Born on D-Day (June 6, 1944) and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, he took his first piano lessons at age six, although he is largely self-taught.  As a teenager, he witnessed concerts by Louis Armstrong and Nat “King” Cole at Kingston’s Carib Theater. These artists had a profound effect on Alexander’s aspirations. He formed Monty and the Cyclones in the late 1950s and also recorded on sessions with the musicians who would catapult Jamaican music to international recognition as The Skatalites (Bob Marley’s first backing band). 

Alexander and his family came to the United States at the end of 1961. Less than two years later, while playing in Las Vegas with Art Mooney’s orchestra, he caught the eye of New York City club owner Jilly Rizzo and his friend, Frank Sinatra. Rizzo hired the young pianist to work in his club, Jilly’s, where he accompanied Sinatra and others. There he met Modern Jazz Quartet vibraphonist Milt Jackson, who hired him and eventually introduced him to former Charlie Parker collaborator and legendary bassist Ray Brown. Alexander recorded and performed with the two jazz giants on many occasions. Jazz’s greatest luminaries welcomed Alexander to their “musical fraternity” in the mid-1960s. Among these earliest enthusiasts for his playing were none other than Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Miles Davis. 

To this day, Alexander maintains an active touring schedule, from intimate jazz clubs to concert halls and jazz festivals around the globe. His collaborations span multiple genres, styles, and generations.  His projects have been as varied as assisting Natalie Cole in her tribute album to her father, Nat “King” Cole in 1991 (the resulting album, Unforgettable, won seven Grammy awards), performing George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” under the direction of Bobby McFerrin at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and recording the piano track for the film score of Clint Eastwood’s Bird, a movie about the life of jazz titan Charlie Parker.  

In August 2000, the Jamaican government awarded Monty Alexander the title of Commander in the Order of Distinction for outstanding services to Jamaica as a worldwide music ambassador.  In Hal Leonard’s 2005 book The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time, Alexander was listed among the top five Jazz pianists of all time. 

With the invitation and encouragement of Wynton Marsalis, Alexander conceived and directed the acclaimed program Lords of the West Indies at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2008, broadcast nationally on BETJ. Alexander returns to Jazz at Lincoln Center in the Fall 2009 with a new program Harlem Kingston Express. 

Born on June 8, 1977 in Tønsberg, Norway, Frøy Aagre began playing saxophone at the age of twelve and later moved to England to study saxophone at Birmingham Conservatoire. Her fascination of tango music, resulted a semester as an exchange student at Conservatoiro Nacional Lopez Bouchardo in Buenos Aires. After receiving Bachelor of Music with Distinction at Birmingham Conservatoire, she moved to London to pursue a Masters degree at Middlesex University. Back in Norway, she studied Twentieth-Century Composition at Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In 2001, she studied with the world famous saxophonist David Liebman in New York.

Besides being leader for Offbeat, Frøy has performed with such musicians as Pee Wee Ellis, Mike and Mark Mondesir, Kris Davis, Jeff Davis, Annette Aguilar, Eivind Opsvik, Michael Bates, Thomas Strønen and Bjørn Kjellemyr. Aagre has toured in Europe, USA and Africa and played at festivals like Copenhagen Jazzfestival, Aarhus Jazz Festival and Prague Jazz Open.

She has received numerous prizes and scholarships. In 1999 she received the annual jazz prize from the Norwegian Association of Jazz and in 2005 she received the prestigous 1-year Composition Scholarship from the Norwegian Government.

Throughout the 90s, Beirach had a highly productive working relationship with the French-born saxophonist Henrik Frisk. In his composing and playing, Beirach’s twin musical influences make their presence heard. The classical side is brought out in his compositions through intriguingly mixed echoes of late nineteenth-century romanticism and twentieth-century angularity. Beirach’s playing reflects an array of pianistic influences, notably the dazzling yet diverse styles of Art Tatum, Bud Powell and Bill Evans. Nevertheless, he achieves an exceptionally individualistic sound, partly through a near-classical pastoral impressionism, marking him out as a piano player of consequence.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin

Hijaz is a sextet that combines elements of world music with jazz. Hijaz is the name of an Arab musical motif, but the band’s name also holds a clear reference to jazz.The music of the group is based on the dialogue between Tunesian oud player Moufadhel Adhoum and pianist Niko Deman and started with the release of the record Rag Rag by Tunesian singer Zohra Lajnef on which Hijaz also performed. The record was released in 2004 in Tunesia only but laid the basis for further collaboration.

