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Deftly fusing her Latin heritage — her father was a Mexican composer and her mother an Argentinean singer and tango dancer — with a love and in-depth knowledge of jazz, Mili Bermejo had been performing for some time before her first release, 1992’s Ay Amor! Born in Buenos Aires and raised in Mexico City, Bermejo first studied composition at Mexico’s National School of Music and with noted Latin composer Julio Ernesto Estrada. Her time in college also brought her in touch with jazz, and she eventually relocated to Boston, MA, to study at the Berklee School of Music, where she would continue as a professor after graduating in 1984. With bassist (and husband) Dan Greenspan, she recorded Ay Amor! and the 1998 release Duo. Her Mili Bermejo Quartet released Casa Corazon in 1994 with contributions from Boston’s modern creative jazz ensemble Orange Then Blue. The following year’s release, Identidad, spanned the whole of Latin music in its arc of influences. In 2000, the Mili Bermejo Sexteto, featuring guitarist Claudio Ragazzi, brought the singer’s journey full circle with the release of Pienso el Sur on the Mexican Pentagrama record label. – AllMusic

Victor Lemonte Wooten is a unique human being. Born the youngest of five boys, he began learning to play music at the tender age of two. He started performing in nightclubs and theaters as the bassist with the family band at age five, and at age six, was on tour with his brothers opening shows for legendary soul artist Curtis Mayfield. Soon after, he was affectionately known as the 8-year-old Bass Ace, and before graduating high school, he and his brothers had shared the stage with artists such as Stephanie Mills, War, Ramsey Lewis, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Dexter Wansel, and The Temptations. But, this only begins to tell the tale of this Tennessee titan.

Wooten, now a five-time Grammy winner, hit the worldwide scene in 1990 as a founding member of the super-group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Continuing to blaze a musical trail with the band, Victor has also become widely known for his own Grammy nominated solo recordings and tours.

Among other things, he is a loving husband and father of four, a skilled naturalist and teacher, a published author, a magician and acrobat, and has won every major award given to a bass guitarist including being voted Bassist of the Year in Bass Player Magazine’s readers poll three times (the only person to win it more than once.) In 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine voted Victor one of the Top Ten Bassist of ALL TIME.

“I was born at the right place and the right time to a wonderful family.”

Victor Lemonte Wooten was born September 11, 1964 to military parents on an air force base outside of Boise, Idaho. Soon after, the family packed up and moved on as military families often do. It was during the years stationed in Hawaii that the brothers began performing as a five-piece band. With Regi on guitar, Roy on drums, Rudy on sax, Joseph on keys, and Victor on bass, the Wooten Brothers band was born. Performing in their front yard, the band immediately began honing their skills. Victor credits the brothers’ early ability to play a variety of musical genres to the experience of relocating frequently, the diversity of 1960’s radio stations, and the unwavering support of their parents who provided many opportunities and booked all of their performances.

My brothers, who were already playing music, knew they needed a bass player to complete the family band.
Regi started teaching me as soon as I could sit up straight,
and my parents let him do it.”

Victor has been heralded as “the Michael Jordan of the bass” and “one of the most fearless musicians on the planet.” These qualities were evident when, in 1981, his older brother, Roy, recommended him as a bluegrass fiddle player for a job performing at a nearby amusement park. Victor, having never played violin in his life, was thrilled to meet the challenge. He borrowed an instrument from his high school orchestra teacher and immediately began practicing. Quickly learning the most popular fiddle tunes and techniques, he took the job at Busch Gardens – The Old Country in Williamsburg, VA playing fiddle and bass in the Good Time Country Show

“I remember getting that call from Roy. He trusted me.
I had to learn to be a fiddler real quick – almost over night.
I don’t think the people who hired me ever knew I’d never played before.”

What they soon found out was that the brothers were quickly becoming star attractions. The Wooten Brothers rapidly became staple figures and star attractions at the park throughout the 1980’s working in the German, Italian, Country and Bluegrass, and Americana shows.

The years 1980 and 1981 found the brothers performing for US troops overseas as the band for the Busch Gardens USO show. Traveling the world was an eye-opening time of learning for young Victor, but it was one summer performing in the country show that, unbeknownst to him, changed his life forever. That was when he became aware of a unique banjo player named Béla Fleck.

“My brothers and parents were the foundation.
They prepared me for just about anything by teaching me to keep my mind open and to learn to adapt.”

While messing around with a friend’s banjo between shows, the friend commented on Wooten’s unique banjo sound. Because the instrument is tuned different from a bass, Victor’s lines came out sounding pretty strange when he played his friend’s instrument. With a thick southern accent, the friend told him that he sounded just like a banjo player named “Baylor Fleck”. Wooten couldn’t imagine anyone playing a banjo that way, so he sought out to find out who this Baylor guy was. When he finally heard a recording of Béla’s band New Grass Revival, he was hooked.”

