Saxophonists

• Mindi Abair
  Mindi Abair
  Mindi Abair is an American smooth jazz saxophonist with a strong Top-40 pop music background. Mindi has toured and/or recorded with the Backstreet Boys, Duran Duran, Mandy Moore, Josh Groban, Adam Sandler, Keb' Mo', Lalah Hathaway, Lee Ritenour, Teena Marie, John Tesh, Bobby Lyle, Jonathan Butler,...
  
  
• Gerald Albright
  Gerald Albright
  Gerald Albright is an American jazz saxophonist.Albright has sold over 1,000,000 albums in the U.S. alone. His self-produced music features him on bass guitar, keyboards, flutes, drum programming, and background vocals.- Biography :...
  
  
• Gato Barbieri
  Gato Barbieri
  Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...
  
  
• Walter Beasley
  Walter Beasley
  Walter Beasley is an American saxophonist, a professor of music at the Berklee College of Music, and founder of Affable Publishing and Affable Records.-Biography:Beasley grew up in El Centro, California...
  
  
• Michael Brecker
  Michael Brecker
  Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
  
  
• Tom Colclough
  Tom Colclough
  Tom Colclough has been a fixture in the Vancouver jazz, pop and blues scene since the 1980s.A two-time West Coast Music Award winner for his distinctive saxophone and clarinet playing, Tom has accompanied many famous musicians and singers, including Kenny Loggins, Celine Dion, David Foster, Julio...
  
  
• Steve Cole
  Steve Cole
  Steve Cole is an American tenor saxophonist who has released five albums starting in the late 1990s throughout the 2000s. Most of his albums have been well-received, earning him several awards...
  
  
• Eric Darius
  Eric Darius
  Eric Darius is a smooth jazz saxophonist and composer. He is a native of New Jersey who grew up in Tampa, Florida.- Biography :Darius began his performing career at the age of 11 when he toured with the youth-based Sonny LaRosa and America's Youngest Jazz Band. The tour's final performance was held...
  
  
• David Davis
• Will Donato
  Will Donato
  Will Donato is a smooth jazz composer, alto saxophonist and recording artist whose 2007 release, Will Call is his first with Innervision Records...
  
  
• Candy Dulfer
  Candy Dulfer
  Candy Dulfer is a Dutch smooth jazz alto saxophonist who began playing at the age of six. She founded her band, Funky Stuff, when she was fourteen years old. Her debut album Saxuality received a Grammy Award nomination. Dulfer has released nine studio albums, two live albums, and one compilation...
  
  
• Richard Elliot
  Richard Elliot
  Richard Elliot is a Scottish-born saxophone player.He was a member of the funk band Tower of Power playing tenor sax for 5 years during the 1980s. He also worked on Stacy Lattisaw's 1986 album "Take Me All The Way". His solo career took off when he remade the Percy Sledge classic "When a Man...
  
  
• Kenny G
  Kenny G
  Kenneth Bruce Gorelick , better known by his stage name Kenny G, is an American, adult contemporary and smooth jazz saxophonist. His fourth album, Duotones, brought him breakthrough success in 1986...
  
  
• Euge Groove
  Euge Groove
  Steven Eugene Grove , better known as Euge Groove, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist with a strong Top-40 background....
  
  
• Jazz Hamilton
  Jazz Hamilton
  Jazz Hamilton is a Puerto Rican saxophonist, recording artist, musical director, and composer. Known for his recordings on jazz, Latin jazz, smooth jazz and salsa genres, he also recorded two classical musical pieces in his album My Soul released in 2008, the classical piece Wolfgang Jacobi Sonata...
  
  
• Everette Harp
  Everette Harp
  Everette Harp , is an African American blues, jazz and gospel saxophonist who has recorded on Blue Note and Capitol Records. Harp's 2006 album, In the Moment, debuted in the number one position of Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart.-Biography:Everette Harp started playing piano at two, and began...
  
  
• Donald Harrison
  Donald Harrison
  Donald Harrison, Jr. is an American jazz saxophonist from New Orleans, Louisiana.-Biography:Harrison studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Berklee College of Music. He played with Roy Haynes, Jack McDuff, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Terence Blanchard and Don Pullen in the...
  
  
• Warren Hill
• George Howard
  George Howard (jazz)
  George Howard was a Jazz-Funk/ Fusion /Smooth Jazz soprano saxophonist.-Biography:Howard was born September 15, 1956 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the late 1970s, he began touring with Grover Washington, Jr., who was one of his idols...
  
  
• Jessy J
  Jessy J
  Jessy J is an American musician in the contemporary jazz music genre.- Biography :...
  
  
• Boney James
  Boney James
  Boney James, is a saxophonist, songwriter and producer who popularized urban jazz...
  
  
• Darryl Johnson
• James Johnson
• Jackiem Joyner
  Jackiem Joyner
  Jackiem Joyner , also known by the stage name Lil Man Soul is a saxophonist and flute player from Norfolk, Virginia, United States. He has worked in contemporary jazz, gospel and world music.-Biography:...
  
  
• Jeff Kashiwa
  Jeff Kashiwa
  Jeff Kashiwa is a jazz saxophonist native to Seattle who became known on the music scene in 1989 as a member of popular fusion jazz group The Rippingtons. Kashiwa joined The Rippingtons following Brandon Fields, exit from the group...
  
  
• J Spencer
• John Klemmer
  John Klemmer
  John Klemmer is an American saxophonist, composer, song writer and arranger.He was born in Chicago, Illinois and began playing guitar at age 5 and alto saxophone at age 11. His other early interests included graphics and visual art, writing, dance, puppetry, painting, sculpting and poetry...
  
  
• Kaori Kobayashi
  Kaori Kobayashi
  , is a Japanese jazz saxophonist and flautist. She grew up in Tokyo.-Biography:Kobayashi was born on October 20, 1981 in the Kanagawa Prefecture. Her father was a photographer and her mother, a piano teacher. Beginning at a very young age, Kobayashi learned to play the piano. When she was 13 years...
  
  
• Dave Koz
  Dave Koz
  Dave Koz is an American smooth jazz saxophonist.- Life and career :Dave Koz was born on March 27, 1963 in Encino, California....
  
  
• Eric Marienthal
  Eric Marienthal
  Eric Marienthal is a Los Angeles-based contemporary saxophonist best known for his work in the jazz, jazz fusion, smooth jazz, and pop genres....
  
  
• Branford Marsalis
  Branford Marsalis
  Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
  
  
• Terrace Martin
  Terrace Martin
  Terrace Martin is a Hip hop producer and rapper from Los Angeles, California who has produced beats for artists including Snoop Dogg, Shawnna, Warren G, Talib Kweli, Glasses Malone, Kurupt, Lalah Hathaway, Murs, Nipsey Hussle and collaborated with other producers such as DJ Quik, Battlecat, Hi-Tek...
  
  
• Stu Matthewman
  Sade (band)
  Sade is a British smooth jazz band that formed in 1983, named for Nigerian lead singer Sade Adu. Their music features elements of R&B, soul, jazz, and soft rock....
  
