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Celebrated pianist-composer Ahmad Jamal continues his performance schedule around the world, as he has for well over the last four decades. Noted for his outstanding technical command and identifiable sound as a piano stylist, Mr. Jamal was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A child prodigy who began to play the piano at the age of three, he began formal studies at age seven. While in high school, he completed the equivalent of college master classes under the noted African-American concert singer and teacher Mary Cardwell Dawson and pianist James Miller.

The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by tuba player Philip Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, along with other musicians with them at the Joseph S. Clark Sr. High School in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans. Rebirth is known for combining traditional New Orleans brass band music, including the New Orleans tradition of second line with funk, jazz, and soul influences. In 1992, Ruffins and Rebirth split amicably after Ruffins decided not to accompany the band on a trip to Africa.

RinneRadio is a trio of musicians from Finland. Operating on the boundaries of jazz and electronic music, the output of RinneRadio has been described as "some jazz, plenty of techno and ambient influences, a few poppy melodies, and hints of world music". The biography on the band's website provides this description of the music they produce: "RinneRadio fuses electronic underground beats with progressive jazz.

Formed 1989 by David Bridie and Helen Mountfort (members of Not Drowning Waving) Like their former band, My Friend The Chocolate Cake's music can be seen to straddle the worlds of ambient and world music, with an emphasis on piano and violin-led acoustic music. Influences range from the obvious (such as Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Celtic folk music), to the less obvious (such as John Cale and Talk Talk).