In 1987, Victor traveled with his friend to Nashville, TN. During their short visit, he connected with the banjoist Fleck for the first time. After their initial meeting, Wooten and Fleck kept in touch and continued sharing musical ideas. In 1988, Wooten found himself living in Nashville. Later that year, Béla and Victor, along with Victor’s inventive brother Roy “Future Man” Wooten, and harmonica & piano wizard Howard Levy, formed the eclectic ensemble Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. With a dozen recordings under their belt, the band has created a completely new sound and has become known for its genre-defying music. Currently, over twenty years later, the band is still going strong.

“Musically, that means not being rigid and not having to play in a certain way.”

A few years after he began touring with the Flecktones, Victor released his first solo project, A Show of Hands. Recorded with only a 4-string bass, no multi-tracking, and a lot of groove and soul, this revolutionary CD was voted one of the most important bass records of all time.

Musicians wanting to learn Victor’s unique style and elusive techniques began seeking him out for lessons and seminars at music stores and schools around the world. These workshops became the training ground that lead to the formation of his acclaimed Bass/Nature Camp in 2000, which eventually expanded into Victor Wooten’s Center for Music and Nature. These “intensive” style programs, now in its thirteenth year, welcome all instrumentation and vocalists, and have helped thousands of people of all ages from all corners of the world enhance their musical and personal lives.

“People frequently thank us for sending their new spouses home.”

In 2009, Wooten Woods became the new home for all of Victor’s camps. The nearly 150-acre retreat, owned by Victor and his wife, is located on the beautiful Duck River west of Nashville, TN. This picturesque retreat center, largely built by the hands and hearts of past students, has provided many more opportunities for Victor and his staff to share their lifelong experiences with others.

“We give students the opportunity to completely let go and be themselves while congregating
in a peaceful non-competitive manner on an equal playing ground with each other and their instructors.
We’ve found this to be the best environment for learning.”

April 1st, 2008 marked the debut of two new releases by Victor Wooten. Palmystery (Heads Up) is his sixth solo recording and contains a collection of all new music. It features Bootsy Collins, Mike Stern, Keb Mo, Carl Denson, Jd Blair, Derico Watson, Saundra Williams, Anthony Wellington, Steve Bailey, Will Lee, Dennis Chambers, The Lee Boys, The Wooten Brothers, and others. The album showcases Wooten’s jazz composition and arranging skills with songs like “Two Timers”, “Flex”, and “Song for my Father”, but also brings to the forefront his artistically humble side with the celebratory track “Bass Tribute” and the thought provoking “I Saw God”.

On the same date, Victor released The Music Lesson – A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, a self-published novel about Life and Music. The book presold hundreds of copies before its release quickly becoming a “must-read” for musicians world-wide. The choice of using this unconventional approach to sharing unique ideas about music was a surprise to all. Offering an intriguing story full of anecdotes and mysticism, The Music Lesson has helped free the minds of musicians worldwide. Soon after its release, it was picked up and published by the Berkley Publishing Group/ Penguin USA Inc. Now translated into multiple languages, The Music Lesson is currently used as required reading and part of curriculums in study groups, schools, and universities including the prestigious Berklee College of Music and Stanford.

With the success of the book came the release of The Music Lesson audiobook (Tantor Audio). Victor lends his voice as the narrator and main character, but enlisted many of his friends and fellow musicians to read the parts of all the remaining characters. Victor also wrote and performed the musical score to the audio book, which was voted as a one of five finalists at the 2011 Audie Awards (the audio book’s equivalent to the Grammys) in the category of Personal Development.

“My mom always said the world needs more than just good musicians.
She said we need good people.”

Wooten’s sought-after skills and growing popularity have lead to recordings and performances with artists such as Chick Corea, The Dave Matthews Band, Bootsy Collins, Branford Marsalis, Mike Stern, Prince, India Arie, Keb Mo, Dennis Chambers, Susan Tedeschi, Gov’t Mule, Bruce Hornsby, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Frank Gambale, the legendary Moroccan group Nass El Ghiwane, and many others.

His respected reputation as a teacher and speaker/lecturer on the subjects of both Music and Nature have garnered invitations for him to speak and teach at schools, universities, classes and spiritual centers around the world. Some of these places include Strathmore College, Berklee College of Music, Stanford University, Harvard, Mississippi State, Miami University, Middle Tennessee State University, The Haven (Gabriola Isle BC, Canada), Various Nature Centers and camps, and The NYC “Y” with Dan Levitin, author of “This Is Your Brain On Music”.

