Charles Lloyd　

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd is a forward-thinking musician’s musician whose supreme improvisational talents and interest in cross-pollinating jazz with rock as well as non-Western styles of music dur ..more

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto　

Barney Wilen　

Barney Wilen’s mother was French, his father a successful American dentist-turned-inventor. He grew up mostly on the French Riviera; the family left during World War II but returned upon its conclu ..more

Spyro Gyra　

Founded in 1974 by saxophonist Jay Beckenstein, Spyro Gyra have consistently been one of the commercially successfully pop-jazz groups of the past 30 years. The band became a full-time ventur ..more

Ron Carter　

The epitome of class and elegance, though not stuffy, Ron Carter has been a world class bassist and cellist since the ’60s. He’s among the greatest accompanists of all time, but has also done many ..more

Joe Pass　

Joe Pass did the near-impossible. He was able to play up-tempo versions of bop tunes such as Cherokee and How High the Moon unaccompanied on the guitar. Unlike Stanley Jordan, Pas ..more

Chihiro Yamanaka　

Robert Glasper　

Fred Hersch　

An acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, and educator, Fred Hersch is a supremely gifted soloist with a sophisticated, yet unself-conscious approach to playing standards and his own original compositio ..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

Monty Alexander　

Jamaican-born pianist Monty Alexander is a sophisticated, prolific performer with an urbane, swinging style informed by the bop tradition, as well as the reggae and Caribbean folk he grew up with. ..more

Shakatak　

British crossover jazz, funk, and pop outfit Shakatak are a sophisticated ensemble who have enjoyed a long career. With a sound steeped in contemporary jazz and R＆B, they found success with both in ..more

Kenny Barron　

A thorough examination of Kenny Barron’s musical accomplishments over a span of 50 years necessitates a discography of more than 200 pages. That’s because in addition to a distinguished career as s ..more

Jimmy Mcgriff　

One of the all-time giants of the Hammond B-3, Jimmy McGriff sometimes gets lost amid all the great soul-jazz organists from his hometown of Philadelphia. He was almost certainly the bluesiest o ..more

Scott Hamilton　

When Scott Hamilton appeared in the mid-’70s fully formed with an appealing swing style on tenor (mixing Zoot Sims and Ben Webster), he caused a minor sensation -- few other young players dur ..more

Jim Hall　

A harmonically advanced cool-toned and subtle guitarist, Jim Hall was an inspiration to many guitarists, including some (such as Bill Frisell) who sound nothing like him. Hall attended the Cl ..more

Joshua Redman　

Every few years it seems as if the jazz media go out of their way to hype one young artist, overpraising him to such an extent that it is easy to tear him down when the next season arrives. In the ..more

Nicki Parrott　

Celebrated as an instrumentalist and a vocalist, Australian artist Nicki Parrott has earned acclaim as one of the most engaging talents to emerge on the jazz scene in the 21st century. Born in Newc ..more

Yusef Lateef　

Yusef Lateef long had an inquisitive spirit and he was never just a bop or hard bop soloist. Lateef, who did not care much for the term jazz, consistently created music that stretched (and eve ..more

Hampton Hawes　

Hampton Hawes was one of the finest jazz pianists of the 1950s, a fixture on the Los Angeles scene who brought his own interpretations to the dominant Bud Powell style. In the mid- to late ’4 ..more