Faithless are an English dance music band that formed in 1995, with its core members being Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz. Their first album, Reverence, was released in 1996 and their most recent, All Blessed, in 2020. They have sold millions of physical records, and their catalogue was uploaded to streaming sites in 2018. They average almost 3 million listeners a month on Spotify. Faithless' records have charted at No. 1 in numerous countries and they were voted the 4th greatest dance band of all time by Mixmag.
Soul jazz or funky jazz is a subgenre of jazz that incorporates strong influences from hard bop, blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues. Soul jazz is often characterized by organ trios featuring the Hammond organ and small combos including saxophone, brass instruments, electric guitar, bass, drums, piano, vocals and electric organ. Its origins were in the 1950s and early 1960s, with its heyday with popular audiences preceding the rise of jazz fusion in the late 1960s and 1970s. Prominent names in fusion ranged from bop pianists including Bobby Timmons and Junior Mance to a wide range of organists, saxophonists, pianists, drummers and electric guitarists including Jack McDuff, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and Grant Green.
David William Sanborn was an American alto saxophonist. Sanborn worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 11 and released his first solo album, Taking Off, in 1975. He was active as a session musician, and played on numerous albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Sting, the Eagles, Rickie Lee Jones, James Brown, George Benson, Carly Simon, Elton John, Bryan Ferry and the Rolling Stones. He released more than 20 albums and won six Grammy awards.
Richard Dale Kotzen Jr. is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. As a solo artist, Kotzen has a back catalogue of more than 20 album releases. He was a member of glam metal band Poison from 1991 to 1993, Mr. Big from 1999 to 2002, and since 2012, has been the frontman of the band The Winery Dogs. Kotzen was signed to California-based Shrapnel Records from 1988 to 1991, and again from 1995 to 1997.
Norman Jeffrey Healey was a Canadian blues, rock and jazz guitarist, singer and songwriter who attained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. He reached No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Angel Eyes" and reached the Top 10 in Canada with the songs "I Think I Love You Too Much" and "How Long Can a Man Be Strong".
G. Love & Special Sauce is an American rock band from Philadelphia. They are known for their unique, "sloppy", and "laid back" sound that encompasses blues, hip hop, rock, and soul. The band features Garrett Dutton, better known as G. Love; Jeffrey Clemens on drums; and Jim Prescott on bass.
Roy Anthony Hargrove was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved worldwide acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles of jazz in 1998 and 2002. Hargrove primarily played in the hard bop style for the majority of his albums, but also had a penchant for genre-crossing exploration and collaboration with a variety of hip hop, neo soul, R&B and alternative rock artists. As Hargrove told one reporter, "I've been around all kinds of musicians, and if a cat can play, a cat can play. If it's gospel, funk, R&B, jazz or hip-hop, if it's something that gets in your ear and it's good, that's what matters."
Maurice White was an American musician, best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter and chief producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, also serving as the band's co-lead singer with Philip Bailey.
Ike Abrams Quebec was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He began his career in the big band era of the 1940s, then fell from prominence for a time until launching a comeback in the years before his death.
Irma Thomas is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans".
Tracy Nelson is an American country and blues singer. She has been involved in the recording of over 20 albums in her recording career, which started in 1965.
The Greyboy Allstars are an American soul-jazz band from San Diego, California, United States, whose current members include Karl Denson on Saxophone, Robert Walter on Keys, Mike Andrews on guitar, Chris Stillwell on bass and Aaron Redfield on drums. They have released eight albums to date.
Wycliffe A. Gordon is an American jazz trombonist, arranger, composer, band leader, and music educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. Gordon also sings and plays didgeridoo, trumpet, soprano trombone, tuba, and piano. His nickname is "Pinecone".
Sammy Figueroa is an American percussionist. At 18, he joined the band of bassist Bobby Valentín and also co-led the Brazilian/Latin fusion group Raíces. He is known as an extremely prolific session player, having played on nearly 400 albums, including ten platinum records.
Jonathan Michael Batiste is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, and television personality. He has recorded and performed with artists including Stevie Wonder, Prince, Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz, ASAP Rocky, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Roy Hargrove, Juvenile, and Mavis Staples. Batiste appeared nightly with his band, Stay Human, as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015 to 2022.
Walter "Wolfman" Washington was an American singer and guitarist, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. While his roots were in blues music, he blended in the essence of funk and R&B to create his own unique sound.
Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds is a Brooklyn, New York-based seven-piece soul/rock band. The band is led by singer Arleigh Kincheloe, with Jackson Kincheloe on harmonica, Josh Myers on bass, Dan Boyden on drums, Phil Rodriguez on trumpet, and Brian Graham on baritone and tenor saxophones.
John Németh is an American electric blues and soul harmonicist, singer, and songwriter. He has received five Blues Music Awards for Soul Blues Male Artist, Soul Blues Album, Traditional Blues Album of the Year, Instrumentalist – Vocals and Instrumentalist – Harmonica. He has recorded ten albums since 2002, having also backed Junior Watson, Anson Funderburgh and Elvin Bishop. He has opened for Robert Cray, Keb' Mo', and Earl Thomas.
Jimmy Bowskill is a Canadian blues singer, guitarist and bassist based in Toronto, Ontario.
Vulfpeck is an American funk band founded in 2011 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss and Joe Dart. The band has released four extended plays, six studio albums and one live album through their own record label. The band gained recognition in 2014 for releasing Sleepify, a silent album that exposed a loophole in Spotify's royalty distribution and funded an admission-free tour. The band is one of the first to sell out Madison Square Garden without a manager or backing label, and released the recorded performance as a live album in 2019. The band's most recent album, Schvitz, was released in December 2022.