Along with recording Grammy winning and Billboard charting albums with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Victor also spearheaded the formation of the super-group SMV with two of his childhood heroes, Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller. He continues to record and tour with the Flecktones, various other artists, and as a solo artist. He also currently leads six to eight camps at Wooten Woods each year (which he takes part in all day every day). With all of this going on, it would seem like Victor Wooten would have no time for anything else, but that is not the case.

Taking matters completely into his own hands, Wooten has recently formed his own record label, Vix Records. Wooten’s self-proclaimed “Label of Love”, entered the scene in 2011 with a re-mastered version of his pioneering debut solo CD. The new version, A Show of Hands – 15, contains three bonus tracks and is also released on vinyl.

“If the world were to follow you today, where would you lead them?”

Continuing to grow and always willing to share his gifts with all who desire to learn, it seems that Victor Wooten has no plans of slowing down.

“I’m currently writing the sequel to The Music Lesson, and have at least three more books planned after that. I feel like we’re just getting started with the camps and Wooten Woods. Now that we are officially recognized as a not-for-profit organization (501c3), the door is wide open. Vix Records has already released multiple products and we’re not even a year old yet. Writing music for movies and television is the next logical step, and with the amazing team I have helping me, including my manager Danette Albetta, my assistant and web-master Dave Welsch, and my wife Holly, I’m sure we’ll accomplish all of our dreams and more. You know, my kids are actually starting to play gigs on their own now. Who knows, I may be able to retire soon and become their manager. I’m just happy that people like what I do and that I have a lot of support. You can’t beat that.”

Steve Masakowski has long been regarded as one of the finest jazz guitarists from New Orleans. His experience as a recording artist and jazz soloist is extensive. He has recorded five compact discs under his own name to date, including his latest, For Joe. As a jazz soloist, he has been invited to record on over twenty-six albums as well as accompany many noted jazz musicians including Nicholas Payton, Mose Allison, Dave Liebman and Ellis Marsalis.

Masakowski recorded two solo albums What It Was and Direct AXEcess on Blue Note, both of which received critical acclaim and reviews in major music publications around the world. The prestigious international jazz journal Downbeat Magazine awarded What It Was a four and a half star review and honored Masakowski in their criticÕs poll as Talent Deserving Wider Recognition. His music has been featured in major publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Downbeat, Jazz Times, and many others. In addition, Masakowski was honored by National Public Radio with a feature biography which aired nationally on the Morning Edition radio program.

Masakowski came to the attention of Compass Records as a member of the celebrated New Orleans jazz group Astral Project which has released 2 albums on Compass. After hearing Masakowski describe the tremendous influence which Joe Pass’ 1964 Pacific Jazz release For Django had on his playing, Compass co-founder Garry West suggested that Masakowski record a similar kind of tribute to the legendary Joe Pass. The resulting album, For Joe, includes a mixture of originals and standards recorded in a trio setting, featuring Bill Huntington on bass and Astral Project bandmate Johnny Vidacovich on drums. The sparse setting allows for Masakowski’s seven string guitar and formidable technique to shine as he pays homage to Pass on tunes like Falling in Love With Love, Pass Presence and For Django, the title track of Pass’ 1964 album.

One of the highlights of MasakowskiÕs 25 year old performing career is a two-year tenure with the jazz ensemble headed by Grammy nominated vocalist Dianne Reeves.Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, The Superdome and The Newport and JVC jazz festival They toured extensively throughout Europe, North America, and Japan and made numerous national television appearances on shows such as Good Morning America and NBC Weekend. With Dianne Reeves he had an opportunity to perform at the most prestigious concert halls and festivals around the world.

As a member of the award-winning 22 year old group Astral Project, heÕs recorded two cds: Elevado and VoodooBop, both on Compass Records. The group has also completed several successful European and North American tours, and has had featured performances aired on the Bravo Channel and NPR. In 1999, Astral Project toured with jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin performing at several major festivals and venues around the country.

Steve Masakowski teaches Advanced Jazz Harmony and Theory, Jazz Guitar and directs the Jazz Guitar Ensemble at the University of New Orleans. He studied jazz arranging and composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston and studied composition and orchestration with Dr. Bert Braud in New Orleans.

