins. He is a member of the University of North Florida faculty, where he teaches as a full-time Professor of Jazz Studies.
Magnus Lindgren is a Swedish jazz musician. He studied at the Västerås Music College. He then attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, and began working with the Soul Enterprise. He began playing with Herbie Hancock at age 18, and formed his current quartet in 1997. He has also worked with James Ingram, Koop, Barbara Hendricks, Gregory Porter, Till Brönner, Nicola Conte, Marie Fredriksson, Ivan Lins and David Foster. In 2001, Lindgren was voted the best Swedish jazz artist of the year by the Fasching jazz club in Stockholm. He has received a number of awards, including a Grammis award in 2001, and the Arne Domnérus Prize.
Donald Paul "Donny" McCaslin is an American jazz saxophonist. He has recorded over a dozen albums as a bandleader in addition to many sideman appearances, and came to wider prominence when English rock singer David Bowie hired McCaslin's ensemble as his backing band for Blackstar (2016), his final studio album.
Steve Wilson is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, who is best known in the musical community as a flutist and an alto and soprano saxophonist. He also plays the clarinet and the piccolo. Wilson has maintained a busy career working as a session musician, and has contributed to many musicians of note both in the recording studios, but as a sideman on tours. Over the years he has participated in engagements with several musical ensembles, as well as his own solo efforts.
Michael Philip Mossman is an American jazz trumpeter.
Charles Davis was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Davis played alto, tenor and baritone saxophone, and performed extensively with Archie Shepp and Sun Ra.
Geoffrey Keezer is an American jazz pianist.
Neil James Sinclair Swainson is a Canadian jazz bassist. Swainson started his career in Victoria, British Columbia, when he supported visiting American musicians such as Herb Ellis, Barney Kessell, and Sonny Stitt. In 1976 he moved to Vancouver after playing with the Paul Horn Quintet and leading a band for two years. He moved to Toronto in 1977.