  
• Marion Meadows
  Marion Meadows
  Marion Meadows is an American tenor saxophonist, soprano saxophonist, composer, and smooth jazz recording artist of Native American, African American and Caucasian descent. Meadows has released a total of 9 albums to date.-Upbringing:...
  
  
• Najee
  Najee
  Jerome Najee Rasheed , known professionally as Najee, is an urban jazz saxophonist and flautist.He attended New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with George Russell and Jaki Byard....
  
  
• Fausto Papetti
  Fausto Papetti
  Fausto Papetti was an Italian alto saxophone player.He was born at Viggiù in Lombardy.His performance of the song "Love's Theme" was featured on the breakbeat compilation "Ultimate Breaks and Beats".Papetti became well known for all the 1960s and 1970s, and all his new album reaches the top of...
  
  
• Courtney Pine
  Courtney Pine
  Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass Clarinet and keyboards...
  
  
• Art Porter
  Art Porter, Jr.
  Arthur Lee 'Art' Porter, Jr., , was an American jazz saxophonist. He was the son of jazz musician Art Porter, Sr., as well as the namesake of "The Art Porter Bill".-Early life:...
  
  
• Bobby Ricketts
  Bobby Ricketts
  Bobby Ricketts is an American saxophonist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bobby grew up in the area around greater Boston MA. Due to several hundred appearances on various Danish television shows from ca. 1983 onward, Bobby Ricketts has become one of the most famous musicians in that country...
  
  
• Nelson Rangell
  Nelson Rangell
  Nelson Rangell is an American velvet-smooth jazz musician and composer originally from Castle Rock, Colorado. Although Rangell is known for his work with the tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, his primary instrument is the piccolo flute, which he began playing at the age of 15...
  
  
• David Sanborn
  David Sanborn
  David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
  
  
• Tom Scott
  Tom Scott (musician)
  Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
  
  
• Andy Snitzer
• Arturo Tappin
  Arturo Tappin
  -External links:***...
  
  
• Paul Taylor
  Paul Taylor (musician)
  Paul Taylor is an American smooth jazz saxophonist who has released eight albums since his debut On the Horn in 1995. He is signed to Peak Records. Although originally from Denver, Colorado, he is based in Las Vegas, Nevada...
  
  
• Stanley Turrentine
  Stanley Turrentine
  Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
  
  
• Sadao Watanabe
• Grover Washington, Jr.
  Grover Washington, Jr.
  Grover Washington, Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.He wrote some of his material and...
  
  
• Kirk Whalum
  Kirk Whalum
  Kirk Whalum is an American smooth jazz saxophonist and songwriter. He toured as Whitney Houston's opening act for several years. Whalum has also recorded a series of well received solo albums and film soundtracks, with music ranging from pop to R&B to smooth jazz...
  
  
• Pamela Williams
  Pamela Williams
  Pamela Williams is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, songwriter, producer and painter. Williams exhibits diverse musical elements in her repertoire, including Nu Jazz, Funk, R&B, House, Latin and Pop...
  
  

Guitarists

• Blake Aaron
  Blake Aaron
  Blake Aaron is a guitarist, composer, recording artist and radio show host.-Collaborations:Aaron has recorded and/ or performed with such artists, composers, and musicians as Philip Bailey , Bobby Womack and Carlos Santana , The Gap Band, Lakeside, Dynasty, The Drifters, The Coasters, Little...
  
  
• Marc Antoine
• Armik
  Armik
  Armik is an Iranian-Armenian flamenco guitarist and composer.Armik was born in Iran of Armenian descent. When he was just seven years old, he pawned his watch for a classical guitar, which he hid and practiced in his basement. At 12, he was a professional recording artist...
  
  
• George Benson
  George Benson
  George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
  
  
• Greg Borino
• Zachary Breaux
  Zachary Breaux
  Zachary Charles Breaux was an American jazz guitarist, influenced by George Benson and Wes Montgomery and best remembered for his soul-jazz work...
  
  
• Norman Brown
  Norman Brown (guitarist)
  Norman Brown is a smooth jazz guitarist & singer, often compared to his contemporary George Benson.-Overview:...
  
  
• Anthony Bryant
• Jonathan Butler
  Jonathan Butler
  Jonathan Butler is a singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music is often classified as R&B, jazz fusion or worship music.-Biography:...
  
  
• Larry Carlton
  Larry Carlton
  Larry Carlton is an American jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, pop, and rock guitarist and singer. He has divided his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with various well-known bands...
  
  
• Craig Chaquico
  Craig Chaquico
  Craig Chaquico is an American guitarist of Portuguese and Native American descent. He has had over thirty years of success in a variety of genres: in the 1970s with the post-Summer of Love Jefferson Starship, in that band's 1980s incarnation, Starship, and in the 1990s and 2000s as a...
  
  
• Jesse Cook
  Jesse Cook
  Jesse Cook is a Toronto-based guitarist, born in Paris to Canadian parents. Like other guitarists of his style of music, he incorporates funky jazz, latin & world music into his playing. Cook is also well known for the energy of his live shows. He has contributed to the Afro Celt Sound System album...
  
  
• Joyce Cooling
  Joyce Cooling
  Joyce Cooling, a San Francisco based jazz guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, has recorded seven albums - five of which charted on Billboard. She has to her credit two #1 singles, six Top-10 and 13 charting radio singles in all and has garnered multiple music awards including the Gibson Best Jazz...
  
  
• Kevin Eubanks
  Kevin Eubanks
  Kevin Tyrone Eubanks is an American jazz guitarist and composer who was the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led The Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.- Personal background :Eubanks was born into a musical family...
  
  
• Russ Freeman
  Russ Freeman (guitarist)
  James Russell Freeman is a smooth jazz artist of multiple genres, composer and bandleader. He studied for a time at UCLA and CalArts, but remained somewhat obscure before leading the studio-formed contemporary jazz band The Rippingtons in 1986. Freeman and his manager, Andi Howard, also formed...
  
  
• Brian Hughes
  Brian Hughes (musician)
  Brian Hughes is a Canadian guitarist whose work draws from both the smooth jazz and world music genres. Not restricted entirely to conventional guitars, Hughes has also been known to employ the oud, bouzouki and balalaika...
  
  
• Paul Jackson, Jr.
  Paul Jackson, Jr.
  Paul Jackson, Jr. is a fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. Jackson knew by the age of fifteen that he wanted to become a professional musician...
  
  
• Rolf Jardemark
• Denny Jiosa
  Denny Jiosa
  Denny Jiosa is a United States jazz/blues guitarist/composer who has received four Grammy nominations for his recording engineering work.Jiosa was born in Huntington, Indiana. He began playing guitar at the age of 7 and later toured with bands such as Troy Shondell's, before moving to Los Angeles...
  
  
• Ronny Jordan
  Ronny Jordan
  Ronny Jordan is a guitarist at the forefront of the acid jazz movement at the end of the twentieth century. Additionally, Jordan can be included in several other jazz genres such as urban jazz, jazz funk, crossover jazz, and smooth jazz...
  
