Taylor Eigsti is an American jazz pianist and composer. Eigsti's trio features bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Eric Harland. He is also a member of Eric Harland Voyager, Kendrick Scott Oracle, and Gretchen Parlato's group.
Julian Lage is an American guitarist and composer.
Scott Tixier is a French-born jazz violinist and professor of jazz violin at the University of North Texas.
Gerald William Clayton is a Dutch-born American jazz pianist, composer and bandleader.
Nate Wood is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. He has performed with Wayne Krantz, Kneebody, Tigran Hamasyan, Louis Cole, The Calling, and Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders.
Motéma Music is a jazz and world music record label in the United States. It was founded in 2003 in San Francisco Bay Area by label president and recording artist Jana Herzen. The label has received GRAMMY® recognition more than 25 times for albums in jazz, Latin jazz, reggae, and R&B. Motema's roster includes Gregory Porter, Joey Alexander, Deva Mahal, Pedrito Martinez, Randy Weston, Geri Allen, David Murray, Monty Alexander, and Charnett Moffett, Donny McCaslin, Mark Guiliana, and Terri Lyne Carrington and many other respected artists in jazz, world and soul music.
Jana Herzen, is a singer-songwriter with folk, world, rock, and jazz influences who founded Motéma Music, a record label focused on jazz and world music. Before founding the label in 2003, she worked as a musician in San Francisco, as well as an art agent for the renowned collage artist Winston Smith published by Last Gasp of San Francisco. Smith published two books, was well known for his humorous and often politicized album covers and magazine illustrations. He also designed the logo for Herzen’s Motéma label.
David Weiss is a jazz trumpeter and the founder of The New Jazz Composers Octet.
Matt Slocum is an American jazz drummer and composer. He has released four recordings as a bandleader: Portraits, After the Storm, Black Elk's Dream, and Trio Pacific Vol. 1. Slocum is the recipient of composition grants and commissions from New Music USA, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the American Music Center, the Puffin Foundation, and Meet the Composer.
Kneebody is an American band formed in 2001, consisting of Adam Benjamin on keyboards, Shane Endsley on trumpet, Ben Wendel on tenor saxophone, and Nate Wood on bass guitar and drums.
Kaveh Rastegar is a Persian-American Grammy-nominated songwriter, record producer, composer, and bass guitarist. Rastegar was born in Montreal and raised in Denver, Colorado. He currently resides in the Los Angeles/Pasadena area with his wife and children.
Shane Endsley is an American trumpeter, drummer, and composer. He is a founding member of Kneebody, as well as an active leader and sideman with other New York City jazz musicians, as well as with pop and rock musicians such as Ani DiFranco and Pearl Jam.
Dayna Stephens is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. In addition to leading his own group, Stephens has performed extensively with Kenny Barron, Ambrose Akinmusire, Taylor Eigsti, Julian Lage, Eric Harland, and Gerald Clayton. Stephens grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Berkeley High School. He went on to study at the Berklee School of Music and later at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
Thomas Morgan is an American jazz bassist.
Simple Song is a contemporary jazz album by saxophonist Ben Wendel, released on March 24, 2009. The album features a collection of neo-bop jazz compositions.
Frame is an album by saxophonist and composer Ben Wendel on Sunnyside, released on February 28, 2012. The album features a mix of contemporary styles, with configurations ranging from a duo to a full sextet. Frame was recorded on January 19 and 20, 2011, in Brooklyn, NY.
What We Bring is the third album by saxophonist and composer Ben Wendel. Released on Motéma Music on September 9, 2016, it marks his debut with the label.
High Heart is the fifth studio album by grammy nominated saxophonist and composer Ben Wendel. The album was released on October 30, 2020, under the Edition label.
All One is a GRAMMY® nominated 2023 studio album by saxophonist and composer Ben Wendel. The album, released on April 21, 2023, under the Edition label, features various artists on each track, including Bill Frisell, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Terence Blanchard, José James, Elena Pinderhughes, and Tigran Hamasyan.
Joe Sanders is an American jazz double bassist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2023, saxophonist Joshua Redman described Sanders to the New York Times as among "the greats of [his] generation and [one] of the most active and emulated musicians on the scene today."