The group consist of aforementioned musicians plus Moroccan percussionist Azzedine Jazzouli, bass player Rui Salgado and drummer/percussionist Chryster Aerts, both jazz musicians from Belgium. This rhythm sections uses traditions from Morocco to India as influence for its adventurous and solid basis. Above this, oud and piano interact and create a mysterious athmosphere. Elements from the Maghreb, Middle East and western jazz are very strong in the music and create a European-Mediterranean sound. The band may have met in Belgium but their music instantly transports you to the calm inner courtyard of some shady house a stone's throw from the bustle of the market in some North-African town.

In May 2008 Hijaz released the debut Cd Dunes which was very well received in the press (see press section). On it you can also hear renowned Armenian duduk player Vardan Hovanissian who has recently become the sixth member of Hijaz.

Bio taken from http://www.zephyrusvzw.be/database/index.php?q=artists/hijaz/biography

Emmanuel 'Manu' Katche was born in St Maur des Fossés, near Paris, in 1958, though his family roots go back to Africa's Ivory Coast. He studied piano from the age of 5, switching to drums at 14 and studying classical percussion at the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique de Paris. He has often said that his drum style is essentially an amalgam of African rhythm concepts and classical drumming, illuminated by the in-the-moment interaction of jazz. “When I play jazz I get called a 'rock drummer'. When I do rock projects, critics write about 'the jazz drummer Manu Katché'. But I'm just being myself, trying to be innovative as the music is played, and I guess that is more of a 'jazz' attitude.”

Music on ECM had been one of Katché's teenage inspirations: “I heard my first ECM album when I was about fifteen, and I remember I was amazed by the sound and by the way the music was played: big and bold but with a lot of respect for silence and a real musical balance between the instruments....” He was to arrive at the label by an indirect route, however. By the mid-1980s his floating beat had become one of the signature sounds of pop and rock, sup-porting singers from Joni Mitchell to Peter Gabriel. Manfred Eicher heard Katché playing on Robbie Robertson's untitled Geffen album and felt that his pulses and patterns, simultaneously modern and tribal, could easily be adapted to improvised contexts.

Invited to participate in ECM's 20th anniversary concerts in Paris in 1989, Katché played first in a trio with Jan Garbarek and Indian violinist Shankar in a concert at La Cigale. The encounter was to lead to Katché's membership of the Garbarek Group and his presence on a series of albums: I Took Up The Runes, Ragas and Sagas, Twelve Moons, Visible World, In Praise Of Dreams. Manu recently rejoined Jan's band for several months of live work with concerts which continue until the

Roberto Alain Fonseca Cortés, 29 March 1975, Havana, Cuba. Taking to music from an early age, Fonseca first emulated his percussionist father by playing drums before turning to the piano. The household was very musical, his mother being a professional singer and two brothers, drummer Emilio Valdés and pianist Jesus ‘Chuchito’ Valdés Jnr., became professional musicians. Fonseca studied at the Guillermo Tomás School of Music in Havana and in 1991, when in his mid-teens, he performed at the Havana Jazz Plaza International Festival and attracted considerable attention. After graduation, through the mid-90s he performed at other festivals and in concert and at clubs playing solo and in various groups that included Agua Pura and Temperamento, co-leading the latter with saxophonist Javier Zalba.

In addition to playing extensively in Cuba, Fonseca has also performed in Colombia, Canada and Australia, and has visited Europe, receiving acclaim in England, France (playing live in Paris for the July 2006 Agnès B fashion show), Germany, Spain and Italy, touring the latter country with singer Augusto Enriquez, with whom he also recorded, Cuando Yo Sea Grande. Among artists with whom he has shared stages and sometimes recorded are George Benson, Michael Brecker, the Buena Vista Social Club, José Luis ‘Chico’ Cortés, Angá Díaz, Ibrahim Ferrer (with whom he appeared internationally as musical director of the singer’s 2005 Mi Sueño: A Bolero Songbook tour), Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Frank Emilio, Rubén González, Giovanni Hidalgo, Papo Luca, Omara Portuondo (with whom he played at 2002’s Tokyo Jazz Festival), Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Wayne Shorter, Timbalada, Bebo Valdés and Chucho Valdés. In addition to his performing schedule, Fonseca has taught at the Cuban National School of Art. Fonseca has also composed music for films and has produced albums for other artists, including Asa Feeston and Obsesión.