  
• Stanley Jordan
  Stanley Jordan
  Stanley Jordan is an American jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and pianist, best known for his development of the tapping technique for the guitar....
  
  
• Ryo Kawasaki
  Ryo Kawasaki
  Ryo Kawasaki chose a career as a jazz fusion guitarist after spending some years studying as a scientist. During the 60s he played with various Japanese jazz groups and also formed his own bands...
  
  
• Earl Klugh
  Earl Klugh
  Earl Klugh is an American smooth jazz/crossover jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and composer.At the age of 13, Klugh was captivated by the guitar playing of Chet Atkins when Atkins made an appearance on the Perry Como Show. Klugh was a performing guest on several of Atkins' albums...
  
  
• Michael Landau
  Michael Landau
  Michael Landau is a prolific session musician and guitarist who has played on a large number of albums since the early 1980s with artists as varied as Seal, James Taylor, Helen Watson, Richard Marx, Steve Perry, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis...
  
  
• Steve Laury
  Steve Laury
  Steve Laury is a contemporary jazz guitarist, arranger, composer, producer and national recording artist. He primarily recorded in the Contemporary Jazz format and produced five very successful solo albums....
  
  
• Ottmar Liebert
  Ottmar Liebert
  Ottmar Liebert is a German-born composer and guitarist, born to a Chinese-German father and a Hungarian mother. As a child, he spent most of his time traveling Europe and Asia with his family...
  
  
• Johannes Linstead
  Johannes Linstead
  Johannes Linstead is an award-winning Canadian guitarist and instrumentalist that fuses virtuoso Spanish-style guitar with Afro-Cuban, Middle Eastern, and Latin American percussion and instrumentation...
  
  
• Chuck Loeb
  Chuck Loeb
  Chuck Loeb is a guitarist who performs numerous styles of music, most notably jazz. Loeb's own solo projects have generally been commercially successful crossover jazz, which has "contemporary" or "smooth" jazz....
  
  
• Pat Metheny
  Pat Metheny
  Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
  
  
• Jas Miller
• Chieli Minucci
  Chieli Minucci
  Chieli Minucci is an American contemporary jazz guitarist, composer, music producer, and arranger of Italian descent.Minucci was born in New York City and is primarily known as the leader of the Grammy-nominated contemporary jazz group Special EFX...
  
  
• Ken Navarro
  Ken Navarro
  Ken Navarro is an Italian-American Contemporary Jazz guitarist and composer. He first received recognition as a solo artist in 1990 with his song "Try Again" from his debut CD The River Flows...
  
  
• Ray Obiedo
  Ray Obiedo
  Ray Obiedo is an American smooth jazz guitarist.Obiedo grew up in Richmond, California, and began playing guitar at age 17. Initially he played both jazz and R&B, appearing on record with Herbie Hancock, Julian Priester, and Sheila E.. He was the leader of jazz fusion group Kick and the rock band...
  
  
• Steve Oliver
  Steve Oliver
  Steve Oliver is a California based guitarist & vocalist. He creates and performs music in a wide variety of styles including Jazz, Pop, Latin and World Music....
  
  
• Gil Parris
  Gil Parris
  Gil Parris is an American Grammy-nominated rock, blues, jazz and pop guitarist. He graduated from Ardsley High School. After briefly attending the Berklee School of Music, Parris left to tour Europe as part of a musical troupe performing Jesus Christ Superstar before becoming a recording artist...
  
  
• Doc Powell
  Doc Powell
  Doc Powell is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He was born and raised in Spring Valley, New York. He attended college at University of Charleston....
  
  
• Lee Ritenour
  Lee Ritenour
  Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981. Ritenour is considered to be a...
  
  
• Thom Rotella
• Shahin and Sepehr
  Shahin and Sepehr
  Shahin and Sepehr are an Iranian-American guitarist duo.Their music is mainly composed of Spanish guitar melodies fused with components of soft rock, flamenco, jazz, new age, and influences of traditional music of Iran. Their influences also include artists such as Cat Stevens among others.The...
  
  
• Richard Smith
• Jay Soto
  Jay Soto
  Jay Soto is an American smooth jazz guitarist.Soto is best known for his proficiency in guitar, however he is also an accomplished pianist and vocalist.- Biography :...
  
  
• Chris Standring
  Chris Standring
  Chris Standring is a British-born soul jazz guitarist known for his heavy use of 1970s-style musical nuances. Before launching his own solo career with his 1998 album "Velvet", Standring represented a third of the band SolarSystem, a one-shot project that combined elements of jazz and hip-hop.His...
  
  
• Alan Steward
  Alan Steward
  Alan Steward is a Producer, Song Writer and Recording Artist who produced hits for Grammy winning and Platinum selling artists like the multi-platinum selling Baha Men and five time Grammy winners Dennis Edwards and Eddie Kendricks both original members of the The Temptations...
  
  
• Yuji Toriyama
• Frank Vignola
  Frank Vignola
  Frank Vignola is an American jazz guitarist.Vignola began on guitar at age five. While he never listened to jazz exclusively, he has a wide range of influences, such as Les Paul, Eddie Van Halen and Frank Zappa. He later studied at the Cultural Arts Center of Long Island...
  
  
• Yves Vincent
• Peter White
  Peter White (musician)
  Peter White is a smooth jazz and jazz fusion guitarist. He also plays the accordion and the piano. His brother, Danny White, was one of the original members who formed the UK based band Matt Bianco.-Career:...
  
  
• Bernie Williams
  Bernie Williams
  Bernabé Williams Figueroa Jr. is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and Puerto Rican musician.-Early life:...
  
  
• Patrick Yandall
  Patrick Yandall
  Patrick Yandall is a contemporary jazz/rock/blues guitarist with 13 album releases. Patrick's song "Who's The Bossa Now" from the album "Samoa Soul" was used in the political satire film War, Inc. starring John Cusack and Marissa Tomei. Yandall's music has also been featured on television and news...
  
  

Drummers and other percussionists

• Vinnie Colaiuta
  Vinnie Colaiuta
  Vincent Colaiuta is an American drummer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Republic, Pennsylvania, he began playing drums as a child and received his first full drum kit from his parents at the age of 14...
  
  
• Steve Gadd
  Steve Gadd
  Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
  
  
• Leonard Gibbs
  Leonard Gibbs
  Leonard William "Doc" Gibbs Jr is an American percussionist. Gibbs studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1970s. He has toured with artists such as Anita Baker, Whitney Houston, Bob James, Ricki Lee Jones, Al Jarreau, Grover Washington, Jr., Wyclef Jean, Erykah Badu, Eric...
  
  
• Omar Hakim
  Omar Hakim
  Omar Hakim is an American jazz, jazz fusion and pop music drummer.Hakim credits jazz vibraphonist Mike Mainieri with giving him his first break in 1980; Hakim appeared in a video with Mainieri called The Jazz Life and began working with singer Carly Simon through Mainieri...
  
