composer

Tommy Smith (born 27th April 1967) is a Scottish jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator. Smith grew up in the Wester Hailes area of Edinburgh, and was encouraged to learn the tenor saxophone from the age of twelve onwards. At the age of sixteen, he obtained a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music; there he joined Gary Burton's group. He has become one of Scotland's leading jazz musicians and composers...

George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer. He was born Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, the second of four children. George wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works together with his elder brother lyricist Ira Gershwin. Gershwin composed both for Broadway and for the classical concert hall. He also wrote popular songs with success.

Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970), was a major American composer of music for films. In 1939, Newman began a twenty-one year career as music director for 20th Century-Fox Studios. He composed the familiar fanfare which accompanies the studio logo at the beginning of Fox's productions. At Fox, he also developed what came to be known as the Newman System, a means of synchronising the performance and recording of a musical score with the film. The system is still in use today.

Read more about Alfred Newman on Last.fm.

Mark-Anthony Turnage (born June 10, 1960 in Corringham, Essex) is an English composer of classical music. He has also been strongly influenced by jazz, and by Miles Davis in particular. Turnage's music has a characteristic personal style, with strong rhythmic thrust, involved jazz harmonies, colourful orchestration with prominent use of percussion, and hints of various orchestrational sounds from Duke Ellington to 1970s TV detective series theme tunes. He enjoys the reputation of being one of the few modern classical composers who can write 'proper modern jazz'.