Martin Uherek

Born: September 22, 1987

Martin Uherek is a renowned jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator from Slovakia. Known for his sophisticated and melodic playing, Martin has captivated audiences across Europe. He leads several jazz projects, including the Martin Uherek Quartet and the educational series “Stories of Jazz”. Martin’s career is marked by numerous awards, notable collaborations, and a deep commitment to preserving and advancing jazz music.

Early Life and Education

Martin Uherek was introduced to music early in his childhood through a church choir led by his father. He quickly demonstrated a great interest and talent for music, exploring various instruments. He studied saxophone at the J. L. Bella Conservatory and the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, under the mentorship of jazz pianist Klaudius Ková?.

Hilliard Greene

Born: February 26, 1958

Hilliard Greene has been studying music for more than 30 years and has been playing professionally over twenty. His emphasis is in classical, jazz, rock, blues, R&B, Tango as well as the music of other continents and US regions, and solo performances. Greene studied at the University of Northern Iowa and at Berklee College of Music in Boston and has been teaching private students and classes for over 25 years. He is currently a faculty member at the Bass Collective in New York City. He continues to teach privately and to do workshops and master classes in upright and electric bass for both children and adults

Anka Koziel

Born: March 4

Anka Koziel - born in a small Polish town and currently living in the Netherlands, works as a free-lance vocalist, educator at the jazz dept of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, arranger, composer, researcher. In 2008 she released her debut album Tales of the Forest, in 2010 a live concert on DVD - "Requiem Para El Mundo" with Nueva Manteca, and in 2014 - album "Earthing" with The Hague Ethospheric Orchestra (THEO). Her last album is closely connected with her research on the importance of rhythm in jazz phrasing and improvisation, "Slightly Odd" self-produced and released in 2018. Koziel��s dynamic vocal range and variety of sound is almost unlimited

Jeremy Steinkoler

Born: October 5, 1970

Jeremy has been playing drums professionally for over 25 years. He performs regularly with a wide array of musical projects, including his award-winning saxes-and-drums funk trio Mo��Fone, pop-jazz group Jenna & the Charmers, the Bait & Switch Blues Band, Jennifer Jolly & Friends, the Erika Oba Trio, Jean Fineberg's JAZZphoria, his own J. Steinkoler Quartet, and various other jazz players and singer/songwriters. His groovy, feel-based approach to the drums has earned him prodigious credits as a sideman, including performances and recordings with members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dave Ellis, Kirk Joseph, Clarence Bucaro, Jenna Mammina, Mamadou Sidibe, Chelle & Friends, Guru Garage, Valerie Orth, Rachel Efron, Flyover States, the Kevin Beadles Band, Featprints, Hot Links, Phatlip, the Jolly Gibsons, Sam Rudin, and many other top musicians around the Bay Area

Malcolm Earle Smith

Born: July 20, 1967

Trombonist and vocalist Malcolm Earle Smith is one of the most versatile jazz musicians in the UK. He has a love a deep understanding of many kinds of jazz from the 1920s to the present day and as an educator has a passionate to share the rich tradition of jazz with young musicians. As a trombonist he has played with NYJO, Kenny Baker, John Dankworth, Henry Lowther, Liam Noble and Bryan Ferry to name a few. He released his first acclaimed album, "Lyric Trombone" in 1996. He is a distinctive vocalist and one of the most exciting scat singers around. 'Vocal Intent', his first purely vocal album, is to be released in Spring 2022

Roberto Spadoni

Born: December 10, 1963

I feel lucky. I fell in love with music and she took me by hand and guides me on the paths of life, the difficult one and the easy ones. Lights and shadows, joys and sorrows: there is no day that music does not resonate within me. Thanks to her I have been able to work with many musicians and many orchestras in precious collaborations and to play in many festivals, I have been able to carry out ambitious projects and I could perform teaching in conservatories and private institutions seeing many young people grow day by day. Thanks to her, I recorded CDs, wrote books and translated others in Italian. Quoting Duke Ellington, I can say that "Music is my Mistress". Between 2007 and 2012 I graduated in I and II level in Jazz at the Conservatorio di Musica di Benevento, where I am now a professor in Jazz Composition. My training initially was mainly self-taught, working on the records and the few scores that could be found in the years of my youth

