Artist Index How to use Artist INDEX

Pat Metheny　

Guitar legend Pat Metheny is known for his original and genre-breaking music and emotional tone that can be recognized easily. In fact, his music is so inclusive that classifying him as jazz musician ..more

George Benson　

George Benson is simply one of the greatest guitarists in jazz history, but he is also an amazingly versatile musician, and that frustrates to no end critics who would paint him into a narrow {\ ..more

T-SQUARE　

Fourplay　

This all-star group -- comprised of keyboardist Bob James, guitarist Lee Ritenour, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Harvey Mason -- was formed in 1991 after the quartet came together on pa ..more

Quincy Jones　

In a musical career that has spanned six decades, Quincy Jones has earned his reputation as a renaissance man of American music. Jones has distinguished himself as a bandleader, a solo artist, a ..more

Shakatak　

British jazz-funk combo Shakatak formed in London in 1980. Originally comprising keyboardists Bill Sharpe and Nigel Wright, guitarist Keith Winter, bassist Steve Underwood, and drummer ..more

Earl Klugh　

An acoustic guitarist with a very pretty tone, Earl Klugh does not consider himself a jazz player and thinks of Chet Atkins as being his most important influence. Klugh played on a Yusef ..more

Robben Ford　

Robben Ford has had a diverse career. He taught himself guitar when he was 13 and considered his first influence to be Mike Bloomfield. At 18 he moved to San Francisco to form the Charles Ford ..more

Weather Report　

Weather Report started out as a jazz equivalent of what the rock world in 1970 was calling a supergroup. But unlike most of the rock supergroups, this one not only kept going for a good ..more

Jaco Pastorius　

Jaco Pastorius was a meteor who blazed on to the scene in the 1970s, only to flame out tragically in the 1980s. With a brilliantly fleet technique and fertile melodic imagination, Pastorius made ..more

Bob James / David Sanborn　

Lee Ritenour　

Lee Ritenour has long been the perfect studio musician, one who can melt into the background without making any impact. While he possesses impressive technique, Ritenour has mostly played {\inst ..more

Akira Jimbo　

Grover Washington Jr　

One of the most popular saxophonists of all time, Grover Washington, Jr. was long the pacesetter in his field. His roots were in R＆B and soul-jazz organ combos, but he also fared very well on ..more

Bobbi Humphrey　

Bobbi Humphrey is a jazz flautist whose musical tastes lean toward fusion and smooth jazz-pop. From the outset of her career, Humphrey was quite popular, winning a large crossover audie ..more

Herb Alpert　

One of the most successful instrumental performers in pop history, trumpeter Herb Alpert was also one of the entertainment industry’s shrewdest businessmen： A＆M, the label he co-founded with ..more

Roy Ayers　

Once one of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R＆B bandleader in the 1970s and ’80s, Roy Ayers’ reputation s now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz ..more

John Scofield　

One of the big three of current jazz guitarists (along with Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell), John Scofield’s influence grew in the ’90s and continued into the 21st century. Possessor of a ..more

Larry Carlton　

Best known for his signature Gibson 335 guitar and his supreme technique, Larry Carlton sees no drawing a line between genres. He draws on his varied musical roots including jazz, rock, country, and n ..more

Hubert Laws　

A talented flutist whose musical interest was never exclusively straight-ahead jazz, Hubert Laws exceeded Herbie Mann in popularity in the 1970s when he recorded for CTI. He was a member o ..more