contemporary jazz

Brooklyn based jazz-singer José James took a pretty direct route to getting Gilles Peterson’s attention. He flew over to London, went out clubbing and slipped the hugely influential DJ and prescient A&R man a copy of his demos! Intrigued by the hip young singer’s attitude, Gilles took a listen, and blown away by his stunning vocal version of Trane’s classic tune Equinox, immediately signed him to his thriving young indy label Brownswood.

Born in 1984, bassist, singer and composer Esperanza Spalding began playing in small jazz and blues venues around her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Soon after picking up the acoustic bass at the late age of 14, she helped form Noise for Pretend, an eclectic band fusing jazz and pop for which she sang and played bass (often simultaneously). The group signed with indie rock imprint Hush Records, which released two albums of their original compositions.

Jeff Lorber (born November 4, 1952 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American Grammy Award-nominated keyboardist, composer, and record producer. After leading his own group, The Jeff Lorber Fusion, he went on to pioneer the smooth jazz genre in his solo career. Many of his songs were featured on The Weather Channel's "Local On The 8s" segments. Lorber started to play the piano when he was four years old and after playing in a number of R&B bands as a teen, went on to attend Berklee College of Music, where he developed his love for jazz.

Alexander von Schlippenbach (* 1938 in Berlin) is a German jazz pianist and composer.
Schlippenbach started to play piano from the age of 8 and went on to study composition at Cologne under Bernd Alois Zimmermann. While studying he started to play with Manfred Schoof. At the age of 28 he founded the Globe Unity Orchestra.
He produced various recordings and worked for German radio channels. He played with many essential players of the European free jazz community, most notably in the "Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio" with drummer Paul Lovens and saxophonist Evan Parker.

Read more about Alexander von Schlippenbach on Last.fm.