Shankar Lakshminarayana, better known as L. Shankar, is an Indian violinist, singer and composer who also goes by the stage name Shenkar. Known for his innovative contributions to world music, he is often regarded as one of the pioneers of East- West fusion, blending the rich traditions of Indian classical with Western genres such as jazz, rock, and electronic music. His world music albums with the band Shakti during the mid-70s became the ‘standard to gauge the playing and composing abilities of any world musician following in Shakti's expansive wake”. He is credited with inventing the stereophonic double violin (known as the LSD - L.Shankar Double Violin), which covers the orchestral string family's range. In 1990, Shankar's talam-bending Pancha Nadai Pallavi' album was on the Billboard top ten world music chart for three months becoming the first traditional Indian record to reach those heights. His 1995 Raga Abheri album was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the Best World Music Album category. With Peter Gabriel, he worked on the Grammy winning album Passion(1989), the soundtrack album for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and wrote and performed vocals on Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' (2004) which won a Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year at the 36th GMA Dove Awards. He also worked on the soundtrack for the 2002 film Queen of the Damned with Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs and recorded eight songs of which five were picked for the movie. Additionally, he collaborated on the original score for NBC's hit TV series Heroes with Wendy & Lisa. As an acclaimed musician, Shankar is ranked as one of the top famous male violinists by Ranker and one amongst the greatest violinists of popular music by Digital Dream Door. His extensive body of work spans a wide spectrum of genres, encompassing vocal and instrumental compositions.
Michael Mantler is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.
Arild Andersen is a Norwegian jazz musician bassist, known as the most famous Norwegian bass player in the international jazz scene.
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 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. He was voted Jazz Artist of the Year in the DownBeat magazine international critics' polls in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2018. In 2014, he received a lifetime appointment as the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, where he was jointly appointed in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies.
Mark Feldman is an American jazz violinist.
Trygve Seim is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist and composer. Seim has released numerous albums since 1992, including over 20 albums for ECM Records as a composer, band-leader or co-band-leader.
Elina Duni is a Swiss-Albanian jazz singer and composer. She left Albania at the age of ten to live and study in Geneva, Switzerland. She went on to study singing, composition and teaching at the University of the Arts Bern, but from 2004 onwards Albanian folk music became a prime influence. At this moment, in 2004, she formed a quartet under her own name with the Swiss jazz pianist Colin Vallon, bassist Patrice Moret and drummer Norbert Pfammatter. In a review, John Fordham concluded that "This quartet definitely sounds like rising star material for ECM." After two albums – Baresha (2008) and Lume Lume (2010) – on Meta Records, the quartet went on to record for ECM in 2012, with Matanë Malit and in 2015, Dallëndyshe (Swallow). In 2014, she released her first album as a singer-songwriter in Kosovo and Albania, entitled Muza e Zezë. In 2017, she was nominated to receive the annual Swiss Music Prize and in 2018 she released the album Partir, a solo programme in which she accompanies herself on piano, acoustic guitar and percussion. The album features traditional folksong from across the globe, sung in 9 different languages.
Lyric Suite for Sextet is an album by piano–vibraphone duo Chick Corea and Gary Burton recorded in September 1982 and released on ECM a year later—the duo's third studio recording, following Crystal Silence (1972) and Duet (1978). The sextet features the pair accompanied by a string quartet comprising violinists Ik-Hwan Bae and Carol Shrive, violist Karen Dreyfus, and cellist Fred Sherry.
An Acrobat's Heart is an album by American jazz pianist and composer Annette Peacock, recorded in January and April 2000 and released on ECM later that year—her first release after an absence of over ten years. Peacock is backed by the Cikada String Quartet, consisting violinists Henrik Hannisdal and Odd Hannisdal, violist Marek Konstantynowicz and cellist Morten Hannisdal.
Per Oddvar Johansen is a Norwegian Jazz musician (drummer), most recognized for his work with Trygve Seim, Christian Wallumrød, The Source, Solveig Slettahjell and Vigleik Storaas, but has also been awarded the Spellemannprisen five times.
Christian Wallumrød is a Norwegian jazz musician and composer, and is considered one of the most prominent musicians of the younger Norwegian generation, known from releases with his own Christian Wallumrød Ensemble on the German label ECM Records, while regularly touring and appearing in festivals in Norway, elsewhere in Scandinavia and Europe, and in the US. He is the brother of jazz vocalist Susanna Wallumrød and the drummer Fredrik Wallumrød, and cousin to the pianist David Wallumrød.
Swept Away is a studio album by a quartet led by double bassist Marc Johnson and pianist Eliane Elias, with tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Joey Baron, recorded in February 2010 and released on ECM in September 2012.
Øyvind Brække is a Norwegian jazz musician (trombone), composer, music arranger and band leader, best known for Bodega Band and S. Møller Storband. He was the initiator of the popular and still active band The Source, who released several albums, and made contributions to dozens of recordings with musicians like Chick Corea, Eirik Hegdal, Per Zanussi, Erlend Skomsvoll, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Knut Kristiansen, Jacob Young, Trygve Seim, Per Oddvar Johansen, Mathilde Grooss Viddal, Dingobats, Sverre Gjørvad, Motorpsycho, FriEnsemblet and Come Shine.
What Exit is an album by violinist Mark Feldman recorded in June 2005 and released on ECM September the following year. The quartet features rhythm section John Taylor, Anders Jormin, and Tom Rainey.
Mutations is a studio album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer recorded in September 2013 and released on ECM the following year. The titular suite features a string quartet consisting violinists Michi Wiancko and Miranda Cuckson, violist Kyle Armbrust, and cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman.
Mette HenrietteMartedatter Rølvåg is a performing artist, saxophonist, band leader and composer from Norway.
The following is a list of notable events and releases of the year 1998 in Norwegian music.
Imaginary Cities is a studio album by the Chris Potter Underground Orchestra recorded in December 2013 and released on ECM in January 2015, Potter's second album for the label. The ensembles features the return of his "Underground Quartet"—consisting rhythm section Craig Taborn, Adam Rogers, and Nate Smith—alongside vibraphonist Steve Nelson, bassist Scott Colley, bass guitarist Fima Ephron, and a string quartet.
The Danish String Quartet made its debut at the Copenhagen Summer Festival in 2002. The group is known for its performances of classical music as well as its own renditions of traditional Nordic folk music. The quartet has also worked with an extensive range of contemporary Scandinavian composers.
Drifting is the second studio album by Norwegian saxophonist and composer Mette Henriette, released on ECM Records on January 20, 2023.
[1]