Results for "Beyond Jazz"

Billie Davies

Born: December 10, 1955

"Like the best forward-thinking music, Billie Davies' work reminds you of many different things but in the end, it is its own original beast, as powerful as anything more well-known musicians have created this year.” - Jerome Wilson, All About Jazz (Dec 17, 2018)

Billie Davies is an American drummer and composer best known for her free, instinctively avant-garde compositions since the mid nineties, and her improvisational drumming techniques she has performed in Europe and in the US. All of her music is improvisational ... a conversation between musicians and musical instruments, a joint emotional expression inspired by a certain feeling, thought or perspective that is being communicated to an audience, a listener, a community.
"I want to play as if I never played my instrument before, as if every time is the first time and I want to end up with music that is not written down but is felt and expressed at that moment of playing, of recording, of performing. This deliberate moment of choices, chances and inspirations may become a specific type of music, but it never ends up being predetermined or planned music, the notes played are never written down. I just want to end up with something where I hear unexpected, emotional, passionate, challenging music never heard before." Billie Davies.

Grace Kelly

Born: May 15, 1992

As Grace Kelly defiantly reminds us on The Other One, a standout number from her upcoming

Album, Trying To Figure It Out, she’s not looking to be like anyone else. “Got my own thing,” she sings over the song’s urban, trance-like groove. Although the singer and saxophone player has been acclaimed by critics and audiences alike as a jazz musician, the track’s exhilarating chorus, haunting keyboard hook and brittle electro edge show an artist interested only in playing what she loves labels be damned.

While a current Kelly concert might delight jazz purists with Great American Songbook standards, it could just as easily inspire mainstream listeners with Gracei-fied takes on the likes of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, Coldplay’s Magic or Sia’s Chandelier.

Melvin Johnson

Born: October 5, 1985

Houston-born keyboardist/composer Melvin Johnson is an artist as adept at creating his own dynamic expressions as he is a most valuable team player in realizing the visions of others. Church-grounded and college-educated, he has trained himself thoroughly to be an all-around musician who doesn’t just play his instrument but understands the fundamentals of all that he plays and composes, as well as his role as the leader of his band. At 36 years old, Melvin recently released his debut album, Little Red Wagon, a conceptual piece inspired by wisdoms passed down to him from his adopted father, Robert Lloyd Parker, as well as his own musings on life, family and spirituality. Musically, the project covers the full spectrum of African American musical styles, presented in configurations of solo, duo, trio, quartet and quintet. Melvin states, “These first fully arranged instrumental songs do not belong in any genre box, be it Jazz, Classical, Choral, Gospel, etc. All of that and more is in this! I love the space of creating at will.”

Taeko Kunishima

Born: September 2

"I was born in Japan and studied classical piano performance at university. When I heard Miles Davis on the radio, I switched to jazz.

I had a long absence from musical activity while living in the Middle East, and shortly after, in my youth. By experiencing different cultures and listening to Japanese, classical, jazz and  Arabic music I was inspired to write my own diverse compositions ." —Taeko Kunishima (June 2022)

Kunishima has released five albums on 33 jazz records and been played on  BBC Radio 3 Late Junction, Jazz FM, BBC World, and Resonance FM.

Simeon Nathanael Davis

Born: September 2, 1997

With a career spanning two continents before he was 20, arrangements that have received awards from both Downbeat (2021) and the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (2021) while still a student, and compositions described as “on a scale with Everglades by Terence Blanchard,” (Gary Lowe, WUNH), Simeon Nathanael Davis is a composer, bandleader, saxophonist, and violinist who blends jazz, folk, classical, and neo-soul music with his roots in South African jazz to programmatically trace narratives drawn from mythology, religion, fiction, and lived experiences. Davis was raised and lived in Cape Town, South Africa for 17 years

Mikkel Borrisholt Grevsen

Born: July 21, 1987

Grevsen has been playing music since he was 7 years old. Started in a marching band on bariton horn and trumpet. He spent the first 13 years of his musical career in the marching band and gained a great knowledge of the brass genre. Graduated from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory from 2009-2015. In 2011 he won the Danish Youth Jazz Competition with the trash-jazz band “Interfoam”. Later on, the band published “Breeding”. Composer and musician at spoken word-projects: “Rystet Spejl. Musik og poesi” (Gyldendal / Sony Music, 2013), “POWER” (Gyldendal / Sony Music, 2016) and “I vintersolen” (Blue Blitz Music, 2022) by Søren Ulrik Thomsen & Det Glemte Kvarter. In 2019 he released “Når nogen rammer jorden” (Tambourhinoceros) with INTET ALTID. He has done projects with the Aarhus Sinfonietta and the string ensemble Who Killed Bambi.

Kris T Reeder

Born: November 28, 1984

K T Reeder has been recognised as 'one of 25 of the artists who have engineered the cultural transformation of British jazz over the past four decades' in a seminal book on British Jazz by David Burke (Giant Steps: Diverse Journeys in British Jazz - 2021)

Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke

Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke is a very creative jazz singer, composer, arranger of her own discographic projects and an experimenter of sound languages. Her dramatic intensity and vocal ductility have allowed her to deal with extremely different repertoires collaborating with the most important Italian musicians.

Sculptor and painter, graduated with honors both in the New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and the Lucio Campiani Conservatory of Mantua, she is a singer specialized in the repertoire of classical jazz, with a particular profound knowledge of the ancient forms of jazz combined with an authentic taste for research and experimental attitude that make her an internationally active artist.

Rotem Sivan

Rotem Sivan’s guitar skills are heralded across the globe. The New York Times has praised him as “more than a very good young guitar player.” Downbeat Magazine has called him “a remarkable talent."

Rotem completed his studies in both classical composition and jazz performance with honors in Tel Aviv University and at The New School in NYC. Rotem tours with his band most of the year playing in world- renowned festivals and clubs. He has performed in countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Slovenia, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Israel, UK, Canada and India among others, and has given workshops around the world in top universities and schools.

LaVon Hardison

Born: July 19

LaVon Hardison sings jazz standards, originals, and her own eclectic and compelling arrangements of popular songs. She is equally at home at jazz clubs, corporate events, private parties, and sacred settings. Her background in musical theater, opera, and jazz provides a solid foundation for her accessible, joyful, and engaging musical explorations. LaVon is beyond versatile. She brings her glowing, open heart to every performance and has thrilled audiences all over the world. “I try to make music that delights me,” LaVon says. “When I first started singing jazz I felt that I had to do it a certain way