  
• Akira Jimbo
  Akira Jimbo
  is a Japanese freelance jazz fusion drummer who is famous for his drumming independence and fusion of electronic drum technology and acoustic drums. Aside from his solo work, he is also the drummer in the Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea and has participated in various side projects with other...
  
  
• Harvey Mason
  Harvey Mason
  Harvey William Mason is an American jazz drummer. He has worked with many jazz and fusion artists such as Bob James, The Brecker Brothers, Lee Ritenour, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and almost all the Mizell Brothers productions with Donald Byrd, Johnny Hammond, Bobbi Humphrey and Gary Bartz...
  
  
• Alphonse Mouzon
  Alphonse Mouzon
  Alphonse Mouzon is a well-known jazz-fusion drummer and percussionist, and the Chairman/CEO of Tenacious Records. He also composes, arranges and produces, as well as acts...
  
   ( between 1980 and 1998 )
• Tonéx
  Tonéx
  Anthony Charles Williams II , better known by his former stage name Tonéx , and most recently as B.Slade, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, dancer, producer, preacher, and activist. He has gone by various names and aliases, but his primary stage name of choice...
  
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• Dave Weckl
  Dave Weckl
  Dave Weckl is a highly acclaimed jazz fusion drummer. Weckl attended Francis Howell High School in St. Charles, MO and graduated in 1978. He majored in jazz studies at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut...
  
  
• Gota Yashiki
  Gota Yashiki
  Gota Yashiki is both an independent acid jazz artist and drum player, as a member of the band Simply Red. He was born in Kyoto, Japan, on 26 February 1962, where at a young age he learned how to play traditional Japanese drums. This interest in drumming propelled him into the music scene, and he...
  
  
• Paulinho da Costa
  Paulinho Da Costa
  Paulinho da Costa is a Brazilian percussionist born in Rio de Janeiro, considered one of the most recorded musicians of modern times. Playing over two hundred percussion instruments, he has participated in thousands of recording sessions, Grammy Award-winning albums, hit songs, soundtracks, radio...
  
  

Bassists

• Rico Belled
• Brian Bromberg
  Brian Bromberg
  Brian Bromberg is an American jazz bassist and record producer who performs on both electric and acoustic instruments...
  
  
• Stanley Clarke
  Stanley Clarke
  Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
  
  
• Nathan East
  Nathan East
  Nathan Harrell East is a jazz, R&B and rock bass player and vocalist. East holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from the University of California, San Diego...
  
  
• Abraham Laboriel
  Abraham Laboriel
  Abraham Laboriel, Sr. is a Mexican bassist of Garifuna descent who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. Guitar Player Magazine described him as "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the father of drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and of producer, songwriter, and...
  
  
• Marcus Miller
  Marcus Miller
  Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...
  
  
• John Patitucci
  John Patitucci
  John Patitucci is an American Grammy-winning jazz double bass and jazz fusion electric bass player.-Biography:Patitucci is of Italian descent and was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he began playing the electric bass at age ten, composing and performing at age 12, as well as the acoustic bass at...
  
  
• Dewey Tucker
• Wayman Tisdale
  Wayman Tisdale
  Wayman Lawrence Tisdale was an American professional basketball player in the NBA and a smooth jazz bass guitarist. A three-time All American at the University of Oklahoma, he was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.-Early life:Tisdale was born in Fort Worth, Texas...
  
  
• Gerald Veasley
  Gerald Veasley
  Gerald Veasley is an American jazz bass guitarist.Veasley was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he played in R&B groups as a teenager. He worked with Joe Zawinul from 1988 to 1995, and began releasing his own records in 1992. He has also done extensive work as a studio musician....
  
  
• Victor Wooten
  Victor Wooten
  Victor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....
  
  

Trumpeters / Flugelhornists

• Greg Adams
• Herb Alpert
  Herb Alpert
  Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
  
  
• Chris Botti
  Chris Botti
  Christopher Stephen "Chris" Botti , is an American trumpeter and composer. In 2007, Botti was nominated for two Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album. On December 4, 2009, he was nominated for three more Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album and Best Long Form Music Video...
  
  
• Cindy Bradley
  Cindy Bradley
  Cindy Bradley, is an American contemporary jazz trumpet player.Cindy Bradley had an extensive background as a sidewoman before embarking on her solo jazz career...
  
  
• Rick Braun
  Rick Braun
  Rick Braun is a smooth jazz trumpet player.Before embarking on a solo career, Braun got his start by playing in several bands, including guitarist Jeff Golub's Avenue Blue...
  
  
• Randy Brecker
  Randy Brecker
  Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
  
  
• Tom Browne
• Jerry Hey
  Jerry Hey
  Jerry Hey is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Thriller and the distinctive flugelhorn solo on Dan Fogelberg's hit Longer....
  
  
• James Earl Jones
• Chuck Mangione
  Chuck Mangione
  Charles Frank "Chuck" Mangione is an American flugelhorn player and composer who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single, "Feels So Good." Mangione has released more than thirty albums since 1960.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Wynton Marsalis
  Wynton Marsalis
  Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
  
  
• Christian Scott
  Christian Scott
  Christian Scott, born March 31, 1983, in New Orleans, Louisiana, is the 2010 Edison Award winner for Best International Jazz Artist and a Grammy Award-nominated jazz trumpeter, composer and producer. He has been heralded by JazzTimes magazine as "the Architect of a new commercially viable fusion"...
  
  
• Lee Thornburg
  Lee Thornburg
  Lee Thornburg is a trumpeter who has played with many artists, and also has been a member of Supertramp and Tower of Power. Thornburg also played with Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders in the 1970s.-Biography:...
  
  

Pianists/Keyboardists

• Stanley B
• Bob Baldwin
  Bob Baldwin (musician)
  Bob Baldwin is a New York-born contemporary jazz musician and producer.Born December 9, 1960, Mount Vernon, NYBob is an American music composer, pianist, record producer, musical arranger, Pianist and compose, who learned how to play directly from his father, Robert Baldwin, Sr...
  
  
• David Benoit
• Thomas Borino
  Thomas Borino
  Thomas Borino is a jazz pianist and organist who currently leads the band Airborne. His influences include Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, and Luther Vandross. His style is smooth jazz and straight ahead jazz.-External links:*...
  
  
• Alex Bugnon
  Alex Bugnon
  Alex Bugnon is a jazz pianist and composer from Montreux, Switzerland.Bugnon studied at the Paris Conservatory and the Mozart Academy in Salzburg. At age nineteen, he moved to the U.S...
  
  
• Mike Catalano
• Robert Collier
• Brian Culbertson
  Brian Culbertson
  Brian Culbertson is a musician and instrumentalist from Decatur, Illinois, United States. Son of jazz band director and trumpeter Jim Culbertson, Brian's instruments include the keyboard and trombone....
  
  
• Terry Disley
  Terry Disley
  Terry Disley is a keyboardist, born in London. While in London and Los Angeles in the 1990s, he recorded with many artists including Bryan Ferry, Bon Jovi, Van Morrison, Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Madness, Mick Jagger, Terry Hall, Brian Wilson and Billy Bragg...
  