The true mark of an artist is his willingness to delve into areas both new and old. In a short time, Rod McGaha has gained respect for doing just that. As a trumpeter, composer, vocalist, lyricist and producer, McGaha is unique in his ability to combine a wide variety of influences into aneclectic, globally conscious blend which rings totally fresh. McGaha is an artist able to bring many gifts to his music. While he is admired for his unique talents as a powerhouse instrumentalist, singer and tunewriter, it is McGaha’s presence as a performing artist that has garnered him respect from some of the best players in the industry, including the legendary drummer Max Roach. A past winner of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award for Outstanding Jazz Trumpeter and the Oak Lawn Jazz Festival All Star Award, McGaha has joined the ranks of some of the most promising up and coming jazz players today.

Preacherman was produced by Delfeayo Marsalis of the legendary Marsalis family and Rod McGaha and guests on the album include ChrisBrown on drums, Roger Spencer on bass and Lori Meechamon piano. Preacherman, McGaha’s first Compass release, is vastly different from the urban jazz-alternative hip hop of The Servant, which McGaha released in 1997 on the now defunct Magnatone label. Preacherman showcases McGaha’s abilities as a confident player and composer of traditionaljazz, relishing in the sounds of the jazz quartet. Though the music is notgospel per se, McGaha’s spiritual groundings shine through on the threetunes he wrote for the album. McGaha says, “Many of my greatest moments of inspiration come from sitting in church and reflecting on the messages being discussed.” With a background in the Pentacostal church, McGaha says, “I was struck by the sound and emotion that would emulate fromthe female worshippers at the altar. On the title track I concentrated on those memories and tried to create musically the sounds that I’d heard.”Other tunes on the album include a creatively arranged version of the Beatleshit Can’t Buy Me Love and the classic favorite In a Sentimental Mood.

Amazingly, for a composer whose tunes show such a wide diversity, McGaha says he never consciously aims to create one specific vibe or another. “I grew up listening to the Jackson Five, Sly Stone and disco, and have donecountry gigs, so it’s inevitable that all of these are a part of me andaffect the way I write. But rather than force yourself to write a rock tune, a jazz piece or hip hop groove, I start with the statement I want the songto make and let the music evolve from there. Aiming for a specific soundhas never worked for me. It’s better to see where the initial spark takes you.”

Raised in Chicago, McGaha’s father was a huge jazz buff who turned him on to Miles and Louis Armstrong at an early age, McGaha was more apt inhis formative years to be checking out Parliament Funkadelic, James Brown and Kool & The Gang. He began playing both guitar and trumpet around fourth grade, but eventually focused on the horn due to a high school teacher’s great influence.

After playing in numerous school bands and clubs around town, McGahabegan his professional career right out of high school touring with theDuke of Earl himself, Gene Chandler. Later, while attending NortheasternUniversity in Chicago and then DePaul University on scholarship, his eyeswere opened to traditional jazz for the first time. Famed trumpeter ClarkTerry (who played with Duke Ellington and Count Basie) discovered McGaha at a local festival and took the young performer under his wing of which lead to numerous jazz cruises.

While McGaha’s extensive resume as a sideman includes gigs and tourswith top pop and soul names like Kenny Rogers, Bebe and Cece Winans, The O’Jays, Take 6 and Lou Rawls, he is also a highly decoratedjazz performer. Among his other trophies are the Maynard Ferguson Awardfrom the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival and the Outstanding Trumpet Soloist Award from the National Association of Jazz Educators.He has appeared on BET and his song Wish I Knew was recordedby Shelby Lynne and is featured in the movie Two If By Sea.

McGaha has had the opportunity to play his music throughout the world,with stops in Egypt, Nigeria, Europe and Japan. “There is no doubtthat seeing and hearing the people and music of all these cultures playsa part in what I create,” he says. “I don’t consciously createsongs based on one specific image or another, but the exposure has helped increase my global awareness.”

Born of a long-standing partnership stretching back over a decade, Raven is an album of assured, fully-realized performances that confidently, nonchalantly distort and dissolve boundaries. Lesser musicians adhere righteously to the lines separating tradition from innovation, soloist from accompanist – but the duo of multi-instrumentalist John Williams and guitarist Dean Magraw interact so effortlessly, and draw from such a wide range of traditions and techniques, that existing borders cease to be relevant. With one listen, the insight and instrumental skill that went into creating Raven is immediately apparent. Repeated listenings reveal a host of subtle musical undercurrents that speak of Williams and Magraw’s profound empathy and endless musicianship.

John Williams and Dean Magraw first met in St. Paul, brought together by the city’s thriving Irish music scene. The twin cities area is home to Magraw, though he is often away performing for audiences around the U.S. and the world. While he has an extensive background in contemporary jazz, Magraw’s passions have lead him to perform in an extraordinary range of contexts, from Celtic and bluegrass to jam band and avant-garde. His solo guitar albums draw from those experiences, synthesizing them via his impeccable technique into soundscapes both moody and tranquil. Hailing from a musical Chicago Irish-American family with its roots in County Clare, John Williams is the first and only American to have won the All-Ireland concertina title. He was a founding member of the group Solas, a band whose unrelenting drive and precision reawakened musicians on both sides of the pond to the potential of Irish traditional music. Upon leaving Solas, Williams has released a series of acclaimed solo albums and served as the traditional musical director for the Dreamworks film Road to Perdition.