The bassist Lars Danielsson is reknown and admired in the International Jazz world for his lyrical but groovy playing. Not least his capability to improve the appearance of the melody has brought him around the world in a number of various musical constellations.

Lars Danielsson was born in 1958 and was educated from the Music Conservatory in Gothenburg. Both on double bass, electric bass and cello - (his originally main instrument from the days at the conservatory) - he is an extraordinary soloist and accompanist, who gives the music edge and colourful temperament.

“Lars Danielsson Quartet” with former Miles Davis saxophonist David Liebman, pianist Bobo Stenson and legendary ECM drummer Jon Christensen has been receiving loads of recognition and awards during the 20 years in which the Quartet has existed. This Quartet has been a playground for Danielssons work as a composer and arranger, which he has extended to include both Symphony Orchestra and Big Band music. - During the previous years in co-operation with Danmarks Radios RUO Orchestra (a Symphony Orchestra) as a composer, arranger and producer. He was the conductor and composer of the Jazz Baltica Ensemble for two years.

Extracts from Lars Danielssons Discography: 8 solo-albums since 1980 both with “Lars Danielssons Quartet” and guests such as Alex Acuna and John Abercrombie,Bill Evans and Niels Lan Doky. Other notabilities whom Lars Danielsson has worked with is Randy and Michael Brecker, John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette, Mike Stern, Billy Hart, Charles Lloyd, Terri Lyne Carrington,Joey Calderrazzo,Gino Vanelli and Dave Kikoski. Lars Danielsson has also been a member of the “Trilok Gurtu Group” .

As a producer Lars Danielsson has been responsible for productions with Cæcilie Norby and The Danish Radio RUO Orchestra among others.

from Allaboutjazz..com

Over the course of his long and successful career, pianist Agustí Fernández has built up an international reputation, not only as one of Spain’s most outstanding performers, but as a reference in the world of improvised music. Fernández was born in Palma de Mallorca, where he studied piano, later continuing his studies in Barcelona, France and Germany. A professional musician since the age of just thirteen, his life changed completely when he discovered the work of Cecil Taylor and Iannis Xenakis when studying with the latter in 1978. Fernández’s career as a solo artist really began to take off at the II Biennial of Young Creative Artists in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1987, since when he has performed at major festivals all over Spain and Europe, as well as composing for dance, theatre, cinema and television.

Co-founder and director of the Orquestra del Caos and director of the Big Ensemble del Taller de Músics in Barcelona, Fernández also co-founded the IBA (Improvisadors de Barcelona) Orchestra with Joan Saura and Liba Villavecchia, directing the impro ensemble until 2001.

Agustí Fernández collaborated regularly with fellow pianist Carles Santos, and took part with him in a number of shows from 1982 to 1998. He has also taken part in performances by the artist Jordi Benito, as well as composing music for the Catalan designer Antonio Miró and collaborating with the flamenco cantaor Miguel Poveda, puppeteer Joan Baixas and draftsman Perico Pastor.

Over the course of his career, moreover, he was worked with such outstanding contemporary dance choreographers as Àngels Margarit, María Muñoz, Ramon Oller, Tomás Aragay and Margarita Guergué, amongst others. He also accompanied the Merce Cunningham Dance Company when this renowned dance troupe presented Event in Barcelona in 2009.

In 1998, Fernández began a close artistic collaboration with choreographer and dancer Andrés Corchero, with whom he has created a number of shows over the years. In 1998, moreover, he formed the Trío Local with Joan Saura and Liba Villavecchia.

In 2003, Fernández became the first Spanish musician to record for the prestigious German label ECM, playing with the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble (of which he has been a member since 2002) on the CD Memory/Vision. Fernández also joined the Barry Guy New Orchestra in 2002.

Three years later, in 2005, he formed the Fernández/Guy/López trio. The new ensemble made its debut at the Grec Festival of Barcelona to present the CD Aurora, which won unanimous worldwide critical acclaim.