  
• George Duke
  George Duke
  George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
  
  
• Jonathan Fritzén
  Jonathan Fritzén
  - Biography :Fritzen was born in Stockholm, Sweden to a Swedish mother and an American father. He started playing drums at a young age, and as he got older he also learned the piano, bass, guitar, flute and vocals...
  
  
• Chris Geith
  Chris Geith
  Chris Geith is a composer and arranger of contemporary jazz and New Age music. His band, The Chris Geith Group, signed with Jive Records in Asia in 2001. The band has been no. 1 in the contemporary jazz, Jazz Fusion, and Contemporary Urban/ R&B charts on MP3.com...
  
  
• Dave Grusin
  Dave Grusin
  David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
  
  
• Paul Hardcastle
  Paul Hardcastle
  Paul Hardcastle is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.-Discography:In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo.He achieved some acclaim for...
  
  
• Bob James
  Bob James (musician)
  Robert McElhiney James is a jazz keyboardist, arranger and producer.-Biography:During the 1970s, Bob James played a major role in establishing the smooth jazz genre. "Angela", the instrumental theme from the sitcom Taxi, is probably Bob James' most well-known work to date...
  
  
• Bradley Joseph
  Bradley Joseph
  Bradley Joseph is an American composer, arranger, and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His compositions include works for orchestra, quartet, and solo piano, while his musical style ranges from "quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth".Active...
  
  
• Gregg Karukas
  Gregg Karukas
  Gregg Karukas is a smooth jazz keyboardist and pianist, originally from the Washington, D.C.-Maryland area. He experimented with keyboards as a child, but it was not until his teens that he pursued music professionally. Gradually, he developed a melodic and soulful style of music that made him a...
  
  
• Kenny Kirkland
  Kenny Kirkland
  Kenneth David “Kenny” Kirkland was an American pianist/keyboardist. He is most often associated with Sting, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Kenny Garrett....
  
  
• David Lanz
  David Lanz
  David Lanz is a Grammy-nominated New Age pianist. His most popular album, Cristofori's Dream, topped the New Age charts in 1988, which was No. 1 on Billboard's first adult alternative/New Age chart for 27 weeks and eventually sold platinum. Natural States peaked at No...
  
  
• Ramsey Lewis
  Ramsey Lewis
  Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...
  
  
• Jeff Lorber
  Jeff Lorber
  Jeff Lorber 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....
  
  
• Bobby Lyle
  Bobby Lyle
  Bobby Lyle is a jazz, soul jazz, and smooth jazz pianist. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee but grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota in a home near the corner of Park Avenue and 32nd Street. His father, reportedly, was a sports writer for the Star Tribune newspaper.He had his first gig at 16 and...
  
  
• Keiko Matsui
  Keiko Matsui
  , born in Tokyo as Keiko Doi, is a Japanese smooth jazz/jazz fusion/new age/ keyboardist and composer whose career spans three decades, during which time she has released twenty CDs and has received international acclaim....
  
  
• Jody Mayfield
• Yuriko Nakamura
  Yuriko Nakamura
  is a Japanese composer and pianist. Some of her songs were also used for the soundtrack of Shusuke Kaneko's Summer Vacation 1999.-Discography :* Kaze no Kagami / Sony / 32DP735 -1987...
  
  
• Rei Narita
• Freddie Ravel
• Paolo Rustichelli
  Paolo Rustichelli
  Paolo Rustichelli is an eclectic smooth jazz, rock-jazz and progressive rock composer, pianist and producer, son of Oscar nominee Carlo Rustichelli...
  
  
• Philippe Saisse
  Philippe Saisse
  Philippe Saisse is a French Grammy Award-nominated Smooth Jazz and New Age music keyboardist, producer and arranger.He was born in Marseille and raised in Paris. After studying at the Conservatoire de Paris he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. He became the protege of Gary Burton...
  
  
• Joe Sample
  Joe Sample
  Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 .- Biography :Sample began playing the piano...
  
  
• Bill Sharpe
  Bill Sharpe (musician)
  Bill Sharpe was born in Bishop's Stortford and educated at Bishop's Stortford College. From there he studied music at Birmingham University where he gained an honours degree....
  
  
• Dan Shea
  Dan Shea (record producer)
  Dan Shea is an American record producer and composer who has worked with numerous artists including Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Santana, Barbra Streisand, Jessica Simpson. Sara Evans, Rob Thomas, Marc Anthony, Boys II Men, Martina McBride, Kenny G., Ricky Martin, Bono,...
  
  
• Dan Siegel
  Dan Siegel
  Dan Siegel is a pianist, composer and record producer. His earlier music has been described as new age, while his more recent work has been called contemporary jazz.Siegel was born in Seattle, Washington and raised in Eugene, Oregon...
  
  
• Oli Silk
  Oli silk
  Oli Silk is a British smooth jazz keyboardist, Producer and Composer.Oli began playing the keyboards at age 11...
  
  
• Lonnie Liston Smith
  Lonnie Liston Smith
  Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with important free jazz artists such as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion / Quiet Storm /...
  
  
• Alan Steward
  Alan Steward
  Alan Steward is a Producer, Song Writer and Recording Artist who produced hits for Grammy winning and Platinum selling artists like the multi-platinum selling Baha Men and five time Grammy winners Dennis Edwards and Eddie Kendricks both original members of the The Temptations...
  
  
• Marlene Tachoir
• John Tesh
  John Tesh
  John Frank Tesh is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. His 10-year-old 'Intelligence for Your Life Radio Show' reaches 14.2 Million listeners/week, and is syndicated by Teshmedia on 400 stations in US, Canada, and the UK...
  
  
• Tomazz
• Tonéx
  Tonéx
  Anthony Charles Williams II , better known by his former stage name Tonéx , and most recently as B.Slade, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, dancer, producer, preacher, and activist. He has gone by various names and aliases, but his primary stage name of choice...
  
   (vocalist)
• Kevin Toney
  Kevin Toney
  Kevin Toney is an American pianist and composer, known as an original member of The Blackbyrds and now is a solo artist and performer.-Biography:...
  
  
• Erik van der Luijt
  Erik van der Luijt
  Erik van der Luijt is a Dutch jazz pianist / keyboard player, arranger, composer, producer and band leader.-History:Erik van der Luijt started playing the piano at the age of four...
  
  
• Larry White
  Larry White
  Larry David White was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He pitched in 11 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1983 & 1984 seasons.-External links:...
  
  

Flutists

• Bobbi Humphrey
  Bobbi Humphrey
  Barbara Ann Humphrey is an American jazz flautist and singer who plays fusion, jazz-funk and soul-jazz styles. Bobbi Humphrey has performed for audiences around the world....
  
  
• Hubert Laws
  Hubert Laws
  Hubert Laws is an American flutist and saxophonist with a 40+ year career in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Alongside Herbie Mann, Laws is probably the most recognized and respected jazz flutist...
  
