Colin Steele is an incredibly talented trumpet player, and an extraordinary jazz composer mixing and merging his Scottish roots with his obvious passion for jazz. His work is fresh, vibrant, often upbeat, really life affirming and great for that trudge to the tube every morning. Occasionally the sun'll glint off something, or you'll see something that makes you smile. If you're listening to Colin Steele these experiences are magnified and make life feel great.
Dave Douglas is an American (born in Montclair, New Jersey March 24th, 1963) jazz trumpeter and composer whose music is notable for drawing on many non-jazz musical styles, including classical music, european folk music and klezmer. He has been a member of the experimental big band Orange Then Blue. Douglas is currently the director of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which is held annually in New York City.
Cuong Vu is widely recognized by jazz critics as a leader of a new generation of innovative musicians. A truly unique musical voice, Cuong has lent his trumpet playing talents to a wide range of artists including Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Dave Douglas, Cibo Matto, Mitchell Froom, and Chris Speed. Since moving to New York in 1994, Cuong has been active leading various groups, most notably his trio with Stomu Takeishi (bass) and Ted Poor (drums).
Ryan Denton (vocals), Joe Brand (guitar), Pawel Banach (drums), and a cat named Wojtek (who just joined on bass) are Fox Gang. There will be others soon. Since forming in 2005 in Krakow, Poland, Fox Gang have called many cities their home: Krakow, Edinburgh and now Glasgow, Scotland. But these fine gents bring with them some of the most interesting tunes wherever they go. Their unique mixture of punk attitude, rock and indie music, plus their ultra-cool stage presence has led to a huge number of followers.
Liz Allbee (b. 1976) is an avant-garde musician and composer from Oakland, California, United States. Her work spans many genres, most often encompassing improvisation, electronic composition, noise, weird pop, minimalist/maximalist brawls, and experimental rock. She has played with a wide array of musicians, including Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Hans Grusel, Gino Robair, Birgit Uhler, Fabrizio Spera, George Cremaschi, Yugen Noh Theater, SFSound, and with members of Caroliner, Sun City Girls, and Rova Saxophone Quartet.
Jim Snidero is a jazz alto saxophonist, author, and educator based in New York City. He has been a member of Frank Sinatra's orchestra, the Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, and the Mingus Big Band. He has also performed with Tony Bennett, Eddie Palmieri, Maria Schneider, Sting, Billy Joel, and Elton John. He has published several jazz etude books in the Jazz Conception series (with accompanying CDs that comprise most of the listens here at last.fm).
He was originally from Camp Springs ,Md.
Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1975, Abram Wilson grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana where he attended the New Orleans Center For Creative Arts (NOCCA), a school specialising in jazz and classical music. After graduating from NOCCA and high-school, he studied classical trumpet with Larry Griffin at Ohio Wesleyan University. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in music education, he continued studying music at the Eastman Conservatory in Rochester, New York where he got his masters degree, studying jazz performance and composition with Ralph Alessi...
Ian Carr (born 21st April 1933, died 25th Febuary 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr was born in Dumfries, Scotland, the younger brother of Mike Carr. From 1952 to 1956 he went to King's College, now Newcastle University, where he read English Literature, followed by a diploma in education. At the age of seventeen Carr started to teach himself trumpet. After university he joined his brother in the Newcastle band EmCee Five from 1960 to 1962, before moving to London, where he became co-leader with Don Rendell of the Rendell–Carr quintet (1963–1969).
Mazen Kerbaj was born in 1975 in Beirut and lived there since. His main activities are comics, painting and music. After a lot of works for different publishers and magazines, it is in March 2000 that he releases some of his more personal works in his Journal 1999 (a dairy in comics' format). He self-published eight other books and many short stories since. It is also in 2000 that he plays for the first time in concert, in the Strike's pub in Beirut. This concert, a duo with Lebanese sax player Christine Sehnaoui, is probably the first improvised music concert in the Middle East.