Fernández was musical director of the TVE programme Glasnost in 1989-91, and co-director (with Barbara Held) of the Metrònom International Experimental Music Week in Barcelona in 1997-1999. From 2000 to 2006, he directed the Nous Sons contemporary music festival, organised at L’Auditori in Barcelona. Finally, he has curated the Music Nights season at the Joan Miró Foundation in the Catalan capital since the year 2000.

Agustí Fernández has also taught impro at ESMUC, the Catalan college of music, since 2000.

A prolific musician, he has recorded more than 50 CDs to date.

from artist's site

Eric Vloeimans (1963), born in the Netherlands, is regarded as one of Europe’s best trumpet players. He shows an extraordinary talent for playing original music with an outstanding quality. On his cd's Vloeimans prefers to record original compositions. As a composer he does not feel restricted to one particular style, but at the same time, he has managed to create a language of his own. His writing is fresh and creative, yet not without feel and respect for the tradition. The great musical talent and the expressive power of the music of Eric Vloeimans have been honoured by winning the Dutch Edison Award four times, the Boy Edgar Award, the Elly Ameling oeuvre prize and the prestigious Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival.

Eric Vloeimans has been active in a wide variety of ensembles all over the years. The Eric Vloeimans Quartet and his recent Gatecrash group have earned reputations as being Holland's top bands. Vloeimans' performances with a multitude of other formations has shown his versatility. His musical talent, easy-going attitude and great sense of humour have brought him to play with national and international artists. Eric Vloeimans has attained a level that enables him to share the stage with many of the most reputable and established musicians in the jazz scene and beyond. He played with Marc Johnson, Pierre Courbois, The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Michiel Borstlap, Jeroen van Vliet, Nguyên Lê, Anton Goudsmit, Spinvis, Jimmy Haslip, Lars Danielsson, Michael Moore, Joey Baron, Mercer Ellington, John Taylor, Harmen Fraanje, Henny Vrienten and many, many others.

His musical cooperation’s have taken Eric Vloeimans abroad many times. With diverse artists and ensembles he played all over Europe, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Japan. The experiences from his travels influence his work constantly. The music of Eric Vloeimans shows a

After playing alongside such luminaries as Roy Hargrove, Danilo Perez, Ari Hoenig, Meshell n’Degeocello, D’angelo or Chucho Valdes, Jacques finally decides to follow his own vision as a band leader. He then leaves Roy Hargrove’s band in 2005 and finalizes his Gwoka Jazz Project, gathering some faithful and talented musicians such as Sonny Troupé, Olivier Juste or Milan Milanovic. Jacques and his Gwoka Project record two albums for Universal, “Soné Ka La” and “Abyss”, which have built his current career as an internationally acclaimed jazz band leader.

In 2010, he releases “Rise Above”, which revives his long lasting collaboration with singer - and spouse - Stephanie McKay. As Bob Davis puts it: “This album sounds like what might have happened if John Coltrane and Minnie Riperton were to make an album together”.

More recently, Jacques, whose fertile brain seems to never rest, has launched three new projects, ranging from straight jazz to Caribbean roots music. The first one is a free trio with guitar, drums and saxophone. The absence of bass, while freeing the music from the ground, provides an aerial –almost ethereal - quality to the music. The wide open space becomes a formidable launching pad for the multi-dimensional playing of Gilad Hekselman and Obed Calvaire.

During these last years, Jacques had the opportunity to play with drummer Leon Parker, pianist Baptiste Trotignon and bassist Thomas Bramerie. From these encounters, a Quartet came up. The music takes off effortlessly. The players soar with unpredictable but purposeful creativity, while showing an unbreakable sense of unity. All the members of the band contribute in the writing and direction of the music. A recording is in the works for the end of 2011 and should display how special a symbiosis is achieved here.

