Results for "Beyond Jazz"

Stefan Muenzer

Born: October 30

My path as a musician did not follow the conventional trajectory expected today. I do not come from a musical family, nor do I hold a prestigious degree in jazz or composition. Although I studied jazz, piano, contemporary piano music, and free improvisation at renowned conservatories in Hamburg (Germany), Vienna (Austria), and Leipzig (Germany), I ultimately discontinued those studies. Instead, I pursued an academic career in psychology; today I am a professor of psychology at the University of Mannheim. As fas as my piano music is concerned, I regard myself as a dropout from music conservatory and as an autodidact as a composer and improviser.

Anna Einarsson

Billie Davies

Born: December 10, 1955

"Billie Davies once again confirms her role as a pioneer of the jazz avant-garde. Her musical research, which began in the 1990s, has always pushed the limits of tradition, transforming every performance into a unique experience, where improvisation is not just technical, but pure emotional expression." Groove Radar Report - Jazz In Family - (January 2026). 

Mentioned as one of the Iconic Female Jazz Drummers on Jazz Fuel in 2022 all of jazz drummer and composer Billie Davies' music is Free Improvisation. Billie Davies (née Goegebeur, December 10, 1955 in Bruges, Belgium), an American female jazz drummer and composer, is best known for her free improvisation, avant-garde and avant-garde jazz music since the mid-1990s, and her improvisational drumming techniques she has performed in Europe and in the United States.

Grace Kelly

Born: May 15, 1992

As Grace Kelly defiantly reminds us on The Other One, a standout number from her upcoming

Album, Trying To Figure It Out, she’s not looking to be like anyone else. “Got my own thing,” she sings over the song’s urban, trance-like groove. Although the singer and saxophone player has been acclaimed by critics and audiences alike as a jazz musician, the track’s exhilarating chorus, haunting keyboard hook and brittle electro edge show an artist interested only in playing what she loves labels be damned.

While a current Kelly concert might delight jazz purists with Great American Songbook standards, it could just as easily inspire mainstream listeners with Gracei-fied takes on the likes of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, Coldplay’s Magic or Sia’s Chandelier.

Melvin Johnson

Born: October 5, 1985

Houston-born keyboardist/composer Melvin Johnson is an artist as adept at creating his own dynamic expressions as he is a most valuable team player in realizing the visions of others. Church-grounded and college-educated, he has trained himself thoroughly to be an all-around musician who doesn’t just play his instrument but understands the fundamentals of all that he plays and composes, as well as his role as the leader of his band. At 36 years old, Melvin recently released his debut album, Little Red Wagon, a conceptual piece inspired by wisdoms passed down to him from his adopted father, Robert Lloyd Parker, as well as his own musings on life, family and spirituality. Musically, the project covers the full spectrum of African American musical styles, presented in configurations of solo, duo, trio, quartet and quintet. Melvin states, “These first fully arranged instrumental songs do not belong in any genre box, be it Jazz, Classical, Choral, Gospel, etc. All of that and more is in this! I love the space of creating at will.”

Taeko Kunishima

Born: September 2

"I was born in Japan and studied classical piano performance at university. When I heard Miles Davis on the radio, I switched to jazz.

I had a long absence from musical activity while living in the Middle East, and shortly after, in my youth. By experiencing different cultures and listening to Japanese, classical, jazz and  Arabic music I was inspired to write my own diverse compositions ." —Taeko Kunishima (June 2022)

Kunishima has released five albums on 33 jazz records and been played on  BBC Radio 3 Late Junction, Jazz FM, BBC World, and Resonance FM.

Simeon Nathanael Davis

Born: September 2, 1997

With a career spanning two continents before he was 20, arrangements that have received awards from both Downbeat (2021) and the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (2021) while still a student, and compositions described as “on a scale with Everglades by Terence Blanchard,” (Gary Lowe, WUNH), Simeon Nathanael Davis is a composer, bandleader, saxophonist, and violinist who blends jazz, folk, classical, and neo-soul music with his roots in South African jazz to programmatically trace narratives drawn from mythology, religion, fiction, and lived experiences. Davis was raised and lived in Cape Town, South Africa for 17 years

Mikkel Borrisholt Grevsen

Born: July 21, 1987

Grevsen has been playing music since he was 7 years old. Started in a marching band on bariton horn and trumpet. He spent the first 13 years of his musical career in the marching band and gained a great knowledge of the brass genre. Graduated from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory from 2009-2015. In 2011 he won the Danish Youth Jazz Competition with the trash-jazz band “Interfoam”. Later on, the band published “Breeding”. Composer and musician at spoken word-projects: “Rystet Spejl. Musik og poesi” (Gyldendal / Sony Music, 2013), “POWER” (Gyldendal / Sony Music, 2016) and “I vintersolen” (Blue Blitz Music, 2022) by Søren Ulrik Thomsen & Det Glemte Kvarter. In 2019 he released “Når nogen rammer jorden” (Tambourhinoceros) with INTET ALTID. He has done projects with the Aarhus Sinfonietta and the string ensemble Who Killed Bambi.

Kris T Reeder

Born: November 28, 1984

K T Reeder has been recognised as 'one of 25 of the artists who have engineered the cultural transformation of British jazz over the past four decades' in a seminal book on British Jazz by David Burke (Giant Steps: Diverse Journeys in British Jazz - 2021)

Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke

Enrico Rava says of her, "Vanessa. An extraordinary artist. Painter, sculptor, composer, and above all, a singer with a unique voice capable of touching us directly to the heart. Her expressiveness and ability to convey her emotions are extremely rare qualities that make her a great performer."

In 2012, Vanessa Tagliabue was the sole international guest at the American festival "A Tribute to Bix" in Wisconsin (USA), performing a series of concerts with Dalton Ridenhour (piano, New York) and Andy Schumm (cornet, Chicago). This collaboration resulted in the album "Racine Connection," released by Rivermont Records (Indiana, USA) in 2012 thanks to record producer Bryan Wright.