Results for "World Jazz"

LehCats

Born: August 19

LehCats (Norbert and Karen Stachels’ last name spelled backwards) blends jazz, funk, R&B, Latin, and other world music styles that takes you on a unique journey using original compositions as the vehicle. This group of seven musicians was formed in August 2013 by Norbert and Daniel Gonzalez and was designed to showcase all original jazz compositions. These musicians tell a unique story with versatility, passion, discovery, and invention.

Maria Quintanilla

Born: December 11, 1990

Maria Quintanilla, originally born in Lima, Peru, is a multi-award winning vocalist, composer, and producer based in the heart of New York City. Her insatiable curiosity has enabled her to perform and record in a wide spectrum of styles that range from classical to jazz, funk to pop, soul to latin. Despite her young age, Maria Quintanilla has toured all over Europe, North and South America, and has had the privilege of sharing the stage with award winning artists such as mentor Jon Faddis, John Benitez, Steve Turre and Tia Fuller, amongst others. She has been recognized as a performer with poise far beyond her years and with having an exceptional ear for raw vocal expression

Allison Adams Tucker

Born: June 23

4 stars, DownBeat Magazine — "Powerful singer"
JazzTimes — "Light and buoyant, her voice is remarkably fresh, its purity underscored by considerable depth and sagely shaded hues”
LondonJazzNews — "Marvellous articulation, great tonal accuracy, and dynamic drive"
San Diego Union Tribune — “Thoroughly arresting”

Born in San Diego, California, multi-lingual jazz vocalist Allison Adams Tucker began singing before she could speak. Allison was raised by classically trained musical parents, and began performing in front of audiences at age 5. She studied piano, flute, violin, dance and voice from elementary school and holds a BA in Linguistics / Music Vocal Performance and an AA in Italian. Allison's vocal palette has been colored by her experience in a variety of musical genres throughout her life, from a cappella Elizabethan madrigals to punk rock to country to commercial jingles. Since 2005 Tucker has found the most natural fit to be jazz. In jazz she found a freedom of expression and intellectual tilt she hadn’t experienced in other genres.

Ashlae Blume

Born: March 28

Ashlae Blume is an American musician, composer and producer based in and out of New Orleans and New York City.

Born in Baltimore, they began to study piano and trumpet at the age of 5, and were composing music as early as age 6. Upon moving to New Orleans in 2008, Ashlae began performing regularly both in and out of clubs as a vocalist, accordionist, pianist, and trumpetist. They have gone on several tours throughout North America and Europe, leading projects of original music, hot jazz, and solo performance, in addition to playing with a wide variety of other groups.

Their primary musical project, Laelume, has a rotating cast of characters, and is a concept body of work that draws on elements from minimalism, genres of global folk music, jazz and black american music

Dave Anderson

Saxophonist and composer Dave Anderson brings a significant musical voice to the New York jazz scene.

Anderson has performed as a saxophonist around North America with notable musicians including Clark Terry, Matt Wilson, Craig Taborn, Chico Pinheiro, Nicholas Payton and Mel Torme. He is currently a member of percussionist Memo Acevedo’s global jazz group, Manhattan Bridges, holding residency at New York’s Zinc Bar. Although he plays in a modern style, Anderson has received accolades from jazz legends including Ray Brown and Rufus Reid.

Increasingly Anderson has focused on composing original music for his bands such as Blue Innuendo, Melting Pot and The Dave Anderson Quartet. He has recorded over 30 of his original compositions while developing a highly personal compositional/instrumental sound – one that is harmonically complex, melodically compelling and rhythmically exciting, yet accessible and appealing to lay listeners.

Gloria Arjona

Jeremy Ledbetter

Active since: July 28, 1976

Canadian jazz pianist Jeremy Ledbetter is the driving force behind Caribbean Latin Jazz powerhouse CaneFire. Jeremy currently performs regularly with Cuban trumpeter Alexis Baro, Mark Kelso's Jazz Exiles, Venezuelan world/jazz singer Eliana Cuevas, and calypso superstar David Rudder. Jeremy’s newest project, the Jeremy Ledbetter Trio, features Canadian virtuosos Rich Brown and Larnell Lewis alongside Jeremy, and will release their debut album of explosive contemporary jazz in 2018. An engaging and fiery performer whose music knows no boundaries, Canadian pianist Jeremy Ledbetter has made a career from travelling the far-flung corners of the globe in search of the most fascinating and unique musical ideas out there

Meg Okura

Born: August 9

The New York Times called her music "grandiloquent beauty that transitions easily from grooves to big cascades to buoyant swing"(Giovanni Russonello), Meg Okura is a jazz composer and violinist and the founder of the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble based in New York. In the last decade, she has won over two dozen prizes and honors, including the 2023 ISJAC Fundamental Freedom Commission and International Women In Music’s 2023 Portland Jazz Composer’s Prize.

Over the last 18 years, her ensembles have graced iconic venues in New York, such as Birdland Jazz Club, Blue Note, Dizzy’s, and Knitting Factory, as well as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., K.L. Jazz Festival in Malaysia, and other performances in the U.S., Israel, Serbia, and Japan. 

Fran Vielma

Born: April 11, 1981

Francisco “Fran” Vielma born and raised in Mérida, Venezuela, a multicultural college town where arts are part of the daily life of its citizens. Encouraged by his mother Maritza Vielma, a music lover, he started in the musical world by singing, playing Venezuelan Cuatro, and taking core music courses at The Andes University Arts Center (CUDA). 

His drumming journey began as a teenager with Caribbean and orchestral percussion, which he developed in parallel at Youth Symphonic Orchestra – “El Sistema” and playing in local Salsa bands. He later became a member of “Kimbandú” – a research music ensemble that traveled around the country to study and document musical expressions of Venezuela. 

Before moving to Caracas early 2000’s, created “Nuevas Almas” World Jazz Ensamble along with drummer/composer Diego Maldonado to play their original compositions and arrangements