  
• Najee
  Najee
  Jerome Najee Rasheed , known professionally as Najee, is an urban jazz saxophonist and flautist.He attended New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with George Russell and Jaki Byard....
  
  
• Nestor Torres
  Nestor Torres
  Nestor Torres is a jazz flautist who was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in 1957. He took flute lessons at age 12 and began formal studies at the Escuela Libre de Música, eventually attending Puerto Rico’s Inter-American University. At 18, he moved to New York with his family...
  
  
• Paul Rozmus
• Dave Valentin
  Dave Valentin
  Dave Valentin is a jazz flutist.He learned latin percussion first when he was a teenager, and then switched to flute. Valentin's teacher, Hubert Laws, suggested that he not double on saxophone because of his attractive sound on the flute. He studied at the Bronx Community College...
  
  
• Alexander Zonjic
  Alexander Zonjic
  Alexander Zonjic is a professional flutist born in Windsor, Ontario, who performs both light jazz and classical compositions. Zonjic initially played guitar at age 9, and by age 15 he was lead guitarist in a local Rhythm and blues band. At age 21, Zonjic purchased his first flute from a street...
  
  

Bands/Groups

• 3rd Force
  3rd Force
  3rd Force is a New Age/contemporary jazz band on the EMI Higher Octave label, consisting of trio William Aura, Craig Dobbin, and Alain Eskinasi. Founded in 1994 by William Aura after a prolific solo career in New Age music, he, Dobbin, and Eskinasi immediately set out working on their self-titled...
  
  
• Acoustic Alchemy
  Acoustic Alchemy
  Acoustic Alchemy is an English contemporary instrumental and smooth jazz band formed in England in the early 1980s , originally fronted by acoustic guitarists Nick Webb and Simon James...
  
  
• Airborne
  Airborne (band)
  Airborne is an American contemporary jazz / smooth jazz / world fusion band, formed in the late 1980s. Airborne the proclaimed “Musical Peacemakers” of Contemporary Jazz sends out an Inspirational Message of Hope to the World. They are a multi-cultural jazz band from New Haven, Connecticut who has...
  
  
• Azymuth
  Azymuth
  Azymuth is a three-piece electric funk jazz group from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Formed in 1972, the members are Jose Roberto Bertrami , Alex Malheiros , and Ivan Conti .-History:...
  
  
• BWB
  BWB (band)
  Brown-Whalum-Braun, better known as BWB, is a jazz band that is named after its three members: guitarist Norman Brown, saxophonist Kirk Whalum, and trumpeter Rick Braun.- Session :...
  
  
• Blue Knights
• Camiel
• Carmel
  Carmel (singer)
  Carmel is a British female singer, her eponymous band Carmel uniting bassist Jim Parris, and drummer Gerry Darby.-Biography of Carmel McCourt:...
  
  
• Count Basic
  Count Basic
  Count Basic are an Austrian band who play a variety of R&B, trip-hop, acid jazz and smooth jazz. The band's principal members were guitarist Peter Legat and the two vocalists Kelli Sae and Valerie Etienne but the band decided to go on only with Kelli Sae after the first album.-Discography:*1995...
  
  
• The Crusaders
  The Crusaders
  The Crusaders are an American music group popular in the early 1970s known for their amalgamated jazz, pop and soul sound. Since 1961, more than forty albums have been credited to the group , 19 of which were recorded under the name "The Jazz Crusaders" .-History:In 1960, following the demise of a...
  
  
• Curiosity Killed the Cat
  Curiosity Killed the Cat
  Curiosity Killed the Cat was a British pop band that found success in the UK Singles Chart in the late 1980s and early 1990s.-Career:The band tried to play soulful, jazzy, and funky pop music and was initially signed to Phonogram Records' Mercury imprint. They first came to notice of the UK music...
  
  
• David Blamires Group
  David Blamires
  David Blamires is a vocalist and composer and was born in Bradford, England but moved to Toronto, Canada and is one of Canada's most versatile and sought after session musicians...
  
  
• Down to the Bone
• Fantasy Band
• Fattburger
  Fattburger
  Fattburger is a jazz group, best categorized in the jazz-funk, contemporary jazz, or jazz fusion subgenres. The band was formed by saxophonist Hollis Gentry, keyboardist Carl Evans Jr., bassist Mark Hunter, drummer Kevin Koch, and guitarist Steve Laury in San Diego during the early 1980s...
  
  
• Fourplay
  Fourplay
  Fourplay is a contemporary jazz quartet in the United States. The original members of the group were Bob James , Lee Ritenour , Nathan East , and Harvey Mason . In 1997, Lee Ritenour left the group and Fourplay chose Larry Carlton as his replacement...
  
  
• Four80East
  Four80East
  Four80East is the Toronto based electro jazz ensemble of Rob DeBoer and Tony Grace ; accompanied by various session musicians....
  
  
• Haircut One Hundred
• Heavyshift
  Heavyshift
  Heavyshift is the name of a British acid jazz trio composed of William South and John Wallace and Julian Fenton , who first met and started gigging together around 1994. They have so far released four albums...
  
  
• Hiroshima
  Hiroshima (band)
  Hiroshima is an American jazz fusion/smooth jazz band formed in 1974 by Sansei Japanese American Dan Kuramoto , Peter Hata , June Kuramoto , Johnny Mori , Dave Iwataki and Danny Yamamoto...
  
  
• Incognito
  Incognito (band)
  Incognito is a British band, as well as one of the members of the United Kingdom's acid jazz movement. Their debut album, Jazz Funk, was released in 1981, with thirteen more albums following, the last of which, Transatlantic RPM, was released in 2010....
  
  
• Liquid Soul
  Liquid Soul
  Liquid Soul is a jazz, hip-hop, funk, freestyle fusion ensemble formed in 1994 from Chicago, Illinois which helped pioneer the Acid Jazz movement in the United States in the 90's...
  
  
• The Lounge Lizards
  The Lounge Lizards
  The Lounge Lizards are a jazz group formed in 1978 by saxophone player John Lurie.Initially a tongue in cheek "fake jazz" combo, drawing on punk rock and no wave as much as jazz, The Lounge Lizards have since become respected for their creative and distinctive sound.-History:Lounge Lizards were...
  
  
• Matt Bianco
  Matt Bianco
  Matt Bianco is a UK band that was formed in 1983. They are mainly known for their success in the mid 1980s and their jazz, Latin-flavoured music....
  
  
• Mezzoforte
  Mezzoforte (band)
  Mezzoforte is an instrumental jazz-funk fusion band from Iceland. Their biggest hit single was "Garden Party" . It peaked at #17 in the UK Singles Chart...
  
  
• The Microscopic Septet
  The Microscopic Septet
  The Microscopic Septet is a jazz septet, founded in 1980 by saxophonist Phillip Johnston. They played frequently in New York City, toured, and recorded until they disbanded in 1992. In late 2006, when their four albums were re-released along with previously unreleased material as two double CDs,...
  
