swing

Bob James (born December 25, 1939) is a two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz keyboardist. Though he has recorded a couple of straight jazz albums, most of his recordings contain "pop-jazz" which is a type of instrumental pop music. Bob James was an important figure in turning 1970s fusion jazz more commercial. For their album One on One, Earl Klugh and Bob James received a Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance of 1981.

Read more about Bob James on Last.fm.

Don Byron (b.1958) is a U.S. composer and clarinettist. While he is considered a jazz musician, he is stylistically very adventurous, having recorded klezmer music, German lieder, and cartoon music. Byron was born on 8th November 1958 in the Bronx, New York City and was raised by his parents who were themselves musicians, his mother a pianist; his father a bass player for calypso bands. His parents raised him listening to all kinds of music, taking him on trips to the ballet and the symphony, and also exposing him to jazz such as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis records.

As a virtuoso bassist, versatile composer, and acclaimed bandleader, Marc Johnson has been a major innovator on the jazz scene for the past two decades. Born in Nebraska in 1953, Johnson took up bass at the age of 16, having already studied piano and cello. While completing his formal education in the celebrated music program at the University of North Texas, at age 19, Johnson began performing professionally with the Fort Worth Symphony. In 1977, he was on the road with the Woody Herman Band.

Fapy Lafertin was born in 1950 in Courtraie in Belgium into the Gypsy community of Manouches. He started playing guitar at the tender age of five years. He was in a trio with his brother on guitar and his father on violin playing traditional Manouches music. Later he performed with the “Piotto” orchestra playing gypsy style and the “Hot Club de France” repetoire. In the late seventies he was a founder member of the group WASO with Koen de Cauter (reeds), Albert Vivi Limburger (rhythm) and Michel Verstraeten (acoustic bass).