Last but not least, Jacques has created a project that synergizes modern jazz and ritual voodoo music from Haiti. It features two Voodoo priests: the great singer Errol Josué, and percussionist Gaston Bonga, as well as some of the finest Jazz musicians: Etienne Charles, Obed Calvaire, Luqies Cutis, and Milan Milanovic. While remaining a jazz project, the music is lifted by the powerful spirituality of voodoo music. Band members and audience seem to be sailing together on a sea of light. The music was just presented as the headliner for the opening day of the famous Banlieues Bleues festival on March 11th, 2011 in Paris. Jacques then begins to tour with this project, including concerts in Morocco (Essaouira Festival), Guadeloupe, and more to come.

from artist's site

To their fans, Phish are not just a band, they're a way of life. Although the group's studio albums sell well enough, Phish are primarily a live phenomenon: the living, breathing, noodling embodiment of the term "jam band." Like Deadheads before them, Phish fans have followed the group city to city, traded bootleg tapes with the band's blessings, and feverishly debate the merits of past gigs (Phish never plays the same set twice). By nurturing this grass-roots following, Phish bypassed commercial radio and evolved over the course of a decade into one of—if not the— hottest live attractions in America.

The band first came together in drummer John Fishman's dorm room at the University of Vermont. Fellow students Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth brought their guitars by to jam, and they were later joined by bassist Mike Gordon, who answered a bulletin-board ad posted by Anastasio. Fan Page McConnell, a student at Goddard College, joined as a keyboardist in 1985, and Holdsworth left the following year. Early performances around this time also featured percussionist Marc Daubert, as well as occasional appearances by the enigmatic singer Dude of Life (with whom the band would later record the album Crimes of the Mind.).

Beginning with 1993's Rift (Number 51), the band's popularity began to translate into chart success. The following year's Hoist, which spawned Phish's only video (for "Down With Disease"), went to Number 34, followed by 1995's double disc A Live One (Number 18), Billy Breathes (Number Seven, 1996), the live Slip, Stitch, & Pass (Number 17, 1997), The Story of the Ghost (Number Eight, 1998), the sprawling, six-disc Hampton Comes Alive (Number 120, 1999), and Farmhouse (Number 12, 2000). However the band's live performances, not its recorded output, defined it throughout the decade.

In addition to the band's trademark marathon improvisational jams (drawing equally from jazz, rock, and country), fans could count on such weird variables as Fishman's vacuum-cleaner solos and the band's penchant for oddball covers; in 1994 Phish began a semiannual tradition of performing an entire classic album live on Halloween as a "musical costume" (ranging from the Beatles' White Album to the Who's Quadrophenia and Talking Heads' Remain in Light). In 1997 the band's weekend festival, the Great Went, held in Limestone, Maine, drew an audience of 62,000. The following year's Lemonwheel Festival, also in Limestone, drew a comparable crowd. Phish ended the Nineties playing for 75,000 fans at a two-night millennial concert at Florida's Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation.

After touring in support of 2000's Farmhouse, Phish announced a hiatus. Fans were left with Elektra's official release of The Siket Disc, a collection of studio outtakes, and the feature-length documentary Bittersweet Motel. The group periodically updated its Web site about such band member side projects as Gordon's experimental film Outside Out and Trampled by Lambs & Pecked by Doves, an album by Anastasio and Phish lyricist Tom Marshall. The band also began releasing versions of shows dating back as far as 1989 as part of the Live Phish series. Upon their return in 2002, Phish made shows available for instant download on the Live Phish Web site.

In 2004, shortly before the release of Undermind (Number 13), Phish announced that they were breaking up after their summer tour, culminating in one last festival on a farm in their native Vermont. The festival took on an air of Woodstock as flooding and heavy traffic prevented several fans from reaching the farm before they abandoned their cars and trekked to the venue on foot.

Over the next four years, Anastasio embarked on a moderately successful solo career first with a group informally known as Trey Anastasio Band, which took on many incarnations over the years, and later as a member of the supergroup Oysterhead, which also featured Primus' Les Claypool and the Police's Stewart Copeland. Anastasio and Gordon toured together briefly in 2006. In 2007, Anastasio faced felony drug possession charges and spent the next year in a court-ordered drug program to avoid jail time.

After months of rumors, Phish confirmed in 2008 that they would reunite in 2009. The band played three shows in March of that year before embarking on a summer tour. They released their fourteenth studio album, Joy (Number 13) in September. From October 30 through November 1, Phish took on one of their most ambitious projects to date, Festival 8, which found the band playing eight sets over three nights. Phish finished the year by playing a four-night New Year's celebration in Miami.