Results for "jazz"

Oren Levine

Oren Levine grew up with a love of music, especially jazz, inherited from his father. He started piano lessons as an eight-year-old in Washington, DC, and continued to play while earning two engineering degrees and building a career as an engineer and technology manager. He wrote his first song at age 45 in a summer jazz workshop in Vermont.

Oren released his first album of original songs, “Making Up For Lost Time,” in 2018. His song “Let’s Wander” from the album won him the 2023 ASCAP Foundation Alan and Marilyn Bergman Lyric Award. The title track won a Finalist award in the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest.

Matt Peterson

Matt Peterson is a multi award-winning composer and pianist from Seattle, WA.  He is an accompanist at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, a piano and composition teacher at the Bellas Artes School of Music in Glen Ellyn, IL,, as well as an in-demand classical and jazz performer in the greater Chicago area.   He has taught class piano at Wheaton College and currently has a studio of 35 weekly private students.  He also records classical, jazz, and pop albums for Player Piano Premier.   He is the in-house pianist at Suzette's Creperie in Wheaton, playing every Saturday night from September to May.  

Lisa Lindsley

Born: March 27, 1957

Jazz vocalist Lisa Lindsley says that moving to Paris for a year was an idea proposed by her daughter, an aspiring high school contortionist who wanted to hone her French while studying at the Fratellini Circus School. Much to her daughter’s surprise, Lindsley put the plan in motion, and turned the adventure into the next step in her remarkable musical evolution. While her daughter decided return to the states after six months to tour with a circus in Vermont, Lindsley settled into the 19th arrondissement and quickly developed a network of regular gigs with skilled accompanists. 

Jacob William

Jacob William is a multifaceted musician, bassist, composer, improviser, and educator whose work spans free jazz, contemporary improvisation, and experimental music. For over a decade, he has led and performed in ensembles dedicated to exploring spontaneous creativity and pushing the boundaries of improvised music. In 2023, Jacob released two major recordings: Degrees of Simultaneity with Para Quintet, featuring Laurence Cook, Jim Hobbs, Forbes Graham, and Steve Lantner, and Through Osmosis and Other Means with TOaOM Trio, alongside Jim Hobbs and Luther Gray.

Renowned for his deep, intuitive approach to the bass, Jacob has been praised for the way he seamlessly anchors and propels an ensemble. Veteran jazz drummer Joe Hunt describes him as “a true breath of fresh air… a special spirit… one of my favorite musicians.” He highlights Jacob’s “formidable bass skills” and calls him “rare and wonderful… inspiring and motivational… one of the most exciting [musicians] I’d ever experienced.”

Born in Chennai and raised in Bangalore, India, Jacob’s upbringing was steeped in cultural diversity and artistic inspiration. Growing up in a family committed to the arts, athletics, and academics, his early musical experiences included choir singing and informal explorations of hybrid musical styles. In his teenage years, he began playing bass guitar and quickly gained recognition, performing at concerts and festivals throughout India with forward-thinking jazz musicians. He attended Christ College, where he studied Finance and Economics, before moving to the United States in 1991 on a music scholarship to further his studies and pursue new creative opportunities.

Jacob holds a Master of Arts in Music from Wesleyan University, where he studied under Anthony Braxton, Neely Bruce, and Alvin Lucier, while training in South Indian Carnatic music with T. Viswanathan and percussion with Ramanad Raghavan and David Nelson. He also studied in the Contemporary Improvisation program at the New England Conservatory under Ran Blake and received advanced training on the bass with Cecil McBee and John Lockwood. Jacob earned his Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music, specializing in Jazz Bass Performance under Bruce Gertz, Whit Browne, and Rich Appleman, and participated in masterclasses by Kenny Werner and Bob Brookmeyer.

