John Taylor was a British jazz pianist, born in Manchester, England, who occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesizer. In his obituary, The Guardian described him as "one of the great jazz pianists and composers of his generation" and at a musical level comparable to Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Brad Meldhau.
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer.
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.
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards.
Tony Oxley was an English free improvising drummer and electronic musician.
John Douglas Surman is an English jazz saxophone, clarinet, and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music. He has composed and performed music for dance performances and film soundtracks.
Liane Carroll is an English vocalist, pianist and keyboardist.
Django Bates is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented musicians Britain has produced... his work covers the entire spectrum of jazz, from early jazz through to bebop and free jazz to jazz-rock fusion."
Iain Ballamy is a British composer and saxophonist. He is considered one of the 25 greatest jazz saxophonists of all time and was featured as one of the world's all-time greats in BBC Music Magazine's "100 Jazz Legends". The Guardian described him as "one of the world's distinctive saxophone voices". One of his closest musical collaborators is Django Bates.
Martin France was a British jazz drummer. He recorded on over 100 albums and was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was sponsored by Paiste cymbals.
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.
Canadian jazz refers to the jazz and jazz-related music performed by jazz bands and performers in Canada. There are hundreds of local and regionally based Canadian jazz bands and performers. A number of Canadian jazz artists have achieved international prominence, including Oscar Peterson, Maynard Ferguson, and Gil Evans.
The Parliamentary Jazz Awards in the United Kingdom are organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group (APPJAG) at the Houses of Parliament in London. The group consists of over a hundred members drawn from across the UK political parties. The awards were the brainchild Bob Blizzard, a long-time enthusiast of the jazz genre who was concerned that there was a lack of national recognition for the work of jazz performers and venues across the UK. Blizzard was involved with organising and running the awards for 11 years. Also supporting the awards are Jazz Services, Jazz UK, Jazzwise, the UK Musicians' Union jazz section, and PPL.
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.
Kit Downes is a British BBC Jazz Award winning, Mercury Music Award nominated, solo recording artist for ECM Records.
John Warren is a composer and musician known for his contributions to the jazz genre.
Roller Trio are a British jazz-rock trio, who formed whilst studying at Leeds College of Music in 2011. In 2012, their eponymous debut studio album was nominated for the Mercury Prize alongside a nomination for the band as "Best Jazz Act" at the MOBO Awards that year. In performance, John Fordham of The Guardian described their preview gig for the Mercury prize [as having] "the same wild insouciance that has made their sound a howl of fresh air." DJ and broadcaster Gilles Peterson described their music as "Dark, menacing, bass heavy – the new sound of UK jazzzzzzz!" They are known for their "epic memorably singalong melody hooks and blistering riffs".
Edition Records is an independent record label that was founded in 2008 by pianist Dave Stapleton and photographer Tim Dickeson.
Corrie Dick is a Scottish musician and composer based in London. He is recognised for his fluency, gritty sound and euphoric abandon on the drum kit and for his poignant and earthy compositional style.
