Results for "Contemporary Jazz"

Rachel Huggins

With over a decade of experience as a performer, Rachel’s new EP ‘KEEP DREAMING’ follows on from her previous EP ‘Home’ in 2016. As well as being an accomplished songwriter and performer of her own material, Rachel has also lent her voice as a singer to a variety of other artists and songs, becoming a two-time finalist in the BBC’s Gospel Choir of the Year, featuring as a backing vocalist for DJ Vadim and Sola Rosa and performing at Glastonbury, Green Man, Kendal Calling and Secret Garden Party, among others.

Francois Bourassa

François Bourassa—now with ten albums of original music under his belt—has become an ambassador for Canada’s thriving jazz community at an international level. A paragon of both consistency and evolution, he continues to seek out new challenges for himself, his colleagues, and his growing community of listeners. On April 16, 2021, Bourassa released his first solo piano album L’Impact du silence and is releasing “Swirl”, a new live album with his Quartet on July 7th, 2023.

Bourassa’s talent was initially recognized by the Festival international de jazz de Montréal in 1985, kickstarting his trio’s recording and performing career throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In 1996, Bourassa’s trio joined forces with saxophonist and flutist André Leroux. Bourassa’s eponymous quartet has been a staple of Montreal’s artistic landscape for 25 years. The band features founding bassist Guy Boisvert, longtime saxophonist André Leroux, and Guillaume Pilote as the most recent addition.

Joy Ellis

Joy Ellis is a jazz pianist, singer and composer based in London and an alumni of Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In March 2022 Joy released her third album with long-time collaborators Henrik Jensen on double bass and drummer Adam Osmianski. Recorded at the end of May 2021 her new material has a relaxed and minimalist vibe in keeping with the album’s title, ‘Peaceful Place’. Moving through the pandemic Joy felt there were no words she could sing to capture the grief and sense of loss that she and other people she knew had experienced. Therefore she decided to compose an album with no vocals at all using her other instrument and first love, the piano

Nadine Axisa

Born: August 12, 1981

Nadine Axisa is an established versatile singer, with a passion for smooth jazz, latin, swing and soul music. She received vocal training in classical singing at a young age and discovered her love for jazz music through the performance in clubs and bars in her late teens. Nadine studied jazz classics, attended and followed a number of workshops with acclaimed tutors including Tina May, Iain Mackenzie, Guillermo Rozenthuler, Donna Mc Elroy, Dennis Montgomery III and Anne Peckham. She later pursued her studies at the Johann Strauss School of Music with Joe Debono. Nadine released her debut album 'Velvet' in 2014 featuring twelve original tracks, mostly composed by Maltese composers and authors in the smooth jazz style

Luca Sguera

Luca Sguera (1992, Milano) is a piano player, composer and improviser. Other than improvisation, he investigates composition as layering of signs and meanings, through a practice in which rhythm and timbre play a main role. He is active in several projects (AKA, She's Analog) with which he released records (Aut, Auand) and performed in festivals and clubs among Italy and Europe.

Onur Aymergen

Born: May 26, 1880

Onur Aymergen started playing classical guitar with Özhan Gölebatmaz and studied classical flamenco with Suat Demirkıran, then interested in rock, funk and jazz music. He played his own compositions in many festivals and music clubs with his quartet and took part in projects with European musicians. In his jazz projects, he reflected the sounds of European jazz, modern jazz and world music. Afterwards, Aymergen worked with Mısırlı Ahmet for several years and tried to develop his rhythmic ideas. He worked a variety of styles including Turkish, Indian and jazz music. He recently wrote his thesis on Turkish Maqam Harmonisation with Prof

Vanessa Perica

Born: April 6, 1982

Vanessa Perica is a composer and conductor based in Melbourne, Australia. 

Upon completion of her Bachelor degree in 2003 at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, she was awarded the prestigious Bob Wyllie Scholarship for ‘Most Outstanding Graduating Jazz Student.’ Other recipients of this honour include Linda May Han Oh, Mat Jodrell, Ben Vanderwal and Troy Roberts.

Recent career highlights include both national and international recognition. She was a finalist in both the Anonimus Big Band (2018) and ‘Scrivere in Jazz’ International Composition Competitions (2020). She has also appeared at the Sydney, Melbourne and Perth International Jazz Festivals. 

Greg Cordez

UK-born, New Zealand raised, Cordez has lived and worked in London, Madrid, and New York City. A busy bassist, composer and educator now settled in the vibrant Bristol music scene. As a jazz performer, Cordez has performed and recorded with Tony Malaby, Jon Cowherd, Steve Cardenas, Kenny Wollesen, Allison Miller, Kirk Knuffke, Micheal Blake, Iain Ballamy, Jason Rebello, Tim Garland, Huw Warren, Martin France, Chris Biscoe, Andy Sheppard, Sam Crockatt, Gareth Lochrane, John Law amongst others. In 2013 Cordez started work on his project involving the talents of Jake McMurchie, Nick Malcolm, Jim Blomfield, and Mark Whitlam

Andrew DeNicola

Live People Ensemble

Active since: 2009

Live People Ensemble is a Moscow-based band that was founded in 2009 by Russian pianist and composer Natalya Skvortsova. They play original music that feels stylistically close to contemporary European jazz, while also incorporating influences from the band members’ personal and cultural backgrounds. The musicians use various elements of jazz and art music tradition, folk and world music, and contemporary rhythmic and harmonic-rhythmic structures to convey emotion and live energy in their music. Live People Ensemble performs both original music written by bandleader Natalya Skvortsova and the other band members, and original arrangements of popular jazz pieces