Throughout his career, Jacob has collaborated with a wide and distinguished array of musicians, including Maynard Ferguson, Louiz Banks, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Ranjit Barot, Omar Sosa, Abraham K. Adzenyah, Len ‘Boogsie’ Sharpe, Badal Roy, Charlie Mariano, T.A.S. Mani, R. A. Ramamani, royal hartigan, and Gustavo Ovalles. His extensive work in the jazz and improvisational scenes has brought him together with Ken Vandermark, Joe Morris, Nate Wooley, Laurence Cook, Luther Gray, Jim Hobbs, Forbes Graham, Steve Lantner, Tony Malaby, Francisco Mela, Allan Chase, Neil Leonard, Dave Bryant, Curt Newton, George Garzone, Jorrit Dijkstra, Jeff Galindo, Pandelis Karayorgis, Chris Bowman, Tom Hall, Croix Galipault, Joe Hunt, Amit Heri, Jerry Sabatini, Andria Nicodemou, Eric Hofbauer, Eric Rosenthal, Jon Damian, Garrison Fewell, Jason Robinson, Bill Lowe, Charlie Kohlhase, Noah Kaplan, Bob Gullotti, Eric Zinman, Syd Smart, Glynis Lomon, Joe Moffett, and Junko Fujiwara.

Jacob’s performances span continents, with appearances in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including Indian National Television and Radio DRS in Zurich. He has contributed to over 20 recordings, with releases on labels such as Warner, Intuition, Magnasound, Not Two, and Ayler Records.

Ilana Waldston

Born: May 25

Ilana Waldston is not just a singer but a consummate storyteller, bringing her extensive theatre training into the world of jazz music. Whether she’s breaking your heart with a beautiful ballad, moving you out of your seat with a swinging standard or tickling your funny bone with the unusual comedic songs for which she’s best known; an evening with Ilana and the Jazz ‘n’ Laughs Band is a guaranteed good time. Her debut album, “I Could Laugh Out Loud”, was released to wide acclaim. An eclectic collection of songs, Ilana’s deft touch on vocals, with stunning arrangements played by some of the finest musicians in the country, make listening to the album a journey to remember.

Hindol Deb

Hindol started learning the Sitar at the age of five from his father Sri Panchanan Sardar. Thereafter, he received training from other imminent teachers like Pandit Santosh Bannerji from the Rampur gharana (school of thought)whose profound influence on of Been-ang (special style of playing Veena) on Surbahar inspired him to imbibe that style in his performance. Later he went on to learn from Pandit Deepak Chowdhury who taught him the tantrakari of the Maihar gharana. Some of the other eminent artists who have been a source of Hindol's inspiration are Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, Pandit Nikhil Bannerji, Pandita Girija Devi, Pandit BhimsenJoshi, Pandita Kishori Amonkar among others have shaped Hindol's style of performance

JM International

Active since: 2005

The JM Jazz World Orchestra is a young jazz orchestra composed of exceptionally talented musicians from around the globe. Under the guidance of acclaimed artist Luis Bonilla, the orchestra explores the boundaries of jazz, fusing it with diverse musical genres to create groundbreaking and unforgettable performances. The band tours annually since 2005 and performs at prestigious venues and jazz festivals across Europe and the world: musicians are carefully selected from around the world, with only the highest level of musicianship chosen to participate.

Sebastian Spanache

Born: November 24, 1984

Romanian jazz pianist and composer Sebastian Spanache started his musical journey in his home town Timisoara, where he began playing the piano at age 5, and then took up the study of jazz in ninth grade while attending the National College of Arts ‘Ion Vidu’. While still studying classical piano in high-school, Sebastian founded his first jazz/funk ensemble at age 14, later to have toured all over Romania and win numerous prizes at student competitions. 

After college, Sebastian shifted his playing and compositional directions towards a more modern edge- leading and composing for several student latin-jazz and funk ensembles

Alexander Flood

Alexander Flood is one of Australia’s commanding beat-masters, possessing a unique and finessed arsenal of groove, power, and expertise on the drums. Leading his own band from the drum chair, Alex’s unique music pushes a fresh rhythmic and dynamic realm of live dance music leaning on nu-jazz, deep-house, broken beat, DnB, funk, and experimental sounds. The band is catching ears within Australia and internationally, having recently performed at WOMADelaide, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Adelaide Jazz Festival, and Berlin clubs Privatclub and Badehaus, with upcoming international tours on the horizon. 

Tony Song

Born: December 31, 1984

Tony Song was born in South Bend, Indiana. Starting on piano at age 4, he switched to clarinet at age 9. Having discovered he had a natural talent for music, he found himself receiving numerous awards and accolades as a performer in competitions, festivals, and bands/orchestras. However, despite his love for music, and with advice from his parents, he chose to pursue an undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia in biomedical engineering. These four years of college were important to Tony for finding where his identity and passion lay. During his second year of college, he discovered the guitar by watching and learning from his college roommates and friends