Norman Connors
Norman Connors (born March 1, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz drummer, composer, arranger, producer, and headliner, who has led some influential jazz and R&B groups. He had some big R&B hits of the day, especially in the area love ballads and songs with a positive statement in both titles and lyrics. Connors became interested in jazz as a child, and began playing drums early, once sitting in for Elvin Jones at a John Coltrane performance he attended while in middle school.
Sunny Murray
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray (born Idabel, Oklahoma in 1936) is one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming. Murray spent his youth in Philadelphia before moving to New York City where he began playing with Cecil Taylor: "We played for about a year, just practicing, studying - we went to workshops with Varèse, did a lot of creative things, just experimenting, without a job". He featured on the influential 1962 concerts in Denmark released as Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come.
Ches Smith
Ches Smith is an American musician whose primary instruments are drums, percussion, and vibraphone. He writes and performs music in a wide variety of contexts, including solo percussion, experimental rock bands, and small and large jazz ensembles. He has performed with Good For Cows, Marc Ribot, Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu, Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant, Carla Bozulich, Beat Circus, Ben Goldberg, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, Ara Anderson and Fred Frith. He has also recorded and performed a full-length album of his own solo percussion pieces entitled Congs For Brums (2006).
Big Scary
The story of Big Scary begins in 2006, when Melbourne duo Tom Iansek and Jo Syme, armed with just acoustic guitars and egg shakers, started playing songs together in the living room of Jo’s parents’ house. After a bit of a break, the two reconvened in 2008, this time with more instruments—electric guitars, drums, piano, mandolins and ukuleles—and a bolder, more expansive vision. What began as a few rainy day acoustic ballads in their first incarnation soon grew into an all-encompassing, genre-defying sound.
Magnus Öström
Magnus Öström was born on May 3rd, 1965 in Skultuna, Sweden as second son to local painter Arne and Siv Öström. His brother Tommy was three years older and influenced Magnus in his early years with his eclectic record collection including Jimmy Hendrix, Deep Purple, Almond Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the age of eight Magnus built his first drumkit out of his fathers empty paintcans and only a year later he started his first band together with a kid from across the street, Esbjörn Svensson.
Paal Nilssen-Love
Paal Nilssen-Love (born December 24, 1974) is a Norwegian drummer active in the jazz and free jazz genres. Nilssen-Love was raised at a jazz club in Stavanger, run by his mother, and his father, who was also a drummer. In 1993, during jazz studies at the University in Trondheim, he formed the band Element which musically became a platform for several other groups with bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and pianist Håvard Wiik and lead to collaborations with Iain Ballamy and Chris Potter.
Louis Moholo
Louis Tebugo Moholo (born 10 March 1940, in Cape Town), is a South African jazz drummer.
He formed The Blue Notes with Chris McGregor, and emigrated to Europe with them in 1964, eventually settling in London, where he formed part of a South African exile community that made an important contribution to British jazz. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Breath, a big band comprising several South African exiles and leading musicians of the British free jazz scene in the seventies and is the founder of "Viva-La-Black" and the "Dedication Orchestra.
Burkhard Beins
Burkhard Beins is a Berlin-based percussionist primarily active in electro-acoustic improvisation (EAI). He has a long-standing duo group with tabletop guitarist Keith Rowe (previously of AMM), and is a member of Polwechsel (with Werner Dafeldecker, Michael Moser, John Butcher and Martin Brandlmayr), The Sealed Knot (with Rhodri Davies and Mark Wastell, Perlonex (with Ignaz Schick and Jörg Maria Zeger), Trio Sowari (with Phil Durrant and Bertrand Denzler), activity center (with Michael Renkel) and Phosphor (with a whole bunch of people).