Kevin ��Sonny�� Gullage

The New Orleans, Louisiana native displays limitless potential as a soulful singer, dazzling keyboardist, and magnetic frontman. 

Improvisation Versus Composition

by Robert J. Lewis
August 11, 2025

What is it that attracts music lovers to jazz (improvised music)? Is it the loose structure, or the beat or the notes and melodies we have never heard before and will never hear again, unless the performance has been recorded? Or is it the musician's uncanny ability to spontaneously translate feelings that inform the notes into ...

Allie Porter

Allie Porter
Hails from Crofton, MD and is a singer and songwriter now living in New Orleans with honest pipes and a heart of gold bringing you the music of your past, present and future.
She has been influenced by Grace Slick, Joni Mitchell, Irma Thomas, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Beyonce and Janis Joplin.
She can be seen performing in New Orleans with The Allie Porter Band, The Holy Trinity Trio and more. She joined Billie Davies in January of 2018 for the “PERSPECTIVES I & II” project.

Branden James Lewis

Preservation Hall’s Grammy-nominated trumpet player, Branden Lewis, is surprisingly modest. He beams with bravado on stage but, in conversation, he’ll tell you about what he cooked for dinner, what he’s been listening to lately and what his friends have accomplished far before he’ll open up about himself. It is not that he isn’t proud of having performed with Stevie Wonder, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Arcade Fire, Chance the Rapper, Jon Batiste, Reggie Watts, Dave Matthews, Corinne Bailey Rae, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and Foo Fighters. It’s just that those experiences are lagniappe to having a day job that allows him to do what he loves to do most. — Offbeat magazine (New Orleans)

Ari Kohn

Ari Kohn is a Multi-Instrumentalist, Composer, and Educator raised in Portland, OR, and shaped by the vibrant music scene in New Orleans, LA. Holding a degree in Jazz Studies from Tulane University, Ari specializes in Saxophone, Flute, and Vocals, with a bold, warm sound all his own.  As a sideman, he is currently a member of "J & The Causeways", and has been a part of myriad local groups such as "Miss Mojo", "Noruz", and "Sexual Thunder!", to name a few. He also leads soul-brass quintet "Brass Lightning," and recently released a solo project- "ARIEL".

The Jazz Innovator: Jerald Miller

by B.D. Lenz
July 11, 2025

It's understood that talent alone is rarely enough to be successful in the music business. Among other things, it requires drive, relentless hard work, resilience, and a certain level of business acumen. But, in the last few decades, it's become increasingly important to be tech-savvy as well. To highlight the difference, could you imagine Miles Davis ...

Czarakcziew and the Jazz Cats: A Tribute to Fred Katz

by Pawel Czarakcziew
May 20, 2025

I've always thought that musicians (if they are sincere), draw from the same source. No matter what genre (classical, jazz, rock) they are in, it's the same well. In my book The Seekers--Meetings with Remarkable Musicians, I write a chapter on Fred Katz, my old college professor and more importantly, the cello player in the Chico ...

Sharel Cassity: In the Spirit

by Katchie Cartwright
May 19, 2025

Even on an old familiar tune like Charlie Chaplin's “Smile" (1936), it is clear from note one that Sharel Cassity is a child of Bird, an altoist in the modernist tradition of Charlie Parker. Her first influence was actually her biological father, an organist, with whom she shared the stage in New Orleans at age 11, ...

Swinging Scores��How Jazz Shaped Bollywood��s Golden Age

by Karan Khosla
May 13, 2025

This piece--the first in a five-part series on the Indian jazz revival--focuses on the heavy imprint of jazz on Indian cinema, specifically Bollywood during its golden age between the 1940s and 1970s. It's a story about how a music born in New Orleans made its way to Bombay, and how, for a few wild and brilliant ...

Steve Allee: Naptown Sound

by Steve Allee
May 8, 2025

Submitted on behalf of Kyle Long, Producer/Host at WFYI in Indianapolis.If you ask the average music fan to name the greatest jazz cities in America, it's unlikely that Indianapolis would top their list. That's a shame, as those familiar with the city's history know better. They see the unique fingerprints of Indianapolis musicians across ...