  
• Opafire
  Opafire
  Opafire is a Jazz Fusion / World Fusion / Contemporary Jazz musical group, originally based in San Francisco, California, best known for their 1991 RCA Records release Opafire, , which sold close to one million units World Wide, the 1992 RCA Records release Without a Trace, as well as the 1994...
  
  
• Physical Therapy
  Physical Therapy (band)
  Physical Therapy is a jazz fusion band from St. Louis, Missouri active in the 1990s. They produced two albums under the Sweatshop Records label, the first being the eponymous Physical Therapy , and the second work being a theme album called Casino .The band used a variety of instruments and...
  
  
• Pieces of a Dream
  Pieces of a Dream (band)
  Pieces of a Dream is an American R&B/jazz group from Philadelphia. The group was formed in 1976 by bassist Cedric Napoleon, drummer Curtis Harmon, and keyboardist James Lloyd. At the time, the three were all teenagers...
  
  
• Praful
  Praful
  Praful is a recent acid jazz mixture band that uses a multitude of instruments, from tenor and soprano saxophones to Indian bamboo flutes, pandeiros, Fender Rhodes and many other exotic instruments. Two of the CDs One Day Deep and Pyramid in Your Backyard have won many awards and worldwide...
  
  
• The Rippingtons
  The Rippingtons
  The Rippingtons are a contemporary group mainly relating to the genres Smooth jazz, Jazz pop, and Crossover jazz. Formed in 1986 by guitarist and band leader Russ Freeman , their career has spanned two decades...
  
  
• Sade
  Sade (band)
  Sade is a British smooth jazz band that formed in 1983, named for Nigerian lead singer Sade Adu. Their music features elements of R&B, soul, jazz, and soft rock....
  
  
• Shakatak
  Shakatak
  Shakatak are an English jazz-funk band, founded in 1980.-Career:Shakatak scored a number of chart entries, including two Top Ten hits in the UK Singles Chart, "Night Birds" and "Down on the Street" plus a further 12 entries in the Guinness book of British Hit Singles...
  
  
• Soul Ballet
  Soul Ballet
  Soul Ballet is a musical project of actor, producer, arranger, programmer, and multi-instrumentalist Rick “R.K.” Kelly. Soul Ballet’s music is smooth contemporary jazz/electronica, characterized as pulsating electronic beats entwined with a dark, moody atmosphere.Kelly is occasionally joined by a...
  
  
• Spyro Gyra
  Spyro Gyra
  Spyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band that was originally formed in the mid-1970s in Buffalo, New York, USA. With over 25 albums released and 10 million copies sold, they are among the most prolific as well as commercially successful groups of the genre...
  
  
• Swing Out Sister
  Swing Out Sister
  Swing Out Sister are a British "sophisti-pop" group best known worldwide for their 1986 song "Breakout". Other hits include "Surrender", "Twilight World", "Waiting Game" and a remake of "Am I the Same Girl?" Though album sales in the U.S. and Europe have levelled off since the early 1990s, the...
  
  
• The Jazzmasters
  Paul Hardcastle
  Paul Hardcastle is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.-Discography:In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo.He achieved some acclaim for...
  
  
• The Style Council
  The Style Council
  The Style Council were an English band, formed in 1983 by the ex-The Jam singer and guitarist Paul Weller, with keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee. Other artists such as Tracie Young and Tracey Thorn also...
  
  
• The Terry Disley Experience
  Terry Disley
  Terry Disley is a keyboardist, born in London. While in London and Los Angeles in the 1990s, he recorded with many artists including Bryan Ferry, Bon Jovi, Van Morrison, Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Madness, Mick Jagger, Terry Hall, Brian Wilson and Billy Bragg...
  
  
• Tower of Power
  Tower of Power
  Tower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing for over 43 years. They are best known for their funky soul sound highlighted by a powerful horn section...
  
  
• Urban Knights
  Urban Knights
  The Urban Knights is an all-star smooth jazz band which features one of the jazz greats, pianist Ramsey Lewis. Their first self-titled debut album in 1995 included prominent musicians Grover Washington, Jr., Omar Hakim, Victor Bailey and the Emotions to name a few...
  
  
• US3
  US3
  Us3 is a jazz-rap group founded in London in 1991. Their name was inspired by a Horace Parlan recording produced by Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. On their debut album, Hand on the Torch, Us3 used samples from the Blue Note Records catalogue, all originally produced by...
  
  
• Yellowjackets
  Yellowjackets
  Yellowjackets is an American jazz fusion/smooth jazz quartet.-History:The original group, called The Robben Ford Group, was formed in 1977, and consisted of Robben Ford, Russell Ferrante, Jimmy Haslip and Ricky Lawson, all top-notch L.A. session musicians...
  
  

Vocalists

• Sade Adu
  Sade Adu
  Helen Folasade Adu OBE , is a British singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer. She first achieved success in the 1980s as the frontwoman and lead vocalist of the Brit and Grammy Award winning English group Sade.-Biography:Sade was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria...
  
  
• Gabriela Anders
  Gabriela Anders
  Gabriela Anders is an Argentine singer and pianist, specializing in soul, jazz and Latin. Her debut album was Wanting from 1998, including tracks as "You Know What It's Like", "Wanting" and "I'll Be Loving You"...
  
  
• Carl Anderson
  Carl Anderson (singer)
  Carl Anderson was an American singer, film and theatre actor best known for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot in the Broadway and film versions of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.-Early life:Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Anderson was one of 12 children of...
  
  
• Patti Austin
  Patti Austin
  -Life and career:Austin was born in Harlem, New York. She made her debut at the Apollo Theater at age four and had a contract with RCA Records when she was only five. Quincy Jones and Dinah Washington have proclaimed themselves as her godparents....
  
  
• Anita Baker
  Anita Baker
  Anita Baker is an American R&B/soul jazz singer-songwriter. To date, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards, and has four platinum albums and two gold albums to her credit....
  
  
• Basia
• Regina Belle
  Regina Belle
  Regina Belle is a singer-songwriter who first surfaced in the late 1980s. She is notable for her Grammy award winning duet with Peabo Bryson, "A Whole New World".-Biography:Regina Belle was born in Englewood, New Jersey...
  
  
• Ray Brown, Jr.
• Michael Bublé
  Michael Bublé
  Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
  
  
• Bobby Caldwell
  Bobby Caldwell
  Bobby Caldwell is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who, despite a prolific musical output over his 30-year career, is still best known for his 1978 hit single "What You Won't Do for Love". While he has always maintained a devoted fan base in the United States, a legendary...
  
  
• Carmel
  Carmel (singer)
  Carmel is a British female singer, her eponymous band Carmel uniting bassist Jim Parris, and drummer Gerry Darby.-Biography of Carmel McCourt:...
  
  
• Eliane Elias
  Eliane Elias
  Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, arranger, vocalist and songwriter.-Biography:...
  
  
• Everything But The Girl
  Everything but the Girl
  Everything but the Girl was a two-person English band, formed in Hull during 1981, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Ben Watt . They are currently inactive although vocalist Tracey Thorn hinted that they may reform someday...
  
