Kathy Sanborn

Born: January 16

Kathy Sanborn is an American award-winning jazz vocalist, composer, and recording artist. Known for her velvet voice, Sanborn takes jazz music into the modern era with her sultry, contemporary sound. Her unique contralto voice interprets her original compositions in an emotional way that captivates the listener. Sanborn's latest album, Romance Language, releases July 11, 2025. 

Ben Allison

Born: November 17, 1966

In a career that spans over 30 years, bassist/composer Ben Allison has developed his own instantly identifiable sound. Known for his inspired arrangements, inventive grooves and hummable melodies, Ben draws from the jazz tradition and a range of influences from rock and folk to 20th century and a broad range of music from around the world, seamlessly blending them into a cinematic, cohesive whole.

With his small groups, Ben has toured extensively throughout the world building new audiences with an adventurous yet accessible sound and a flair for the unexpected.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Ben has performed and collaborated with an extremely diverse range of artists including oudist Ara Dinkjian, kora player Mamadou Diabate, saxophonists Lee Konitz and Joe Lovano, Cambodian chapei master Kong Nay, legendary performance artist Joey Arias, tap dancers Jimmy Slide and Gregory Hines and US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, to name a few. He has appeared on over 50 albums by various artists and has written music for film, television and radio, including the theme for the National Public Radio (NPR) show On the Media (which boasts a listenership of over 2,000,000 people), the score for Two Days, a play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Donald Margulies and the theme for The Conversation, a webcast talk show hosted by Pharrell Williams.

Ray Ferretti

Born: July 31, 1958

Ray Ferretti started playing guitar in his early teens and was first drawn to music by the 70’s rock bands. Moving on to rhythm and blues and funk he started to gravitate toward jazz via Joe Pass. After hearing Wayne Shorter and Tribal Tech fusion bands he realized the style of music he wanted to play and compose. In the 90’s started to explore jazz fusion composition.

After 10 year hiatus Ray starting releaseing new music under 'Old Men Rock Records'.

Ray likes combing many styles into each composition which was sparked by a conversion with Pat Martino. I was with Pat at his parents place in South Philly and he went to take a phone call and I started looking at his album collection and I came across a Earth, Wind and Fire album which kind of shocked me and I ask me him about it and Pat said "take the best from whatever you like and make it your own" and that statment formed my style, a fusion of different elements.

Rudy Van Gelder

Born: November 2, 1924

Rudy Van Gelder started recording artists such as Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley in the early 50s, in the comfort of his parent’s living room. It wasn't until 1959 that he opened his studio in Englewood Cliffs and along with Alfred Lion, changed the way Jazz was being recorded. In his six-decade career, it is estimated that he has recorded, mixed, and mastered over 2000 albums not only for Blue Note but Verve Records, Impulse!, CTI, and many others.

Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion and Van Gelder first met when musician Gil Melle introduced them in 1953. Lion was impressed with the sonic clarity of Van Gelder's recordings, and he made sure that Van Gelder recorded most Blue Note sessions from 1953 to 1967. The signature “Blue Note Sound” is really a culmination of Lion's devotion to hard bop jazz, Van Gelder's meticulous pursuit of accurately capturing that improvisatory music, and the remarkable playing of the musicians on those early sessions at the Hackensack home studio. In his later career, Van Gelder operated from his state-of-the-art digital facility in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., where he worked with re-issue producer Michael Cuscuna on the RVG Series.

Joby

Born: December 25, 1970

https://linktr.ee/jobybaker

— A decade after his last full-length project — a decade spent winning Grammy and JUNO Awards as a producer — Joby Baker pours himself out in his return as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist on “Wanderer,” the lead single (out now) from the upcoming album “Rain On Dry Ground” (due out on Feb 17th 2023.)

While listeners may not be used to seeing his name on the front of an album, lead single “Wanderer” and the rest of the project are saturated with an equal number of genius melodies and rhythms that Baker has lent to such artists as Alex Cuba, Deva Premal, Cowboy Junkies and India Arie throughout his distinguished 35-year career.

Marc Urselli

6-time Grammy Award nominated, 3-time Grammy Award winning engineer, producer, mixer, sound designer and front of house engineer Marc Urselli works with artists from around the world.

He has worked with U2, Foo Fighters, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Sting, Keith Richards, Kesha, Jeff Beck, Les Paul, Buddy Guy, Luther Vandross, Børns, The Black Crowes, Joss Stone, Mike Patton, John Zorn, Jack DeJohnette, Esperanza Spalding, John Patitucci, Laurie Anderson and scores of artists performing rock, pop, metal, jazz, experimental/avantgarde/new music, urban and electronica and classical.

Marc also composes music for ?lm and television, creates sound design for commercials and mixes audio for ?lm and television. He also recorded and mixed more than half a dozen movie soundtracks.Marc was born in Switzerland and raised in Italy. His musical education began at age 12. At age 17 he opened his ?rst commercial recording facility in Italy. Marc later moved to New York City, where he currently resides and works as Chief House Engineer for the historic & legendary recording studio EastSide Sound.

Nerya Zidon

Born: June 22, 1993

Nerya Zidon (a.k.a NERY) is a saxophonist, composer, music producer and audio engineer born in 1993 in Jerusalem (Israel). Zidon has performed in esteemed venues including the Red Sea Jazz Festival, Jerusalem Jazz Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival and New York��s Lincoln Center. He shared the stage with music legends Billy Cobham, John Patitucci, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tigran Hamasyan, Shankar Mahadevan and Ustad Zakir Hussain to name a few. Zidon��s musical journey began at the age of 5, playing the piano and later the violin. 7 years later he picked up the saxophone, and was admitted into the very selective Jerusalem Academy of Music & Dance High School in Jerusalem

Jacopo Penzo

Born: October 10, 1987

Jacopo Penzo is a producer based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Switzerland and raised in Milan, Italy, he lives in the US since 2012. Jacopo has a B.A. in Music Production & Engineering from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA), and a M.A. in Media Studies and Media Management from The New School (New York, NY). He has produced, recorded, and mixed records for artists throughout different genres, from jazz (Tamara Usatova, Benjamin Furman, Yakir Arbib) to indie rock (Half/Brother, Stone Giant). He has also worked as postproduction sound editor for a broad range of clients, including major studios like HBO, Amazon Studios, and Netflix, as well as independent filmmakers and local businesses.