Griffin Brown

Griffin Brown is a composer, poet, drummer, songwriter+vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn. Described by The Wire as “impressive” and “original,” his musical work collides—and sometimes exists wholly inside of—idioms like jazz, concert music, electronic, experimental pop+rock, and improvised music. His poems appear in The Paris Review, Plume, Poetry Northwest, Prelude, and elsewhere.

He has performed and had music debuted in an array of concert halls, clubs, and basements—among many others, the Cornelia Street Café, Miller Theatre, the Rochester International Jazz Festival, Birdland, Caramoor, PS21 Chatham, Mercury Lounge, the Owl, TV Eye, and SOB’s in New York; MASS MoCA/Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend in Massachusetts; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Morse Recital Hall, and Space Ballroom in New Haven/CT; PhilaMOCA, World Café Live, and the Trocadero in Philadelphia; the Baked Potato in Los Angeles; Donau115 in Berlin; Celeste and Fabrik in Vienna; Punctum in Prague; La Schola Cantorum in Paris; and the highSCORE Festival in Pavia—and taken part in impuls in Graz

Cezary Ostrowski

Born: September 30, 1962

Cezary Maciej Ostrowski (born 30 September 1962) is a Polish composer, musician, songwriter, author, visual artist and journalist. Ostrowski was born in Brzeg, Lower Silesia. He is best known for his work as a leader of the critically acclaimed new wave band Bexa Lala, established in 1983. Before that, he had fronted the groups: Taz and Leo Patett in the early 1980s, bands renowned for their rough, and violent sound influenced by free jazz, electronica, and post-punk. In 2001, he formed the jazz duo Trzaska & Ostrowski that released the album Blades. In 2003 his another duo Swietlicki & Ostrowski released the album Crawl

Atheen

Born: October 18, 1970

A UK Jazz-Funk musician, Atheen supported Soul II Soul early in her career and later signed to an East London independent label, who released a white label cover of the Evelyn 'Champagne' King classic Back To Love. Now self-releasing on her own label, Modal Records, she's turning out a selection of original tracks featuring a long-time collaborator, bass player Gaz Rackham. She's also realising her dream of working with some of her favourite artists, with guest performances from Matt Johnson and Derrick Mckenzie (Jamiroquai), Nick Van Gelder (drums), Gary Barnacle (sax) and Johnny Thirkell (Trumpet)

Scott Kinsey

Jazz multi-keyboardist Scott Kinsey from Owosso, Michigan began studying piano at anearly age and almost instantly became interested in the synthesizer. After graduating fromBoston's Berklee College of Music in 1991, Scott moved to Los Angeles and was soontouring the world with the critically acclaimed electric jazz group “Tribal Tech”.

In addition to his work with Tribal Tech (feat. Scott Henderson and Gary Willis), Scott hasperformed and recorded with many of todays music greats such as James Moody, KurtRosenwinkel, Philip Bailey, Anne Sofie Von Otter, Bill Evans, Robben Ford, Gary Willis, WDRBig Band, Serj Tankian (System of a Down), David Holmes & The Free Association, JoeZawinul, Danny Carey (TOOL), Norrbotten Big Band, Tim Hagans, Bob Belden, NicholasPayton & Sonic Trance, Matt Garrison and many others.

Picassoduo

Born: September 7, 1965

Petra Soden was born in Ingolstadt - studied history of arts and English - former music groups: Masquerade, Guardalachup, Freak Out, Blues Bubbles - current music groups: Picasso Quartett and RetroNova - participated workshops from Mark Murphy und Sandy Lomax - sings commercials

Phil Traynor

Born: October 30, 1964

Phil has been a musician for over 45 years. He plays drums, bass, keyboards, and guitars. Phil's early influences that pointed him toward the Jazz world include Chuck Mangione, Pat Metheny, Yellowjackets, Spyro Gyra, Tim Weisberg, Harry Connick Jr, and the Bob Mintzer Big Band. Phil is also heavily into many independent artists. Being an indie himself, Phil is a staunch advocate of the independent music community. Most of you buy records and don't even realize how many thousands upon thousands of musicians, singers, and songwriters there are that have every bit of the talent, drive, and skill of the mainstream music community, but they just haven't found the right break

Bill Laurance

Bill Laurance is a London-based, GRAMMY? award-winning pianist, composer and arranger, whose rise to fame with the world-renowned outfit Snarky Puppy has paved the way for a flourishing solo career. Laurance released his debut solo album, Flint, in 2014, followed shortly thereafter by Swift �� both albums soaring up the jazz charts and receiving praise for their deft musicianship and emotive writing and arrangement. 2016 saw the release of his third solo effort, Aftersun �� a rhythmic and funk-infused album featuring percussionist Weedie Braimah, followed by Laurance's first live album, captured at London's Union Chapel. In 2019, Laurance released his fifth album, Cables, coinciding with the launch of his own record label, Flint Music

Special Purpose

Combining vintage keyboards and lead guitar, Special Purpose blends psychedelic sounds with earthy elements of funk and jazz. The band has been playing shows in the Portland, Oregon area since 2016 with some of the best musicians in the city. Their debut instrumental album Password, written by guitarist Lance Vallis, was released in 2019 and features Paul Paresa on keyboards (Sweet n�� Juicy, Cloud 6), Hunter Parmentier on bass (Stephen Marley), and Forest Carter on drums (Far Out West, Giraffe Dodgers).

Velocity

Active since: 2014

Velocity is a quartet based out of Tacoma, Washington that siphons off of a variety of musical styles including jazz, funk and fusion. The music combines hard-hitting grooves and hook melodies with open improvisation. The energetic original compositions are largely written by keyboardist Peter Adams, and arranged by Peter Adams and Brian Smith. Common time is uncommon with Velocity. Melodies are twisted and warped around each other. Solos are aggressive, yet bind the compositions to a set of defined rules and formulas. The sounds that you expect are not the sounds you get. And that��s just the way we like it. Peter Adams / Keyboard Cliff Col��n / Saxophone Brian Smith / Drums Rob Hutchinson / Bass

Adam Ahuja

Born: January 4, 1983

NYC-based Adam Ahuja is an x-genre live-looping artist, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist, and entrepreneur. He has drawn international recognition touring independently as an artist and as a past member of acts such as Robert Randolph & Family Band and the Ana Popovic Band. Ahuja��s keen sense of the contemporary music scene prompted him to establish Infinity Gritty, a global music label and consultancy. The label focuses on pushing the creative limits of artistic expression at the intersection of jazz and beyond, and has landed features in Spotify's State of Jazz playlist, Atwood Magazine, Mathematical Association of America, and others. Ahuja's influences range from from jazz, rock, world, funk, hip-hop, electronic, and some Vanilla Ice dance partying at age six, amalgamating a sound that melds a love for the groove, an affinity for harmonic exploration, and an expression of metaphysically-bent lyricism