Tareq Abboushi is a Palestinian-American musician and composer.
He earned his B.M. in Jazz Piano from William Paterson University. However, he has been playing the buzuq, a long-necked lute, since 1997 – first in Ramallah, West Bank, and now in New York City.
Abboushi plays with many groups in the New York area and is the leader and composer of the Arabic/Jazz fusion quintet SHUSMO, which released its debut album One in 2005, and second album "Mumtastic" in 2011. In addition, he has given lectures on Arabic music at Columbia University, New York University, Juilliard School of Music, and the Museum of the City of New York.
Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist. On a few occasions, he also played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the same era. His use of the bass clarinet helped to establish the instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone, and was among the earliest significant jazz flute soloists.
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
Clifford Benjamin Brown was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", and "Daahoud" have become jazz standards. Brown won the DownBeat magazine Critics' Poll for New Star of the Year in 1954; he was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1972.
Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist.
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, and then co-founded the jazz fusion band Weather Report. He has recorded over 20 albums as a bandleader.
Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator. His career includes more than fifty recordings as a leader and more than 500 published compositions. His ensembles include the Dave Douglas Quintet; Sound Prints, a quintet co-led with saxophonist Joe Lovano; Uplift, a sextet with bassist Bill Laswell; Present Joys with pianist Uri Caine and Andrew Cyrille; High Risk, an electronic ensemble with Shigeto, Jonathan Aaron, and Ian Chang; and Engage, a sextet with Jeff Parker, Tomeka Reid, Anna Webber, Nick Dunston, and Kate Gentile.
Leroy Jenkins was an American composer and violinist/violist.
Michael Page Carnes (1950) is an American composer of contemporary classical music.
Tom Harrell is an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and arranger. Voted Trumpeter of the Year of 2018 by Jazz Journalists Association, Harrell has won awards and grants throughout his career, including multiple Trumpeter of the Year awards from Down Beat magazine, SESAC Jazz Award, BMI Composers Award, and Prix Oscar du Jazz. He received a Grammy Award nomination for his big band album, Time's Mirror.
Fred Hersch is an American jazz pianist, educator and HIV/AIDS activist. 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 70 of his jazz compositions. Hersch has been nominated for several Grammy Awards, and, as of December 2014, had been on the Jazz Studies faculty of the New England Conservatory since 1980.
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American trumpeter and composer. He started his career in 1982 as a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, then The Jazz Messengers. He has composed more than forty film scores and performed on more than fifty. A frequent collaborator with director Spike Lee, he has been nominated for two Academy Awards for composing the scores for Lee's films BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods (2020). He has won five Grammy Awards from fourteen nominations.
Vincent Dwayne Herring is an American jazz saxophonist, flautist, composer, and educator. Known for his fiery and soulful playing in the bands of Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, and Nat Adderley in the earlier stages of his career, he now frequently performs around the world with his own groups and is heavily involved in jazz education.
Uri Caine is an American classical and jazz pianist and composer.
William Edward Childs is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger and conductor from Los Angeles, California, United States.
Amir ElSaffar is an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. His compositions combine jazz, classical, and traditional Arabic music.
Kinan Azmeh, is a Syrian clarinet player and composer of contemporary music. Performing with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, or the Syrian Symphony Orchestra, he has played both as a soloist of classical works as well as of contemporary compositions.
Frederick Katz was an American cellist and composer. He was among the earliest jazz musicians to establish the cello as a viable improvising solo instrument. Katz has been described in CODA magazine as "the first real jazz cellist."
Jon Burr is an American double bass player and author. He is a member of "Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio", a swing jazz trio, along with Mark O'Connor and Frank Vignola. The trio has recorded three albums, Hot Swing! (2001), In Full Swing (2003), and Live in New York (2004).
Jimmy Halperin is an American Saxophonist and composer in avant-garde jazz and new improvised music.
Michael Jefry Stevens is an American jazz pianist. Stevens currently resides in Black Mountain, North Carolina.