“Irish music is our common ground, and the fiddler Martin Hayes was a mutual friend of ours,” explains Magraw. “About ten years ago, Martin and I were doing a show at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. We had John come out and do a 45 minute encore – a 45 minute tune set, one after another!” The audience’s reaction was overwhelming, encouraging Williams and Magraw to pursue their partnership, setting aside a few weeks each year to perform as a duo. “We recognized that the possibilities of playing as a duo were intriguing,” says Williams, “and we always get a huge response, year after year. As time went by, there was a lot of pressure from audiences and presenters to make a recording.”

Recorded outside of Chicago, the eleven core tracks of Raven “either took four days or ten years to record,” says Williams, “depending on how you look at it.”

They chose to not bring in outside musicians, keeping the focus on the duo’s well-honed interplay and an intriguing range of original, traditional, and outside material drawn from their concert sets. “You can get more textures the more people you have, of course,” Magraw explains, “but the duo is a special combination that fully exploits each member, yet you really have to listen closely to the other guy. In the future we may bring in guests, but it was really great to explore the sounds we make together…”

Magraw and Williams delight in attacking the material on Raven from a variety of angles. Some tracks find the duo stating the melody straightly in a fine, traditional fashion. Others feature them approaching it more expansively, letting the song arise gradually from the mists of their improvisations. Williams’ work in film-scoring comes to the fore on several cuts, particularly the evocative “Perdition Piano Duet,” which derives from Williams’ contributions to Road to Perdition. A slow-smoldering intensity, such as heard on “Lianna” and the haunting title track, betrays the influence of master Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla.

Far from merely accompanying Williams (who contributes whistles, flute, and piano in addition to accordion and concertina), Magraw is an equal partner in the music – engaging in tight unison passages, shaping the tracks’ unfolding with deft counter-melodies and chord voicings, and taking exhilaratingly fleet solos.

The importance of the live experience to their collaboration is apparent in the album’s coda – three songs recorded live at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. “The Cedar was the first place we played together,” Magraw says, “and a place we play together every year. They have always been very supportive of our whole musical journey.”

“We originally sequenced the album to conclude with ‘The Raven,’ which is a very smoky, atmospheric track,” says Williams, “but then we decided it needed to end on an exclamation point. Luckily our shows had become popular with a Grateful Dead, newgrass audience, and were being recorded and traded among those fans. So we went back through all the live tapes people had given us, and found that set.”

With the release of Raven, Magraw and Williams plan to expand their annual duo tours and continue to cultivate their rewarding partnership – a partnership whose range Williams feels is well-documented on the album. “A lot of Irish CDs,” Williams concludes, “linger on the same vibe through the course of the entire program. This album unfurls – it doesn’t stay on one flavor for very long. That said, we didn’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel every time. But we do want to take it for a good spin.”

Astral Project is a band that according to Down Beat is “one of the most distinctive and cohesive quintets in jazz of the ’90s.” Formed in 1978 from the cream of New Orleans” modern jazz scene, Astral Project has remained a unit even while its members explored innumerable other endeavors, including recordings as leaders and sidemen for a wide array of major and independent labels. Through it all, the band known as New Orleans” Premier Jazz Ensemble has always regrouped to reach for the stars. JazzTimes proclaimed Astral Project as “one of the more adventurous working units in modern jazz today.”

On Voodoo Bop, their second album for Compass Records, Astral Project’s improvisational abilities are more tightly woven than ever. The album was produced by Astral Project and mixed and mastered by John Fischbach, Stevie Wonder’s acclaimed engineer during his great ’70s period. Recorded at Kingsway Studios, the historic French Quarter mansion turned recording haven, Astral Project recorded the album live in the large tracking room with no separations or overdubs — a first for the band. Band members attest that the well-known mysterious vibe of the mansion played part in the mystical feel of the tracks on the album.

The ten tracks on the album are all journeys into different musical realms reflecting the fact that the band has continued to grow musically and expand on their vast array of knowledge. “All my life what I’ve enjoyed most is that I get to play all kinds of different gigs with different people,” says drummer John Vidacovich. “But this is what we do. I think what makes us cool as a group is that when we get together for so long over so many years — we bring these other little trips we’ve been on.” The bonus track, “The Queen is Slave to No Man” was written by bass player James Singleton who says, “The idea behind this tune was to highlight instant composition. The only parts of the piece that are composed are the first minute and the last minute; everything else is improvised. It’s exciting for us because each time we play it, it’s new.”

