John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, best known as the founder and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.
David Nathaniel Baker Jr. was an American jazz composer, conductor, and musician from Indianapolis, as well as a professor of jazz studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Baker is best known as an educator and founder of the jazz studies program. From 1991 to 2012, he was conductor and musical and artistic director for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. He has more than 65 recordings, 70 books, and 400 articles to his credit.
Gunther Alexander Schuller was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician.
Charles Edward Haden was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. Building on the work of predecessors such as Jimmy Blanton and Charles Mingus, Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz, evolving a style that sometimes complemented the soloist, and other times moved independently, liberating bassists from a strictly accompanying role, to allow more direct participation in group improvisation.
The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Hall, and is home to approximately 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies, and 1,500 more in its Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education. NEC offers bachelor's degrees in instrumental and vocal classical music performance, contemporary musical arts, composition, jazz studies, music history, and music theory, as well as graduate degrees in collaborative piano, conducting, and musicology. The conservatory has also partnered with Harvard University and Tufts University to create joint double-degree, five-year programs.
Fred Hersch is an American jazz pianist, composer, educator and HIV/AIDS activist, 17-time Grammy nominée. He was the first person to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York City. He has recorded more than 75 of his jazz compositions.
James W. Newton is an American jazz and classical flutist.
Steve Kuhn is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator.
Mika Pohjola ( is a Finnish-born jazz pianist and composer who resides in Stockholm. He is one of the most prolific Scandinavian jazz musicians in his generation.
Jeanne Lee was an American jazz singer, poet and composer. Best known for a wide range of vocal styles she mastered, Lee collaborated with numerous distinguished composers and performers who included Gunter Hampel, Andrew Cyrille, Ran Blake, Carla Bley, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Archie Shepp, Mal Waldron, Mark Whitecage and many others.
Eyran Katsenelenbogen is an American jazz pianist.
Charlie Banacos was an American pianist, composer, author and educator, concentrating on jazz.
William Thomas McKinley was an American composer and jazz pianist born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. He wrote more than 300 musical compositions in what he called a neo-tonal style, of which Margalit Fox writes, for The New York Times, "were known for their lyricism, rhythmic propulsion and accessibility" and adds that his music "could recall not only jazz and blues but also Bach, Debussy, Ravel and Vaughan Williams.". Many of these works have been recorded by such ensembles as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Seattle Symphony.
Third stream is a music genre that is a fusion of jazz and classical music. The term was coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller in a lecture at Brandeis University. There are many ways to define third-stream music. It could refer to a group of jazz musicians playing solely, or a jazz soloist performing with a symphony orchestra, as long as the musicians are able to interpret and play jazz music. Improvisation is generally seen as a vital component of third stream. In third-stream music, composers incorporated elements of classical music, such as the use of jazz instruments and classical music forms, into their jazz compositions. The fusion of jazz and classical music is also viewed as "born out of a reciprocal interest: the interest of the classical community in the developments in jazz music and the interest of the jazz community in the advances of classical music." The innovative idea of fusing jazz and classical music pushed the boundaries of traditional classical music and introduced a new genre that blends the two styles into a unique hybrid form.
Claire Ritter is an American composer and pianist working in a style that fuses jazz with classical, new music, and occasionally other world music cultures.
While the French horn is primarily used in classical music pieces, in the mid-20th century it broke into the jazz world. While the instrument remains relatively rare, the role of the French horn in jazz has developed from its beginnings in the 1940s through to the 2010s. Note that the expression "horns" in jazz is often used colloquially to refer to all wind instruments used in jazz
All That Is Tied is a solo album by pianist Ran Blake which was recorded in 2005 to mark the 40th anniversary of his first solo recording Ran Blake Plays Solo Piano and his 70th birthday and was released on the Tompkins Square label in 2006.
Ran Blake Plays Solo Piano is a solo piano album by Ran Blake. It was recorded in 1965 and released by ESP-Disk.
Nick Sanders is an American jazz pianist and composer, as well as the leader of the eponymously named Nick Sanders Trio. He has recorded three studio albums for Sunnyside Records: Nameless Neighbors (2013) and You Are a Creature (2015), with his trio band including bassist Henry Fraser and drummer Connor Baker, and Janus (2016), a duo album with saxophonist Logan Strosahl.
The Newest Sound Around is an album by singer Jeanne Lee and pianist Ran Blake. It was recorded in November and December, 1961, at RCA Victor Studio in New York City, and was released by RCA Victor in 1962. The album, which was the debut recording for both musicians, was reissued on CD in 1987 with four extra tracks, and with the title The Legendary Duets. Bassist George Duvivier is featured on two tracks.
