The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel, the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use.
The Shaggs were an American rock band formed in Fremont, New Hampshire, in 1965. They comprised the sisters Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin, Betty Wiggin, Helen Wiggin (drums) and, later, Rachel Wiggin. Their music has been described as both among the worst of all time and a work of unintentional brilliance.
Straight-ahead jazz is a genre of jazz that developed in the 1960s, with roots in the prior two decades. It omits the rock music and free jazz influences that began to appear in jazz during this period, instead preferring acoustic instruments, conventional piano comping, walking bass patterns, and swing- and bop-based drum rhythms.
Philosophy of the World is the only studio album by the American band the Shaggs, released in 1969.
Wayne Escoffery is an American jazz saxophonist.
Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer and three-time Grammy nominee. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller and Lionel Loueke.
Shaggs' Own Thing is a 1982 compilation album by the American band the Shaggs, containing unreleased recordings made between 1969 and 1975. In 1988, Shaggs' Own Thing and the Shaggs' first album, Philosophy of the World, were remastered and rereleased by Rounder Records as the compilation The Shaggs.
Jesse Krakow is an American musician, bassist, producer, and composer based in New York City.
(Le) Poisson Rouge is a music venue and multimedia art cabaret in New York City founded in 2008 by Justin Kantor and David Handler on the former site of the Village Gate at 158 Bleecker Street. The performance space was designed and engineered by John Storyk/WSDG. It has become known for its focus on artistry, bringing contemporary classical music into the club setting, and offering a variety of set ups so that a seated classical performance can be followed by a standing set by a rock band or a DJ. Responding to a performance of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time featuring pianist Bruce Brubaker at LPR, The Wall Street Journal reported: "The crowd – many of whom wouldn't even have known who Messiaen was – sat in rapt silence, and roared their approval at the end."
Radha Renee Reyes-Botofasina is an Afro-Cuban American harpist, pianist and vocalist from Brooklyn, N.Y.
ACT is a German record label founded in 1992 by Siegfried Loch. It is a division of ACT Music + Vision founded by Loch and Annette Humpe in 1988. ACT started as a pop music label but folded soon after it started. Loch turned it into a jazz label, at first reissuing music he had recorded for Liberty, Philips, and WEA before turning to new recordings.
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.
David Ira Bass is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and lyricist who has released six albums: Gone (2010), NYC Sessions (2015), No Boundaries (2019),The Trio Vol. 1. (2021), The Trio Vol. 2 (2022) and The Trio Vol. 3 (2023). Due to a wrist injury in the mid-1980s, Bass left music to become an attorney. In January 2015, he retired from his position as a Deputy Attorney General for the California State Attorney General's office to devote himself to music.
Ryan Keberle is an American trombone player, composer, arranger, and educator. Described by The New York Times as a "trombonist of vision and composure", he leads Ryan Keberle & Catharsis, his All Ears Orchestra, the Big Band Living Legacy Project and co-leads the international chamber jazz ensemble, Reverso. Keberle has performed with David Bowie, Maria Schneider, Wynton Marsalis, Darcy James Argue, Alicia Keys, and Sufjan Stevens, among others, and has appeared on seven Grammy Award-winning records.
The Dot Wiggin Band is an American band fronted by Dot Wiggin of the 1960s outsider music band the Shaggs.
Roxy Coss is a saxophonist, activist and composer based in New York. She is the winner of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award and has attracted attention from major music magazines and organizations.
Alexa Tarantino is an American jazz saxophonist, woodwind doubler, composer and educator.
Michael Blake is a Canadian saxophonist, composer and arranger. Blake is based in New York City where he has led a robust career leading his own bands. As a sideman Michael has performed with Charlie Hunter, The Lounge Lizards, Steven Bernstein/Henry Butler and the Hot 9, Ben Allison and Ray LaMontagne. The New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff wrote,"Mr. Blake, on tenor especially, is an endlessly engaging improviser, and an inquisitive one".
John Hadfield is an American jazz drummer, composer, and percussionist.
Kobi Yakob Arad is an Israeli-born American jazz pianist, composer, and music producer. He is known for being the pianist, vocalist, and bandleader of the Kobi Arad Band. He has won a Hollywood Music in Media (HMMA) Award and an Independent Music Award, both for his work as a solo artist and as part of the Kobi Arad Band.