In the ’70s, the band had a nightly gig at a place called the Absinthe House on Bourbon Street. An unknown Bobby McFerrin used to sit in with them almost every night. Recently, while playing in St. Paul, Astral Project was reunited with Bobby McFerrin. After a reminiscent jam session, Bobby invited Astral Project to tour with him in the summer of ’99.

These five veteran musicians — known as tops on their instruments in jazz-rich New Orleans — bring a wealth of diverse experience to the bandstand which has helped gained them features with NPR’s Jazz Set with Branford Marsalis and profiles in Down Beat and JazzTimes. A story in The Chicago Tribune said, “Like New Orleans itself, Astral Project blends a thousand influences into an alluring identity all its own.” They also bring strong ideas about the music they make together. For them, music is a group search for a higher plane of understanding. It is not about formality or classicism, musical boundaries or some misguided dogma on what constitutes “real” jazz.
 

True to the original spirit of jazz, Astral Project creates real tunes — memorable melodies — while giving the musicians freedom to incorporate influences from all sources. Like a flock of birds in flight, the group shifts direction with an ease so uncanny it seems to verge on telepathy. It’s an ease that can come only from special individuals who have spent 20 years improvising together. “You have to stay out of the way of the music,” says James Singleton “and then the reward is you get something new that you didn’t know before about yourself. If I close my eyes, I can learn more, I can get more. You find it’s a transcendent experience. It’s a spiritual experience in a way. Because you find you become part of a larger thing. It reinforces your faith — in God and existence, human existence. It heals you.”

John R. Burr is that rare pianist who combines jazz technique with a genuine love for folk music. The Philadelphia Weekly said, “Pianist extraordinaire John R. Burr has the most sparkling style since former Allman Brother-turned-Rolling Stone hired hand Chuck Leavell.” Discology wrote, “John R. Burr ranks with the best of the elegant jazzers.”

Burr was first drawn to the piano at the age of 10 when he heard Vince Guaraldi’s playing on the Peanut’s animated TV specials. He started out as a child prodigy drummer; he was the only child out of 5 siblings not forced to study the piano. It wasn’t until he was in high school that his focus turned to the keyboard. He then discovered that there were too many drummers to compete with and the piano became his instrument of choice.

After years of touring with such artists as Maria Muldaur, The Alison Brown Quartet, Paul McCandless, Michael Manring and Kathy Kallick and recognition including a feature spot on Windham Hill’s Piano Sampler II, Burr is stepping out with his first solo album, Piedmont Avenue. His playing is as likely to be inspired by James Taylor or Doctor John as by Oscar Peterson or the Yellowjackets although he says it is his love of folk music that has influenced him most. His musical diversity has enabled him to tour and record with a variety of artists and has made him the ideal pianist for the ground breaking folk/jazz group, The Alison Brown Quartet. Burr explains, “I play a sort of jazz piano version of the vocal music that I love to listen to. That’s what influences me. I love to play and study jazz but I listen to vocal, folk/singer/songwriter music. I’m always searching for that melodic song-like quality when I improvise.”

Piedmont Avenue is full of examples of Burr’s musically lyrical style. Burr feels that the seventh track on the album, “Counting the Days”, comes the closest to bridging the gap between jazz and folk. The tune was written with multi-reed specialist Paul McCandless in mind, containing chord changes that are reminiscent of McCandless’ writing and improvising. McCandless joins Burr on this track as well as on Point of Departure. On the lead off track, Burr, a long time Beatles fan, pays tribute to the group with his own take on the classic Lennon & McCartney song, Black Bird. Burr’s unique rendition, playfully titled Black(ened) Bird, incorporates a New Orleans style groove.

Burr’s playing is engaging and his breezy style blending jazz and folk influences makes for a rare and articulate debut album. Piedmont Avenue is cohesive in its conception, inspired in its execution and serves as an excellent introduction to the wonderfully original piano voice of John R. Burr.

Bassist Todd Phillips’ musical pedigree is unbeatable. He staked his claim in musical history in 1975 as a member of the original Dave Grisman Quintet. He has performed and recorded with some of acoustic music’s most influential artists, including John Gorka, Montreux and Psychograss. On his latest solo album Timeframe, Phillips establishes himself as a multi-instrumentalist and composer capable of blending diverse influences into a seamless musical statement.

Phillips was born in San Jose, California in 1953. He began playing electric bass at age 11 and had his first professional studio recording experience when he was 15. Around the time that he graduated from high school he began playing the acoustic bass and developed an interest in bluegrass and jazz.

