WToshiko Akiyoshi is a Japanese-American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader.
WReid Anderson is a bassist and composer from Minnesota. He is a member of The Bad Plus with pianist Orrin Evans and drummer Dave King. The original lineup of The Bad Plus first played together in 1989 and formally established the band in 2000. Anderson attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music.
WOmer Avital is an Israeli-American jazz bassist, composer and bandleader.
WSamuel Blaser is a Swiss trombonist and composer.
WThe Embarrassment was an American quartet formed in 1979 in Wichita, Kansas, that was active from 1979 to 1983, but has reunited several times since then. The band consisted of guitarist Bill Goffrier, lead singer and organist John Nichols, bassist Ron Klaus and drummer Brent Giessmann. After the break-up, Giessmann played for The Del Fuegos and Goffrier formed Big Dipper. The band was considered a prominent part of the Lawrence music scene of the early 1980s.
WGet Smart! was a three-piece post-punk band formed in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1980 consisting of Marc Koch, Lisa Wertman Crowe and Frank Loose. The band released 2 studio albums along with some singles and EPs over a 10 year career.
WColeman Randolph Hawkins, nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as "mooing" and "rubbery belches." Hawkins cited as influences Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet. Hawkins' virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, loud, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charlie Barnet, Tex Beneke, Ben Webster, Vido Musso, Herschel Evans, Buddy Tate, and Don Byas, and through them the later tenormen, Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Ike Quebec, Al Sears, Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson. While Hawkins became well known with swing music during the big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.
WEthan Iverson is a pianist, composer, and critic best known for his work in the avant-garde jazz trio The Bad Plus with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King.
WSteve Kuhn is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator.
WJason Lindner is an American pianist, keyboardist, synthesist, sound designer, composer, arranger and producer.
WHenry Nicola Mancini was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flautist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and twenty Grammy Awards, plus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.
WJon Mayer is an American jazz pianist and composer.
WBill McHenry is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He is the leader of the Bill McHenry Quartet and has released over a dozen albums under his own name, in addition to collaborating on many more.
WThe Micronotz, also known as the Mortal Micronotz, were an American punk rock/alternative rock quartet formed in 1980 in Lawrence, Kansas, that, along with bands like The Embarrassment and Get Smart!, were prominent on the local music scene in Lawrence in the early 80s.
WMilton "Shorty" Rogers was one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played trumpet and flugelhorn and was in demand for his skills as an arranger.
WPerico Sambeat is a Spanish jazz saxophonist. He is an instructor at Berklee's campus in Valencia, Spain.
WJordi Soler i Galí, known by the stage name Toti Soler, is a Spanish guitarist, singer and composer, member of cult groups Pic-Nic in the 1960s and Om in the 1970s. He had a classical training with influences of blues, jazz and flamenco. His compositions are noted for their poetic, sensitive qualities and often use extracts from poetry.
WHelen Sung is an American jazz pianist.
WDavid Weiss is a jazz trumpeter and the founder of The New Jazz Composers Octet, a group dedicated to innovation in jazz.
WJulie May Wilson was an American singer and actress "widely regarded as the queen of cabaret". She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 1989 for her performance in Legs Diamond.
WMiguel Zenón is a Puerto Rican alto saxophonist, composer, band leader, music producer, and educator. He is a multiple Grammy Award nominee, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. Zenón has released many albums as a band leader and appeared on over 70 recordings as a sideman.