Makanda Ken McIntyre

Born: September 7, 1931

World-renowned multi-instrumentalist, composer, orchestrator and educator Makanda Ken McIntyre was a tireless musical innovator for nearly half a century, with 12 albums and more than 600 compositions and arrangements to his credit. His works include compositions for woodwind quartets, chamber ensembles, jazz bands, and full orchestra, as well as hundreds of lead sheets. He composed ballads, calypsos, bebop, avant-garde and the blues. Makanda was known primarily for leading his own ensembles �� performing on alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet, oboe and bassoon �� and being proficient on more than 16 instruments, including bass, drums and piano

Charles McPherson: The Art Of Teaching

by Jim Trageser
September 15, 2020

Charles McPherson will always be known for his alto sax playing. A favorite of Hollywood director Clint Eastwood, McPherson first gained a national reputation playing in Charles Mingus' combo in the late 1950s. By 1964 he was recording as a leader (although he'd continue to perform with Mingus for another half-decade), and later re-created Charlie Parker's ...

Joris Teepe

Born: November 27, 1962

Bassist Joris Teepe (1962) is the first jazz musician from The Netherlands to be able to make it in New York. Arriving in New York in 1992 with just his bass and a suitcase, he took lessons with Ron Carter, quickly met many musicians and started to work a lot. A year later he recorded his first CD, with a band co-led by Don Braden and featuring Cyrus Chestnut, Carl Allen and Tom Harrell. From that point everything really took off for Joris and he became a bassist in great demand. He has been working with the "who-is-who in Jazz", such as Benny Golson, Sonny Fortune, Rashied Ali, Billy Hart and Randy Brecker

Dan Redner

Dan is an active musical director, pianist, & educator in the Austin community and the owner of Dan Redner Music LLC, teaching weekly piano lessons to 60+ students of all ages and experience levels, in addition to presenting various concerts and clinics to students at schools and universities.  Dan is active nationally as a contributing member to the Austin District Music Teachers Association (ADMTA), the Texas Music Teachers Association (TMTA), the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), the Jazz Education Network (JEN), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and American Artists Project (AAP).  Recent performances include the National Broadway Tour of Disney’s the Little Mermaid, Disney’s Aladdin the Musical, and Tina Fey’s smash hit Mean Girls the Musical at Bass Concert Hall, in addition to newly released albums The Heights Life and Redner/Durham/Parks Live to Two.  Last summer, Dan performed at the famed Rose Theater @ Jazz At Lincoln Center in NYC as the MD & Pianist for the Broadway musical revue, Sing out. 
 
As a 2007 alumnus of Grand Valley State University (hometown - Grand Rapids, Michigan), Dan was a founding member of the New Music Ensemble.  Their album of Steve Reich’s composition Music for 18 Musicians, (Innova Recordings label) was named among the top recordings of 07’ by the New York Times, L.A. Weekly, The Rest Is Noise, and New York Magazine while reaching the top of iTunes’ and Amazon’s classical charts and spending eleven weeks on Billboard’s top 25 classical crossover chart.  The ensemble performed at the 2007 “Bang on a Can” New Music Festival at the World Financial Center in NYC and are featured on National Public Radio.
 
Previously, Dan performed around the world for 6+ years with Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Azamara Cruises, directing various Broadway, revue, and cabaret shows.  In August 2011, Dan relocated to Austin, Texas in pursuance of a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies & Performance from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.  Dan can be heard performing solo, with the Dan Redner Trio, the Gil Del Bosque Quintet, and with Austin’s premier 10-piece funk, soul, & Motown group the Matchmaker Band.
 
Credits include: Maria Schneider, Ann Hampton Callaway, The Drifters, The Coasters, Tony Tillman, Yakov Smirnov, Marty Allen, Lenny Welch, Toby Beau, Pearl Kaufman and countless other singers, comedians, and stage acts.  Dan continuously shares the spotlight with the best musicians Austin has to offer, performing at weddings, receptions, churches, clubs, restaurants, theaters, and more. A tour schedule, media, lesson information, and more can be found via www.danrednermusic.com.