Soon afterwards, Phillips began studying with mandolinist David Grisman. This relationship quickly led to his involvement in the development of the original David Grisman Quintet. During his tenure with the group, Phillips had the opportunity to work with many well-known acoustic instrumentalists including Stephane Grappelli,Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Tony Rice and Richard Greene. He credits the experience as having had tremendous influence on his musical growth. In particular, he says: “Spending so much time with Grisman when I was young both twisted and widened my perspectives (in a creative way) about all music.”

In 1984, Phillips recorded his first solo album Released which received critical acclaim. Billboard Magazine wrote: “Todd Phillips makes a winning new acoustic frontman.” The San Francisco Bay Guardian heralded Phillips as “one of the most meticulous and musically focused artists of the new acoustic musicmovement.” Phillips was also the 5-time recipient of the Frets Magazine readers’ poll award for Best Jazz and Bluegrass Bassist Grammy Award for his work with JD Crowe and the New South.

Throughout the 80’s and into the 90’s, Phillips continued to be involved in a variety of projects. Together with musical associates Mike Marshall and Darol Anger from the David Grisman Quintet, Phillips formed the eclectic jazzgrass group Psychograss. Theband recorded one album for Windham Hill which furthered their individual reputations as leading innovators in new acoustic music. Phillips also continued to build a successful career as a sessionmusician and appeared on dozens of recording projects including records by Alex de Grassi, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas and Tony Trischka.

In 1991, Phillips began composing and arranging music for Timeframe.His goal was to write, arrange and record in a way that incorporated as much of what he loves about music as possible. The end result is what Phillips labels a “musical hybrid” – a sound that is at once reminiscent of the west coast “cool jazz”scene, the bachelor pad sound, and the new acoustic movement, and draws inspiration from sources as unlikely as Bill Evans,John Coltrane, Steely Dan, Joseph Haydn and Bill Monroe. Together with reed master Paul McCandless (Oregon), violinist Darol Anger (Turtle Island String Quartet), Joe Caploe on vibes and drummer Paul van Wageningen, Phillips delivers a focused and assured take on acoustic jazz which the Nashville Scene described as “music that’s both accessible and beautiful while remaining constantly surprising and fresh.”

Fiddlers 4 is a gathering of some of today’s most celebrated fiddlers. Michael Doucet is well loved for his work as the leader of Cajun supergroup Beausoleil. Darol Anger, a veteran of the David Grisman Quintet and founding member of the Turtle Island String Quartet, is the leading exponent of jazz-hued newgrass. Bruce Molsky is internationally revered as a leading old time fiddler and Rashad Eggleston, a hot newcomer cellist, is lauded for his scorching hot technique. Each has made a major musical statement and helped revolutionize their field, inspiring numerous emulators and new genres. Their repertoire spans a heroic reach of American culture, covering the spectrum of American fiddle, from the oldest dance tunes to sophisticated jazz sounds, with singing and stories.

On their debut album, these four master musicians create a cross-cultural fiddling extravaganza, with stops in the Louisiana bayou, the Appalachian mountains and the Marin foothills. On tracks such as You Little Wild Thing (La Betaille), Cajun master Michael Doucet sings with the passion that launched his group Beausoleil to the forefront of Cajun music makers. Pickin’ the Devil’s Eye is an adaptation of the old time standard that gives each fiddler a chance to dazzle. Fiddler players across the world are coming together and realizing the great potential of fiddle music to move and inspire all ages. In this spirit, these influential and accomplished musicians have joined forces to create something beautiful and new out of very old cloth.

Darol Anger has changed bluegrass and jazz fiddling by blending elements of the two, just as swing fiddlers did in the mid-fifties, by using modern harmonies and rhythms. Violinist, fiddler, composer, producer and educator, he is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent. With the jazz-oriented Turtle Island String Quartet, Anger developed and popularized new techniques for playing contemporary styles on string instruments. The virtuoso ‘Chambergrass’ groups Psychograss and NewGrange, his highly lauded partnership and duo creations with string master Mike Marshall, and the plugged-in Anger-Marshall Band feature his compositions and arrangements. His Grammy-nominated folk-jazz group Montreux provided one of the original musical models for the New Adult Contemporary radio format. The David Grisman Quintet forged a new genre of acoustic string band music with Darol’s ‘fertile inventiveness, surprising touches and technical mastery’ often in the forefront.”

