Take Five With...

Musician? Tell your story in your own words and make it a part of your lasting presence on All About Jazz. Learn more about Take Five here.

Take Five with Pianist Lenore Raphael

by AAJ Staff
October 25, 2026

I'm a jazz pianist, Steinway artist, jazz educator, and host of Lenore Raphael's JazzSpot on purejazzradio.com. Music has been part of my life since I was three years old--maybe even earlier! I began with classical studies before discovering jazz at age 12. Since then, I've enjoyed a full career performing at major clubs and festivals, including Dizzy's at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Blue Note, Ronnie Scott's in London, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, the Joy of Jazz ...

Take Five with Multi-instrumentalist MTNLLY

by AAJ Staff
October 20, 2026

MTNLLY is a Nottingham, UK-based independent jazz artist whose music inhabits the space between atmosphere, introspection, and narrative. Rather than treating jazz simply as a musical language, MTNLLY approaches it as a vehicle for storytelling, using mood, texture, and composition to explore memory, emotion, solitude, and the complexities of human experience. All About Jazz: What instruments do you play? MTNLLY: I mainly play saxophone and piano, but I also play guitar and drums. In primary school, ...

Take Five with Vocalist Greg Farnese

by AAJ Staff
October 8, 2026

Greg Farnese is a modern-day throwback vocalist, a crooner, if you will. He reignites the treasured and timeless classics from the Great American Songbook and blends them with his unique interpretations of his modern-day favorites. A South Jersey native, Greg began his career in acting and moved to Hollywood, California, where he worked in theater, television and films. Missing his roots, he ultimately moved back to the East Coast, where he started his own production company producing content for television, ...

Take Five with Singer-Songwriter Rachelle Garniez

by AAJ Staff
August 16, 2026

Meet Rachelle Garniez Rachelle Garniez is a songwriter, singer, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Born and raised on New York City's 1970s culturally diverse Upper West Side by an American classical pianist and a European professor of French existentialist literature, Rachelle was exposed to rich and multi-layered influences, from utopian collective free-schooling and Austrian Expressionism to roller disco and congueros in Central Park. In 1982, at age 17, she spent a year making her way around Europe. She picked ...

Take Five with Saxophonist Bernell Jones II

by AAJ Staff
June 19, 2026

Meet Bernell Jones Originally from Memphis, TN, Bernell Jones II is an NYC-based genre-fluid saxophonist and songwriter. His music showcases a variety of influences from his upbringing such as gospel, jazz, blues, r&b, etc. As a performing artist, he has worked alongside artists such as Ms. Lauryn Hill, Olivia Dean, Wyclef Jean, Philip Harper, Eric Bellinger, and more. As an artist, Bernell has three albums under his belt, including his acclaimed 2024 debut album Typewriter. In his music and his ...

Take Five with Gary Van Miert AKA The Psychedelic Cowboy

by AAJ Staff
June 5, 2026

Meet Gary Van Miert AKA The Psychedelic Cowboy Gary Van Miert is a New Jersey-based musician and performer best known as the frontman of The Sensational Country Blues Wonders!, a band that blends classic American musical styles like country, gospel, and blues with a distinct vintage flair and theatrical presentation. The Sensational Country Blues Wonders! were designed to replicate the original instrumental lineup of acoustic rhythm guitar, electric lead guitar, and upright acoustic bass used on the first rock and ...

Take Five with Clarinetist Davide Sgarra

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 2026

Meet Davide SgarraDavide Sgarra is an Italian jazz clarinetist and saxophonist based in Brooklyn, New York. Born and raised near Varese in northern Italy, he went on to earn his Bachelor of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands and his Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music in New York City. A specialist in the New Orleans clarinet tradition, Davide performs regularly across the New York jazz scene and has played in venues including ...

Take Five with Pianist Jon Gold

by AAJ Staff
May 18, 2026

Meet Jon Gold Jon's story begins in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jon's brother (Jay Gold) was an avid music fan who introduced Jon, as a child, to Delta blues, then r&b, and later jazz. Jon's brother Jay was a producer for Mushroom Records, the label for the pop group Heart. Jon started playing slide blues guitar but early on took up piano. One of his first big opportunities was to perform with Dizzy Gillespie for a special ...

Take Five with Harpist / Vocalist Deborah Henson-Conant

by AAJ Staff
April 27, 2026

Meet Deborah Henson-Conant Grammy-nominated electric harpist, singer, composer, and educator Deborah Henson-Conant (DHC), synonymous with her website HipHarp.com, has spent nearly four decades redefining what the harp can be. Blending blues, flamenco, Latin, and classical influences, she creates music that integrates voice, stories, and instrumental performance--driven by rhythm and character. Using a looper pedal and guitar-style effects, she builds layered, improvisational performances as a solo artist and with orchestras and ensembles. She has opened for Ray Charles, toured ...

Take Five with Guitarist Johannes Ravn Hagmund-Hansen

by AAJ Staff
April 15, 2026

Meet Johannes Ravn Hagmund-Hansen Johannes Ravn Hagmund-Hansen is an award-winning guitarist and composer from Faaborg, Denmark, now based in Brooklyn, New York, after having completed his masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music on a scholarship. He is an in-demand player as both a bandleader and sideman, and has performed his own music at renowned venues such as Nublu, Threes Brewing, Fiction (Brooklyn), Le Baiser Sallé (Paris), Blue Note Dresden, as well as major jazz festivals such as Copenhagen ...