Take Five With...

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 ...

Meet Crystal Waters: When you hear the name Crystal Waters, you immediately think of a woman whose talent and brand has sustained her 20-year career, yet the breadth of her work continues to engage new fans and please her enormous base. She is best known for her string of domestic and international number one dance ...

Meet Daniel Lehner: Dan Lehner is a freelance trombonist, composer and educator in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Born in Hamilton, New Jersey, Lehner briefly attended University of the Arts in Philadelphia before finishing his undergraduate degree in Jazz Studies at William Paterson University, studying under New York trombonists John Mosca and Tim Newman, ...

Meet Andréa Dutra: Andréa Dutra is a Brazilian singer from Rio de Janeiro. Her most important influences are MPB (popular Brazilian music), samba and jazz. She has worked with many important Brazilian musicians like Tim Maia, Seu Jorge, Sandra de Sa, Danilo Caymmi and others, all over Brazil. Andrea was nominated for the most important ...

Meet Judy Dyble: 1949: I was born; 1964ish: Joined first band, Judy & the Folkmen. Didn't make record; 1968ish: Joined second band, Fairport Convention. Made record, Fairport Convention; 1969ish: Joined third band, Giles Giles &Fripp, McDonald & Dyble. Made record, The Brondesbury Tapes; 1970ish: Joined fourth band, Trader Horne. Made record ...

Meet Joy Divine: The power of music is my inspiration. The simple truth is, I love to sing. Anyone who knows me would say, I'm a passionate advocate for keeping music alive, no matter what. Anyone who knows me would also say I am a passionate advocate for keeping music alive in your life, no ...

Meet Andrei Covaciu-Pogorilowski: Andrei Pogorilowski was born in Bucharest, Romania, in February 1968. Starting with 1982, he studied music independently, helped by several private professors. In 1989 Andrei started to hear a strange yet beautiful music in his head that he was unable to notate. Short excerpts were presented on the piano to his musician ...

Meet Jeffrey Gimble: Born and raised in Houston, TX, Gimble grew up going to the gigs of his saxophone-playing father Maynard, who had a popular big band in the '60s and '70s. Despite his natural curiosity for jazz, he was drawn instead to become an actor and musical theater performer and graduated from Houston's ...

Meet Aruan Ortiz: Named “the latest Cuban wunderkind to arrive in the United States" by BET Jazz, this classically trained violist and pianist from Santiago de Cuba, considers himself “a curious person who loves music," and portrays his music as an architectural structure of sounds, incorporating contemporary classical music, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and improvisation as primary ...