Take Five With...

Meet Joseph David Howell: Dr. Joseph D. Howell has gone from being a mostly self- taught musician from a poor small-town family to earning a Doctor of Musical Arts from a prestigious conservatory. Today he professionally performs, composes, and teaches music of many styles and instruments while maintaining an artistic focus on jazz clarinet and ...

Meet Kathy Sanborn: Kathy Sanborn is an American singer, pianist, producer and composer. Based in California, Sanborn has released four albums. Her latest jazz album, Six Degrees of Cool, has recently reached Amazon's MP3 Vocal Jazz Bestseller list. Sanborn's upcoming release, Sultry Night, is set to drop on September 2013. John Shelton Ivany of the ...

Meet Rogier Telderman: With an enormous drive, profoundness, and enthusiasm, pianist Rogier Telderman --born in 1982--has emerged as one of the rising stars from the Dutch jazz scene. He performs and composes for his ensembles Melphi and RT trio, and his duo project with vibraphonist Vincent Houdijk. He has created a unique voice, balancing between ...

Meet Roswitha aka Rose Bartu aka Queen Rose: Originally from Austria, Roswitha is a singer/songwriter, violinist, and producer. On her latest album, Destiny, the renowned jazz and classical artist lives her own dreams, making the bold move to step out as a singer/songwriter. Here, she embraces her total musicality and tastefully integrates her instrumental virtuosity ...

Meet Billie Davies: Drummer and band leader Billie Davies is mostly an autodidact whose natural talent, relentless, explorative spirit, and multifaceted experiences have led to an innovative approach to jazz. With a background in classical and jazz along with a lifetime of musical experiences in jams, performances, recordings, and music production, the listener is treated ...

Meet Sarpay Özçağatay: Sarpay Özçağatay born in Ankara, Turkey, is a talented flutist, EWI player, composer, performer, and bandleader. Sarpay has performed with many jazz musicians and legends such as Ron Carter, Kevin Eubanks, David Fiuczynski. Terri Lyne Carrington, Eric Gould, Greg Osby, Steve Turre, and many more. He studied classical flute performance ...

Meet Jon LaTona: Born and raised in Buffalo, NY. I loved jazz so much that I wanted to go to school for it. Now I have a debut record that I am extremely proud of. It was so thrilling to record because I was working with musicians that I grew up watching and listening to. ...

Meet Mike Davis: Mike Davis has lived several distinct musical lives. He has been a student, a serious student of performance and of theory and of composition and of art. He has been a gig warrior, playing multiple shows in multiple styles on different instruments at different venues with different bands on the same day ...

Meet Felix Langford: At 13, I fell in love with the art of percussion and I credit my brother, John (Doc), as the one responsible for teaching me basic beats and exposing my ears to some of the hippest and most innovative cats on the jazz scene. He exposed me to trendsetters like John Coltrane, ...

Meet Roger Aldridge: I am primarily a jazz composer. A wide range of influences are found in my music including jazz, tango, blues, samba, fusion, new music, and back to American roots music. My exploration of the jazz family tree does not stop at New Orleans. I've gone further back to old fiddle styles--especially, Appalachian--as ...

Meet Clay Grossman: Clay Grossman, a mainstay on the Chicago jazz scene for almost four decades, began his professional career at the age of the 19. He has been passing on his sage drum knowledge and wisdom to aspiring students of the drum- set over 20 years. He studied drums with Marshall Thompson and Ian ...

Meet Armen Nalbandian: Armen Nalbandian (b.1978 in Manchester, England) is a jazz pianist, composer and humanitarian. In addition to the piano, he has been known to perform on the prepared Fender Rhodes mechanical piano, and contributes to produce jazz, improvised and experimental music in California. Nalbandian is the composer of over 1200 works in addition ...

Meet Simon Spang-Hanssen: First concerts in 1976 with John Tchicai and Strange Brothers, later also with Ben Besiakov, Jesper Lundgaard, Alex Riel, New Jungle Orchestra, Jan Kaspersen, Mozar Terra, Doug Raney. In Paris, from 1985-98: Orchestra National de Jazz, Denis Badault, Andy Emler, Nguyên Lê, Quintet Moutin, Ramuntcho Matta, Edouard Ferlet. Since 1998, mainly leader ...

Meet Mike Skory: I play Hammond/piano for the regional soul/blues/original band, Root Doctor Featuring Freddie Cunningham. I also have a unique rock trio call Suzi & the Love Brothers. Both acts are out of Lansing, MI.

Instrument(s): Piano, Hammond organ.

Teachers and/or influences? The two musicians who helped me in jazz are Ron ...