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JazzThere are hundreds and hundreds of jazz musicians & singers around - creating, touring, enriching people's lives with their music.
My contribution to the celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month is this ongoing list. It was made during a couple of sessions of free association. I thought of one artist which made me think of someone else.
It is my hope that everyone will be able to find an artist, a style, a video or a backstory that resonates with them.
Thirteen artists/day for 12 days (Monday - Friday). So, that's April 1-2, 5-9, 12-16. It's alphabetical by first name. Enjoy ~
1. Alexa Weber Morales sang her first solo at eight at Malcolm X Elementary (in Berkeley, CA), during a performance with Bobby McFerrin. She is a superhuman Latin world jazz salsa funk singer-songwriter; pianist; dancer.
2. Amina Figarova is a pianist and composer born in Baku, Azerbaijan (1966). She studied classical concert piano as a young girl. While attending Rotterdam Conservatory, Figarova became interested in jazz performance. She later completed her studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Her latest CD is entitled "Above the Clouds
3. Ambrose Akinmusire (ah-KIN-moo-SEE-ray) - In 2007 Akinmusire was the winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world. Check him out.
4. Anat Cohen is an in-demand clarinetist, tenor and soprano saxophonist. In 2007 she won the awards for Up and Coming Artist and Clarinetist of the Year from the Jazz Journalist Association. Her newest release “Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard
5. Trombonist Andre L. Hayward was born in Houston, TX (1973). Wynton Marsalis describes his sounds as “Big Butter”. Andre was the winner of the 2003 Thelonious Monk International Trombone Competition.
6. Drummer Antonio Sanchez was born on 1 November 1971 in Mexico City. Sanchez has been a part of various quartets and trios under the direction of Pat Metheny. He released his 1st solo album in 2007 entitled “Migration
7. Arturo O’Farrill is a pianist, composer, educator and winner of the Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award for 2003, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. In 2002, Mr. O’Farrill created the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra for Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 2007, the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra left Jazz at Lincoln Center to pursue its own educational and performance opportunities. To that end, the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance was created as a not for profit organization dedicated to the preservation , furthering, and education of Afro Latin jazz. His latest CD "Risa Negra
8. Trumpeter and pianist Arturo Sandoval was born in Atremisa, in Havana Province, Cuba in 1949. While still in Cuba, he co-founded the group Irakere with Chucho Valdes and Paquito D’Rivera. He met Dizzy Gillespie in 1977. While touring with Gillespie in 1990, Sandoval defected to the US. “For Love or Country - The Arturo Sandoval Story
9. New York City based trumpeter Avishai Cohen is Anat Cohen’s younger brother. According to New York Times columnist Nate Chinen, Cohen is “an assertive and accomplished trumpeter with a taste for modernism”. Check out his 2007 CD “After the Big Rain
10. Bassist, composer, singer, arranger Avishai Cohen is the Artistic Director of the Red Sea Jazz Festival. He was born in Kibbutz Kabri, Israel (1970). He is currently touring Europe. His latest CD was released last year entitled "Aurora
11. Guitarist B.D. Lenz was born in New Jersey (1971). B.D. has released 6 recordings of his melodic jazz/funk. His music is currently heard on over 100 television shows internationally including such networks as MTV, VH1, USA, A&E, Comedy Central, PBS, Spike, CMT, Discovery, et al. "Hit It and Quit
12. Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphonist and marimba player from Los Angeles. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern. Hutcherson has influenced younger vibraphonists like Steve Nelson, Joe Locke and Grammy-nominated Stefon Harris. He released "Wise One
13. Bobby McFerrin is both a vocalist and a conductor. He is a 10-time Grammy Award winner. McFerrin’s vocal technique switches rapidly and fluently between normal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, effectively performing both the main melody and the accompanying parts of a song.