Ambrose Akinmusire
During his 15-year career, Ambrose Akinmusire has paradoxically situated himself in both the center and the periphery of jazz, most recently emerging in classical and hip hop circles. He’s on a perpetual quest for new paradigms, masterfully weaving inspiration from other genres, arts, and life in general into compositions that are as poetic and graceful as they are bold and unflinching. His unorthodox approach to sound and composition make him a regular on critics polls and have earned him grants and commissions from the Doris Duke Foundation, the MAP Fund, the Kennedy Center and the Monterey Jazz Festival. Motivated primarily by the spiritual and practical value of art, Akinmusire wants to remove the wall of erudition surrounding his music. He aspires to create richly textured emotional landscapes that tell the stories of the community, record the time, and change the standard. While committed to continuing the lineage of black invention and innovation, he manages to honor tradition without being stifled by it.
Akinmusire made his debut on the Blue Note label in 2011 with the album When the Heart Emerges Glistening, featuring his quintet of tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown.[9] Akinmusire's third album, entitled The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint, was released in 2014.[10] His album Origami Harvest was included in The New York Times' Best Jazz of 2018.[11][12] His sixth studio album On the Tender Spot of every Calloused Moment, again with his quartet of longtime bandmates[2] – Sam Harris (piano), Harish Raghavan (bass), and Justin Brown (drums), was released in spring 2020[13] and received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Akinmusire is featured on the last track of Kendrick Lamar's 2015 release To Pimp a Butterfly.
He has received awards including the 2014 North Sea Jazz Festival's Paul Acket Award and both the Doris Duke Artist and Doris Duke Impact Awards; recognition in the DownBeat Critics Poll has included Jazz Artist of the Year (2011) and winning the trumpet category every year from 2013 to 2020
Joseph Branciforte
Joseph Branciforte is a musician, composer, programmer, and recording engineer based out of New York. He is the founder of the record label greyfade.
Branciforte's work provides an expanded definition of composition, where musical structure, sound source, and the recorded medium are treated as one and the same object. His wide-ranging musical activity spans electronic, algorithmic, and chamber composition, performance and improvisation on a variety of acoustic and electronic instruments, and an expansive discography as recording, mixing, and mastering engineer. At the bottom of each of these seemingly discrete threads lies a relentless fascination with sound as a profound emotional medium — organized through musical form, articulated by a careful selection of sound sources, and framed through the act of recording.
As recording engineer, Branciforte has lent his sonic touch to over 250 releases, working with some of the most well-respected names in creative jazz along the way, including Ben Monder, Tim Berne, Vijay Iyer, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Nels Cline, Steve Lehman, Theo Bleckmann, Craig Taborn, Marc Ribot, Nir Felder, Mary Halvorson, and The Westerlies. His credits also include a wide range of alternative, electronic, and classical projects, from Son Lux and The Lumineers to JACK Quartet and The Oratorio Society of New York. In 2020, composer Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road, mixed and mastered by Branciforte, was nominated for a Grammy award. Albums he has produced, engineered, and/or mixed have been
included in the NPR Jazz Critics’ Poll Top 10 and Downbeat Magazine's Albums of the Year. His engineering and production work can be heard on ECM, Sony, Dualtone, Pi Recordings, Sunnyside, Ropeadope, Cantaloupe, New Amsterdam, and Naxos.
Erika Dohi
Described as "virtuosic" (NY Times) and "barrier-defying artist" (Mix Magazine), Osaka-born and New York-based pianist Erika Dohi is a multi-faceted artist with an eclectic musical background. Erika is the co-founder of RighteousGIRLS, whose album gathering blue has been hailed by Downbeat as “one of the most adventurous new music debut albums in recent years.” Dohi has performed William Brittelle's Spiritual America with Metropolis Ensemble at The Hollywood Bowl opening for Bon Iver and TU Dance, the Central Park SummerStage with Ensemble LPR, and has made appearances at international festivals including the D.C. Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, Tokyo Experimental Festival, INTERSECT Festival in Bryant Park, and at the Time’s Arrow Festival. She is a part of the six-piano ensemble Grand Band, most recently performed at Peak Performances at Montclair State University. The performance was featured at WNET’s ALL ARTS in January 2021, featuring the works of Julius Eastman, Kate Moore, Julia Wolfe, and Missy Mazzoli. As an improviser, she is a pianist for the avant-garde trumpeter, Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quintet, and performed at SFJazz as part of ECM 50th Anniversary.