Michael Doucet brought Cajun Music out of obscurity to joyful public acclaim. Michael’s super-charged fiddling and singing powers his two-time Grammy award-winning group Beausoleil, by far the best known Cajun band in the world. With his constant research and vast knowledge of Acadian history, Michael has not only preserved an essential part of American culture, but moved it forward into the mainstream. Beausoleil, now in its 25th year and a regular guest on NPR’s Prairie Home Companion, composed and played the music for the feature film Belizaire The Cajun, and has released a score of best-selling recordings on Arhoolie and Rhino Records.

Bruce Molsky has been dubbed the “Rembrandt of Appalachian Fiddling” for his brilliant mastery of regional styles, encyclopedic knowledge of tunes, and especially his supercharged and entirely personal rhythm, which has been known to break glass, explode closed containers, and compel dionisian episodes of involuntary dancing. Renowned musicians Tommy Jarrell and Albert Hash were two of Bruce’s mentors in the Blue Ridge Mountains where Bruce learned to play. He has been featured in Acoustic Guitar, Fiddler Magazine, Dirty Linen, Acoustic Musician, and other magazines. His three recordings on Rounder Records have created an unprecedented stir in the rapidly growing world of old-time music, and he is accomplished on guitar, banjo, and vocals.

Rushad Eggleston is an enormously talented cello player, a master of improvisation and fiddle styles on a relatively unwieldy instrument and has already done things that nobody has done with the cello. He was the first stringed instrument student admitted to the prestigious Berklee School Of Music on a full scholarship. A newcomer to the professional community, Rushad brings an element to Fiddlers 4 that helps make the dream of a truly masterful American Vernacular String Quartet a reality.

The Matt Flinner Trio has mastered the craft of composing music “on the go.” The group practices a unique approach—writing in hotel rooms, dressing rooms, on airplanes and in the back of tour vans—and debuting the new pieces the same night. Sonically founded in bluegrass, jazz and American acoustic music, the virtuosic collaboration between esteemed mandolinist Matt Flinner, guitarist Ross Martin and bassist Eric Thorin, is a finely tuned composition machine.  Now with over two hundred tunes in their repertoire, the trio will release Winter Harvest this January 31st, a road-crafted sequel to their 2009 release, Music Du Jour.

“We’re building on what we started with Music Du Jour, debuting tunes the day they were written. But I think Winter Harvest is a more mature CD; we’ve done close to seventy of these shows now, so we’re getting to choose fifteen tunes out of two hundred and six. We wanted to choose the few tunes that really defined the group and where we’d gone.”

Stylistically, the group is self-defined as “deeply-rooted new acoustic music,” a GRAMMY-nominated mandolinist Matt Flinner has made a career out of playing acoustic music in new ways. Whether it’s with his own Matt Flinner Trio or with Phillips, Grier and Flinner, the Frank Vignola Quartet, Darrell Scott, Steve Martin, the Ying Quartet, Tim O’Brien, Leftover Salmon or the Modern Mandolin Quartet, Flinner’s style and compositional ability have established him as one of the most accomplished and musically diverse mandolinists in the world.

Starting out as a banjo prodigy who was playing bluegrass festivals before he entered his teens, Flinner later took up the mandolin, won the National Banjo Competition in Winfield, KS in 1990, and won the mandolin award there the following year.  Matt now tours regularly with the Matt Flinner Trio, which is known for its off-the-cuff compositional daring, writing music the same day it’s performed on most of their shows. He also tours regularly with the Modern Mandolin Quartet, which was nominated for three Grammy awards for their CD Americana in 2013. Over the last several years, Flinner has become known as one of the leading writers of instrumental music in the acoustic world, and his background in classical composition has led him into new avenues in both classical and string band music.  Some of Flinner’s longer-form compositions have been performed by the Ying Quartet, the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Chatterbird, the Expedition Quintet and the Modern Mandolin Quartet.  Flinner currently lives in Nashville, TN.

One of the foremost exponents of the Afro-Latin genre, four-time Grammy nominee John Santos is a world-class percussionist, historian, producer, composer, author, vocalist, lecturer, and instructor. Celebrated for his innovation in the combination of traditional Afro-Latin music and contemporary Jazz, the native San Franciscan has worked with everyone from Santana to Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente.

Acknowledged as one of the most important writers, historians, and teachers of Afro-Latin and Jazz music, Santos is a member of the Latin Jazz Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian Institution, and since the early 1970s, he has given clinics, workshops and lectures throughout North and South Americas and Europe. Respected as a record and event producer as well as a multi-percussionist and recording artist, Santos’ credits effectively span the Afro-Latin and Latin Jazz genres.

From 1985-2006, Santos founded and directed the Grammy-nominated Machete Ensemble, the superlative Latin Jazz band responsible for nine highly acclaimed records. Since, Santos has worked and recorded with the Latin Jazz Quintet.