Anat Cohen
Ever charismatic, prolific and inspired, 3X Grammy-nominated clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. As Nat Hentoff says, “Anat does what all authentic musicians do: She tells stories from her own experiences that are so deeply felt that they are very likely to connect listeners to their own dreams, desires and longings.”
The perennial winner of “Clarinetist of the Year” titles from DownBeat, JazzTimes, and the Jazz Journalists Association, Fresh Air’s Terry Gross credits Cohen with “bringing the clarinet to the world” and The New York Times hails her a “Master.” Brooklyn-based Anat has evolved into one of the music’s great border-bounding leaders, as not only an artist but as an educator, and ambassador.
The clarinetist’s latest release is “Bloom”, the second album by her foursome Quartetinho.
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Avishai Cohen
Avishai Cohen is globally recognized as a musician with an individual sound and a questing spirit, an ever-creative player-composer open to multiple strains of jazz and active as a leader, co-leader and sideman. As touted by JazzTimes “…he can make the trumpet a vehicle for uttering the most poignant human cries.” Aside from the acclaimed work with his quartet over the last several years on ECM, and previously his trio work under the moniker Triveni, the trumpeter has also recorded and toured the world as part of the Mark Turner Quartet, the SFJAZZ Collective, Jazz100, Zakir Hussain, and the 3 Cohens Sextet – with his sister, clarinetist-saxophonist Anat, and brother, saxophonist Yuval. Named as the Artistic Director of the International Jerusalem Festival, Cohen has also been voted a Rising Star on three consecutive occasions in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
In 2024, Cohen released his newest album, “Ashes to Gold”, a deeply introspective and richly textured exploration of life’s transitions and renewal, written after the tragic events of Oct. 7th, 2023.
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Composer, singer, and visual artist, Cécile McLorin Salvant, is passionate about storytelling and exploring connections between vaudeville, blues, folk traditions, theater, jazz, and baroque music. An eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, power dynamics, twists, and humor once described as “a unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings” by the late, great Jessye Norman.
She won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010 and received Grammy Awards for three consecutive albums: “The Window,” “Dreams and Daggers,” and “For One To Love.” In 2020, she received the MacArthur fellowship and Doris Duke Artist Award. Her debut and follow up Nonesuch Records projects, “Ghost Song” (2022) and “Mélusine” (2023), each received two Grammy nominations. Salvant’s latest work, “Ogresse”, arranged by Darcy James Argue, is a musical fable in the form of a cantata that blends several styles of composition resulting in an expansive sonic landscape.
Gerald Clayton
Six-time GRAMMY nominated pianist-composer and Blue Note Artist Gerald Clayton searches for honest expression in every note. An alumnus of Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, USC’s Thornton School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, Clayton won second place in the Monk Institute of Jazz Piano Competition in 2006. For the following decade, he toured globally both as a band leader and special guest sideman to critical and commercial acclaim, collaborating with such distinctive artists as Bill Frisell, Roy Hargrove, Dianne Reeves, John Scofield, and legendary band leader Charles Lloyd among many others.
He currently serves as Director of Next Generation Jazz Orchestra and has served as Musical Director for Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour and the more recent Blue Note 85th Anniversary Tour. In April 2025, Blue Note records is set to release “Ones & Twos” Clayton’s highly anticipated album featuring Elena Pinderhughes, Joel Ross, Marquis Hill, Kendrick Scott and Kassa Overall.
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Mark Guiliana
Hailed by The New York Times as “a drummer around whom a cult of admiration has formed,” Grammy-nominated superstar drummer & composer Mark Guiliana brings an adventurous spirit, eclectic palette, and gift for spontaneous invention to a staggering range of styles. Equally virtuosic playing acoustic jazz, boundary-stretching electronic music, or next-level rock, he’s become a key collaborator with such original sonic thinkers as St. Vincent, Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam/Soundgarden), Lianne La Havas, Brad Mehldau, M83, Meshell Ndegeocello, and the late, great David Bowie.
Guiliana’s latest release – the Grammy Nominated – “MARK”, is his first entirely solo work which boldly showcases him as composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist – performing and layering percussion, piano, synthesizers and more. This new foray into his growing body of renowned work, recorded at Studio 606 in Los Angeles, is a culmination of Guiliana's experiences and inspirations, and at the same time the catalyst of a new direction. 'MARK' follows his first two acclaimed Edition Records albums 'the sound of listening' and 'Mischief'.
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Michael Mayo
Whether Michael Mayo is performing with his band, as a guest, or alone with a looper pedal and a piano, the LA native’s commanding and other worldly vocalese has been gathering critical and commercial acclaim around the globe. Mayo attended the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance (now the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz), only the third vocalist to be accepted into the 20-year-old program, where he learned from the likes of Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Mayo, a veteran international performer, has led his own band to perform at some of the worlds most revered jazz clubs and festivals. As a featured guest, he has recently recorded and performed with Herbie Hancock, Terri Lynne Carrington, Jacob Collier, Scary Pockets, Lenny Kravitz, Josh Groban, Ben Wendel and The War and Treaty.
Signed to Mack Avenue/Artistry Records, Mayo’s debut record “Bones”, produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Eli Wolf (Norah Jones, Al Green, The Roots) was released in 2021. In 2022, Mayo was named “International Artist of the Year” at the Deutscher Jazzpreis. Mayo’s highly anticipated sophomore release “Fly” featuring pianist Shai Maestro, bassist Linda Oh, and drummer Nate Smith was released in 2024 on critical acclaim and high praise.
Tigran Hamasyan
Tigran Hamasyan is considered one of the most remarkable and distinctive jazz-meets-rock pianists/composers of his generation. A piano virtuoso with groove power, Hamasyan seamlessly fuses potent jazz improvisation and progressive rock with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia. Born in Gyumri, Armenia, in 1987, his musical journey began in his childhood home, where he was exposed to a diverse array of musical influences leading to him playing piano at the age of three, performing in festivals and competitions by the time he was eleven, and winning the Montreux Jazz Festival’s piano competition in 2003. He released his debut album, World Passion, in 2004 at the age of seventeen. In 2005, he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and since has been awarded three Grammy nominations, a Victoires de la Musique, Deutscher Jazzpreis, Echo Jazz Award and more. In addition to awards and critical praise, Hamasyan has built a dedicated following, as well as praise from Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau and the late Chick Corea.
Hamasyan’s new conceptual album “The Bird of a Thousand Voices”, based on the ancient Armenian fable ‘Hazaran Blubul’, was released in 2024 on Naïve/Believe – his debut with the label. Tigran composed, scored, and arranged the much-anticipated project blending its traditional folk footprints with rock influences.