Nick Dunston
Nick Dunston is an acoustic and electroacoustic composer, improviser, and bassist. An “indispensable player on the New York avant-garde" (New York Times), his performances have also spanned a variety of venues and festivals across North America and Europe. He's performed, toured, and recorded professionally with bands led by artists such as Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, Mary Halvorson, Imani Uzuri, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Webber, Amirtha Kidambi, and Vijay Iyer.
In 2019 he released his debut album, Atlantic Extraction, which “features the unusual instrumentation of double bass, drums, electric guitar, flute, [and violin]- and his compositions put that configuration to imaginative use” (The Wire Magazine). In 2020, he released his sophomore album, Atlantic Extraction: Live at Threes, which "presents the musician’s command of his mercurial compositions. The unconventionally configured quintet nimbly shifts among stately chamber melodies, combative free passages and exhilarating steeplechases” (Downbeat Magazine). In addition to three studio albums released under his name, Dunston has also been commissioned by artists such as Bang on a Can, JACK Quartet, Ex-Aequo, Johnny Gandelsman, T R O M P O, Joanna Mattrey, and Joy Guidry. In 2020 in collaboration with Dogbotic Labs, he co-created “Ear Re-training”, a music composition course on media-bending experimental techniques. He is Artist-in-Residence with Wet Ink Ensemble for the 20212022 season.
Immanuel Wilkins
The music of saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is filled with empathy and conviction, bonding arcs of melody and lamentation to pluming gestures of space and breath. Listeners were introduced to this riveting sound with his acclaimed debut album Omega, which was named the #1 Jazz Album of 2020 by The New York Times. The album also introduced his remarkable quartet with Micah Thomas on piano, Daryl Johns on bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums, a tight-knit unit that Wilkins features once again on his stunning sophomore album The 7th Hand.
While growing up, Wilkins honed his skills in the church and studied in programs dedicated to teaching jazz music like the Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts. After moving to New York in 2015, he proceeded to earn his bachelor’s degree in Music at Juilliard (studying with the saxophonists Bruce Williams and the late, great Joe Temperley) while simultaneously establishing himself as an indemand side person, touring in Japan, Europe, South America, The United Arab Emirates, and the United States and working and/or recording with artists like Jason Moran, the Count Basie Orchestra, Delfeayo Marsalis, Joel Ross, Aaron Parks, Gerald Clayton, Gretchen Parlato, Lalah Hathaway, Solange Knowles, Bob Dylan, and Wynton Marsalis to name just a few. It was also during this same period that he formed his quartet featuring his long-time bandmates: Micah Thomas(piano),Daryl Johns(bass)and Kweku Sumbry(drums).
By studying the humanity and the cultural specificity of jazz, Wilkins aspires to bring people together through his art. His debut recording, Omega —produced by Jason Moran— was released by Blue Note Records in 2020 and has received uniformly rave reviews. In addition to being voted “Best New Jazz Artist” in the JazzTimes Critics’ Poll and “Best New Talent of 2020” by Musica Jazz, Wilkins’ Omega has appeared on numerous “Best of 2020” lists -- most notably,” it was named NPR Music’s “Best Debut Jazz Recording of 2020” and the New York Times number one Jazz Recording of 2020. Wilkins began 2021 on a very positive note. He was nominated for a NAACP Image Award (Best Jazz Instrumental album) and won the prestigious LetterOne Rising Stars Jazz Award.
Ian David Rosenbaum
Praised for his “spectacular performances” (Wall Street Journal), and his “unfailing virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune), GRAMMY®-nominated percussionist Ian Rosenbaum has developed a musical breadth far beyond his years. As a passionate advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Rosenbaum has premiered over one hundred new chamber and solo works. In 2017, Mr. Rosenbaum released his first full-length solo album, Memory Palace, on NS Tracks. In 2012 Mr. Rosenbaum joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) program as only the second percussionist they have selected in their history. Mr. Rosenbaum is a founding member of Sandbox Percussion, and is on faculty at the Mannes School of Music. Mr. Rosenbaum endorses Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth mallets, and Remo drumheads.