Peter Fraize is a saxophonist and George Washington University professor best known for his freestyle jazz and for performing as a part of the Peter Fraize Quintet. [1]
Raised in northern Virginia, Fraize attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied classical saxophone. He later studied at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague under Dutch saxophonist Leo van Oostrom. [2] While there Fraize worked with Scapes, a quintet which won first prize at the 1989 Middelzee Jazz Concours.
On returning to the United States in 1989, Fraize formed the fusion group Stickman, [3] which performed at the Mellon Jazz Festival in Pittsburgh. He is a member of the Greg Hatza Organization and is also in a rock group, The Emptys. [4] His jazz group, The Peter Fraize Quartet, won the 1999 Wammie award (Washington Area Music Association) for Contemporary Jazz Ensembles. [5]
Fraize is the director of jazz studies at George Washington University. [6]
With Gilbert Engle
With The Emptys
With Larry Brown
With Greg Hatza
With Vaughn Nark
With Giancarlo Schiaffini
With Mark Stanley
With others
Anthony Tillmon Williams was an American jazz drummer. Williams first gained fame as a member of Miles Davis' "Second Great Quintet", and later pioneered jazz fusion with Davis' group and his own combo, the Tony Williams Lifetime. In 1970, music critic Robert Christgau described him as "probably the best drummer in the world." Williams was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1997.
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note, Milestone, and Verve.
Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson, was an American free jazz and avant-garde drummer who was best known for performing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.
Foreststorn "Chico" Hamilton was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne. Hamilton became a bandleader, first with a quintet featuring the cello as a lead instrument, an unusual choice for a jazz band in the 1950s, and subsequently leading bands that performed cool jazz, post bop, and jazz fusion.
David Holland is an English double bassist, bass guitarist, cellist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States since the early 1970s.
Paul Bley, CM was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ARP synthesizers. His music has been described by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times as "deeply original and aesthetically aggressive". Bley's prolific output includes influential recordings from the 1950s through to his solo piano recordings of the 2000s.
Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist. He is known mainly for alto saxophone, but he also performs on soprano and flute. During the 1960s, Lake worked with the Black Artists Group in St. Louis. In 1977, he founded the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray, Julius Hemphill, and Hamiet Bluiett. Lake worked in the group Trio 3 with Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille. Lake has appeared on more than 80 albums as a bandleader, co-leader, and side musician. He is the father of drummer Gene Lake. Lake has been a resident of Montclair, New Jersey.
Eric Alexander is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator. Having placed second at the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition behind Joshua Redman and ahead of Chris Potter and Tim Warfield, he was soon signed by a record label and has since recorded over 20 albums as a leader and over 300 as a sideman.
Mike Stern is an American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. He then began a solo career, releasing more than a dozen albums.
Leonard Niehaus was an American alto saxophonist, composer and arranger on the West Coast jazz scene. He played with the Stan Kenton Orchestra and served as one of Kenton's primary staff arrangers. He also played with Ray Vasquez and trombonist and Vocalist, Phil Carreon and other jazz bands on the U.S. West Coast. Niehaus had a close association as composer and arranger on motion pictures produced by Clint Eastwood.
Straight-ahead jazz is a genre of jazz that developed in the 1960s, with roots in the prior two decades. It omits the rock music and free jazz influences that began to appear in jazz during this period, instead preferring acoustic instruments, conventional piano comping, walking bass patterns, and swing- and bop-based drum rhythms.
John Josephus Hicks Jr. was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He was leader of more than 30 recordings and played as a sideman on more than 300.
Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City.
Harry Allen is an American jazz tenor saxophonist born in Washington, D.C. Allen plays mainstream jazz and bossa nova. He has performed live and recorded with Scott Hamilton, a tenor saxophonist to whom Allen has frequently been compared. He is best known for his work with John Colianni, Dori Caymmi, Keith Ingham, John Pizzarelli, and Bucky Pizzarelli.
Giancarlo Schiaffini is an Italian jazz trombonist and tubist most associated with avant-garde music, free improvisation and free jazz. A member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, Schiaffini has worked with such artists as Mario Schiano, Lol Coxhill, Andrea Centazzo and also Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. Also, he has collaborated with the Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza.
The Bob Cole Conservatory of Music is the school of music at California State University, Long Beach. In March 2008, the music department was renamed the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music in honor of an endowment gift of $16.4 million from the estate of Robert "Bob" Cole. Cole, a Long Beach real estate investor, long-time music lover, and amateur pianist, died in 2004. Following its disbursement, the gift will benefit the students of the conservatory in the form of scholarships and other awards.
John Henry Basil Mayer was an Indian composer known primarily for his fusions of jazz with Indian music in the British-based group Indo-Jazz Fusions with the Jamaican-born saxophonist Joe Harriott.
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.
Dmitri Matheny is an American jazz flugelhornist. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Matheny is “one of the jazz world’s most talented horn players.”
Gaël Horellou is a French jazz saxophonist and composer.