Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He was best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. His pioneering works often abandoned the harmony-based composition, tonality, chord changes, and fixed rhythm found in earlier jazz idioms. Instead, Coleman emphasized an experimental approach to improvisation, rooted in ensemble playing and blues phrasing. AllMusic called him "one of the most beloved and polarizing figures in jazz history," noting that while "now celebrated as a fearless innovator and a genius, he was initially regarded by peers and critics as rebellious, disruptive, and even a fraud."
Alfred McCoy Tyner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Master and five-time Grammy award winner. Unlike many of the jazz keyboardists of his generation, Tyner very rarely incorporated electric keyboards or synthesizers into his work. Tyner has been widely imitated, and is one of the most recognizable and influential jazz pianists of all time.
Rabih Abou-Khalil is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, Germany, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1978.
Nils Petter Molvær also known as NPM is a Norwegian jazz trumpeter, composer, and record producer. He is considered a pioneer of future jazz, a genre that fuses jazz and electronic music, best showcased on his most commercially successful album, Khmer.
Anouar Brahem ; born on 20 October 1957) is a Tunisian oud player and composer. He is widely acclaimed as an innovator in his field. Performing primarily for a jazz audience, he combines Arabic classical music, folk music and jazz and has been recording since at least 1991, after becoming prominent in his own country in the late 1980s.
Bradford Alexander Mehldau is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Gwilym Simcock is a Welsh pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music, often blurring any distinction between the two musical forms.
Eivind Aarset is a Norwegian guitarist who has worked with Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ute Lemper, Ketil Bjørnstad, Andy Sheppard, Mike Mainieri, Arild Andersen, Abraham Laboriel, Dhafer Youssef, Django Bates, and Nils Petter Molvaer. Aarset is married to Norwegian singer Anne-Marie Giørtz.
Nguyên Lê is a French jazz musician and composer of Vietnamese ancestry. His main instrument is guitar, and he also plays bass guitar and guitar synthesizer.
Renaud Garcia-Fons is a French bassist and composer.
Dhafer Youssef is a Tunisian composer, singer and oud player.
Mark Guiliana is a Grammy-nominated American drummer, composer and leader of the band Beat Music. He has played with Avishai Cohen, Brad Mehldau, David Bowie, Meshell Ndegeocello, Gretchen Parlato, Jason Lindner, Lionel Loueke, Dhafer Youssef, Tigran Hamasyan, Matisyahu, St. Vincent, the European piano trio Phronesis and his own groups, Heernt and the Mark Giuliana Jazz Quartet.
Jan Lundgren, born on 22 March 1966 in Olofström, Blekinge, and resident in Ystad since 2005, is an internationally active Swedish jazz musician. He is a pianist, composer, and senior lecturer at the Malmö Academy of Music, where he has taught since autumn 1991, as well as the Artistic Director of the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival, Ystad Winter Piano Fest and Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen. Jan Lundgren is a Steinway Artist and has won many awards. He tours internationally and is signed to the German record label, ACT.
Isfar Rzayev-Sarabski is an Azerbaijani pianist and composer, winner of the Solo Piano Competition of the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2009, Honorary Artist of Azerbaijan (2010), and receiver of the Zirva State Prize (2010). He is the great-grandson of Huseyngulu Sarabski, celebrated Azerbaijani opera singer, actor and one of the founders of opera in the Islamic world.
Michael Wollny is a German jazz pianist and a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. He has played with international musicians including Joachim Kühn, Tamar Halperin, Marius Neset, Andreas Schaerer, Émile Parisien and Vincent Peirani, and recorded award-winning albums. In his Michael Wollny Trio, he has played with percussionist Eric Schaefer and bassist Tim Lefebvre.
Jan Bang is a Norwegian musician and record producer who has worked with Morten Harket, Sidsel Endresen, David Sylvian, Nils Petter Molvær, Arild Andersen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Arve Henriksen, and Erik Honoré.
Audun Erlien is a Norwegian jazz musician, known from several albums in various genres.
Chris Jennings is a Canadian jazz double bassist, composer, arranger and educator.
David Helbock is an Austrian jazz musician.
Céline Bonacina is a French saxophonist and composer. She plays soprano, alto and baritone saxophone.
