Smooth Jazz | Musicosity

Smooth Jazz

Billy Cobham

Billy Cobham, born May 16, 1944 in Panama, is one of the world's most influential drummers, best known for his jazz fusion in the 1970s, with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, where he pioneered a powerful style of drumming with jazz, rock and funk influences. He is the first drummer to unseat Buddy Rich in the Down Beat music polls. Cobham has played and recorded with hundreds of top musicians, including Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Larry Coryell, and Horace Silver; and is famous for his explosive, fast, spectacular playing.

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Magda Piskorczyk

www.magdapiskorczyk.com MAGDA PISKORCZYK (pronounce: peas-CORE-chick) is a singer with a mature, low and unusual voice timbre. Described in France as "la voix noire et au costume blanc" (Black voice in a white costume). She is a guitar, bass guitar and percussion player, as well as a song writer. Magda performs music of Afro-American and African heritage. She is a two-time Semifinalist of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, USA. Readers of the Polish blues quarterly chose her the Female Vocalist of the Year 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2011.

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Carla Cook

Carla Cook is a Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist. A Detroit, Michigan native, music seized hold of Cook at an early age. As a student at Cass Technical High School she played string bass in the school orchestra, studied piano and voice on weekends, and sang in her church’s choir. An elder brother introduced her to jazz, Cook chose voice as her instrument of choice, and she became a disciple of jazz icon Eddie Jefferson, founder of a singing technique called ‘vocalese’ where a singer sings lyrics to a famous instrumental solo.

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Jaleel Shaw

Jaleel Shaw, alto saxophonist grew up in Philadelphia, PA, where he was surrounded by a enormous family of jazz musicians that Philadelphia has to offer. He studied with many of the strong jazz educators there, including Rayburn Wright, Robert Landham, and Lovette Hines – who is largely responsible for having nurtured the talents of Bassist Christian McBride, Organist Joey Defrancesco, Drummers Johnathan Blake & Ari Hoenig, Vocalist Bilal, Trumpeter Daud El-Bakara, and keyboardist Kamal of The Roots through his youth ensemble that is still going strong today.

Read more about Jaleel Shaw on Last.fm.

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Brenda Russell

Brenda Russell is an adult-contemporary singer-songwriter that hit the music scene in 1979 with her debut album "Brenda Russell". Her sister is rumoured to be none other than, Donna Summer, the queen of Disco. The release featured her her first hit song, "So Good So Right". The story goes, it came up while washing dishes and, still wearing an apron, she rushed to the piano wrote it down. The album also featured the hit "If Only for One Night" which was later covered by Luther Vandross.

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Tribal Tech

Tribal Tech is a progressive fusion band, originally formed in 1984 by guitarist Scott Henderson and bass player Gary Willis. The band includes Scott Kinsey on keyboard and Kirk Covington on drums, and has produced nine CDs that stretch the borders between blues, jazz, and rock. The band is widely regarded for the prodigious talents of its individual members and for its importance to the modern fusion music scene, but has informally dissolved following the release of 2000's Rocket Science, with the various members pursuing solo careers.

Tribal Tech on Last.fm.

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Satellites of the Sun

Satellites of the Sun hail from Salisbury in the South of England. With drummer Andy completing the line up early in 2008 the band spent much of the year putting together a set of songs that mix power and melody, and can often climb from subtle beginnings to a crescendo of sound. The songs on this page were recorded live in the studio and are an attempt to capture the band in their natural environment - live performance. A handful of shows have already had people taking notice. Andy Clements - Drums / Vocals

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Acoustic Alchemy

Acoustic Alchemy is a British contemporary instrumental and smooth jazz band formed in England in the early 1980s (c. 1981), originally fronted by acoustic guitarists Nick Webb and Simon James. The band is currently fronted by Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale. During the 1980s, there was little grateful audience for this form of music in the UK, and the big players in the genre were all American.

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