Stanley Clarke is an American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fusion bassist to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide and have recordings reach gold status.
Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years at the Berklee College of Music.
Steve Cole is an American smooth jazz saxophonist. He is also a professor/adviser of music business at the University of St. Thomas.
Riverside Records was an American jazz record company and label. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr, under his firm Bill Grauer Productions in 1953, the label played an important role in the jazz record industry for a decade. Riverside headquarters were located in New York City, at 553 West 51st Street.
Kenny Garrett is an American post-bop jazz musician and composer who gained recognition in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and for his time with Miles Davis's band. His primary instruments are alto and soprano saxophone and flute. Since 1985, he has pursued a solo career.
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist, composer and arranger. He has appeared on more than 300 recordings as a sideman, and is a eight-time Grammy Award winner.
Regina Elaine Belle is an American singer-songwriter who started her career in the mid-1980s. Known for her singles "Baby Come to Me" (1989) and "Make It Like It Was" (1990), Belle's most notable for two hit duets, both with Peabo Bryson: "Without You", the love theme from the comedy film Leonard Part 6, recorded in 1987 and "A Whole New World", the main theme of the Disney's animated feature film Aladdin, recorded in 1992, with which Belle and Bryson won the Grammy award. The theme song "Far Longer than Forever" from the animated movie The Swan Princess, performed with Jeffrey Osborne, was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1995 for Best Original Song.
Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, composer and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space."
Gerald Stanley Wilson was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. In addition to being a band leader, Wilson wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson.
Rodney Whitaker is an American jazz double bass player and educator.
Steve Wilson is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, who is best known in the musical community as a flutist and an alto and soprano saxophonist. He also plays the clarinet and the piccolo. Wilson performs on many different instruments and has performed and recorded on over twenty-five albums. His interests include folk, jazz, classical, world music, and experimental music. Wilson is currently on the faculty of New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. He was elected as an American Champion by the National Flute Association. Wilson has maintained a busy career working as a session musician, and has contributed to many musicians of note both in the recording studios, but as a sideman on tours. Over the years he has participated in engagements with several musical ensembles, as well as his own solo efforts.
Rendezvous Music is a record label founded by multiple-Grammy Award nominee and RIAA Certified Gold recording artist Dave Koz, radio entrepreneur Frank Cody and music business veteran Hyman Katz in 2002. At various times, the label has been distributed by Sony Music Entertainment's Red Distribution and Universal Music Group's Fontana Distribution. In 2008, artist Patti Austin received her first Grammy Award for album Avant Gershwin released on Rendezvous Entertainment in 2007. In 2011, artist Kirk Whalum received his first Grammy Award for song "It's What I Do" from album The Gospel According to Jazz Chapter III released on Rendezvous Music in 2010. Since its acquisition in August 2008, Rendezvous is part of the Mack Avenue Records label group and continues to release new music by Kirk Whalum, Jonathan Butler, Kyle Eastwood as well as previously unreleased music by Wayman Tisdale.
Kamasi Washington is an American jazz saxophonist, usually playing tenor saxophone.
Cécile McLorin Salvant is an American jazz vocalist. She was the winner of the first prize in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010, releasing her first album, Cécile, shortly thereafter. Her second album, WomanChild, was released in 2013 on Mack Avenue Records, receiving a 2014 Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Salvant won four categories in the 2014 DownBeat Critics Poll: Jazz Album of the Year, Female Vocalist, Rising Star–Jazz Artist, and Rising Star–Female Vocalist. Her third album, For One to Love, was released on September 5, 2015, to critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Guardian, and Los Angeles Times. It won her the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2016.
Jesse Palter is an American singer-songwriter and recording artist. Palter's work ranges from pop to jazz. She released her debut album, Paper Trail, on Mack Avenue Music Group July 19, 2019.
Raul Midón is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from New Mexico.
Monterey Moods is an album by the Gerald Wilson Orchestra recorded in 2007 and released on the Mack Avenue label.
New York, New Sound is an album by the Gerald Wilson Orchestra recorded in 2003 and released on the Mack Avenue label.
In My Time is an album by the Gerald Wilson Orchestra recorded in 2005 and released on the Mack Avenue label.
The Only One is an album by pianist Kenny Barron which was recorded in 1990 and released on the Reservoir label.