  
• Tom Fox
• Michael Franks
• Melody Gardot
  Melody Gardot
  Melody Gardot is a Grammy-nominated American singer, writer and musician in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, though she considers herself a "citizen of the world". She has been influenced by such blues and jazz artists as Judy Garland, Janis Joplin, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz and George...
  
  
• Astrud Gilberto
  Astrud Gilberto
  Astrud Gilberto is a Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer. She is well known for the Grammy Award-winning song "The Girl from Ipanema".-Biography:...
  
  
• Bebel Gilberto
  Bebel Gilberto
  Bebel Gilberto is a Brazilian popular singer often associated with bossa nova. She is the daughter of João Gilberto and singer Miúcha. Her uncle is singer/composer Chico Buarque...
  
  
• Ilse Huizinga
  Ilse Huizinga
  Ilse Huizinga is a Dutch jazz singer. She performs throughout Europe.-History:Ilse Huizinga was born in Beverwijk, the Netherlands in October 1966 and grew up in Nijmegen. It was an old piano given to her family at the age of six, which first drew Huizinga to music...
  
  
• Al Jarreau
  Al Jarreau
  Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
  
  
• Norah Jones
  Norah Jones
  Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...
  
  
• Diana Krall
  Diana Krall
  Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
  
  
• Maysa Leak
  Maysa Leak
  Maysa Leak is an American jazz singer better known by her mononym Maysa. She is well known by fans of smooth jazz both for her solo work and for her work with the British band Incognito.-Biographical sketch:...
  
  
• Gigi MacKenzie
  Gigi MacKenzie
  Gigi MacKenzie is a smooth jazz artist, daughter of the singer Gisele MacKenzie.Now residing in West Toluca Lake, California. MacKenzie worked for 10 years as a studio singer in Los Angeles. She has recorded national commercials and major movie soundtracks, including the hit movie Mr. Holland's...
  
  
• Jeffrey Osborne
  Jeffrey Osborne
  Jeffrey Linton Osborne is an American funk and R&B musician, songwriter, lyricist, and former lead singer of the band, L.T.D.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Diane Schuur
  Diane Schuur
  Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...
  
  
• Jill Scott
  Jill Scott
  Jill Scott is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter, poet, and actress. In 2007, Scott made her cinematic debut in the films Hounddog and in Tyler Perry's feature film, Why Did I Get Married? That year, her third studio album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3, was released on...
  
  
• Sting (musician)
• Lizz Wright
  Lizz Wright
  Lizz Wright is an American jazz/R&B singer and composer.Wright was born in the small town of Hahira in the US state of Georgia; one of three children and the daughter of a minister and the musical director of their Church. She started singing gospel music and playing piano in church as a child,...
  
  

Other Instruments

• Eddie Daniels
  Eddie Daniels
  Eddie Daniels is an American musician. Though he is best known as a jazz clarinet player, he has also played alto and tenor saxophones, as well as classical music on the clarinet....
  
   (Clarinet)
• Bela Fleck
  Béla Fleck
  Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
  
   (Banjo)
• Deborah Henson-Conant
  Deborah Henson-Conant
  Deborah Henson-Conant is an American harpist known for her flamboyant stage presence and refusal to fit the stereotype of a harpist as an angelic blond woman in a long dress....
  
   (Harp)
• Catya Maré
  Catya Maré
  Catya Maré is a composer, music producer and classical crossover violinist from Denmark, now located in Los Angeles, CA. She has performed as a classical violinist since her early childhood, and has done numerous performances at concert halls and major museums, such as National Galerie Berlin,...
  
   (violinist)
• Yukiko Matsuyama (Koto)
• Andy Narell
  Andy Narell
  Andy Narell is a musician and composer specialized in the steelpan.-Biography:He was born in New York City and moved to California in his teens. He took up the steelpan at a very young age in Queens, New York...
  
   (Pan Drum)
• Lee Oskar
  Lee Oskar
  Lee Oskar is a Danish harmonica player, notable for his contributions to the sound of the rock-funk fusion group War, which he formed with Eric Burdon, his solo work, and as a harmonica manufacturer...
  
   (Harmonica)
• Bill Reichenbach Jr. (Trombone)

Composers

• David Benoit
• Sam Cardon
  Sam Cardon
  Sam Cardon is an Emmy Award winning composer whose credits include 9 large-format films:Texas, The Big Picture, Lewis and Clark, The Legendary Journeys, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, Mysteries of Egypt, Olympic Glory, Whales, Building the Dream at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California;...
  
  
• Russ Freeman
  Russ Freeman (guitarist)
  James Russell Freeman is a smooth jazz artist of multiple genres, composer and bandleader. He studied for a time at UCLA and CalArts, but remained somewhat obscure before leading the studio-formed contemporary jazz band The Rippingtons in 1986. Freeman and his manager, Andi Howard, also formed...
  
  
• Jim Gardiner
• Dave Grusin
  Dave Grusin
  David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
  
  
• Paul Hardcastle
  Paul Hardcastle
  Paul Hardcastle is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.-Discography:In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo.He achieved some acclaim for...
  
  
• Bob James
  Bob James (musician)
  Robert McElhiney James is a jazz keyboardist, arranger and producer.-Biography:During the 1970s, Bob James played a major role in establishing the smooth jazz genre. "Angela", the instrumental theme from the sitcom Taxi, is probably Bob James' most well-known work to date...
  
  
• Quincy Jones
  Quincy Jones
  Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
  
  
• Bradley Joseph
  Bradley Joseph
  Bradley Joseph is an American composer, arranger, and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His compositions include works for orchestra, quartet, and solo piano, while his musical style ranges from "quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth".Active...
  
  
• Ramsey Lewis
  Ramsey Lewis
  Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...
  
  
• Ottmar Liebert
  Ottmar Liebert
  Ottmar Liebert is a German-born composer and guitarist, born to a Chinese-German father and a Hungarian mother. As a child, he spent most of his time traveling Europe and Asia with his family...
  
  
• Erik van der Luijt
  Erik van der Luijt
  Erik van der Luijt is a Dutch jazz pianist / keyboard player, arranger, composer, producer and band leader.-History:Erik van der Luijt started playing the piano at the age of four...
  
  
• Ralph MacDonald
  Ralph MacDonald
  Ralph MacDonald is an American percussionist and song-writer. He joined Harry Belafonte's band at age 17. He wrote the Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway song "Where is the Love" with songwriting partner William Salter. Probably his best-known composition is the Grover Washington, Jr...
  
  
• Catya Maré
  Catya Maré
  Catya Maré is a composer, music producer and classical crossover violinist from Denmark, now located in Los Angeles, CA. She has performed as a classical violinist since her early childhood, and has done numerous performances at concert halls and major museums, such as National Galerie Berlin,...
  
  
• Dan Siegel
  Dan Siegel
  Dan Siegel is a pianist, composer and record producer. His earlier music has been described as new age, while his more recent work has been called contemporary jazz.Siegel was born in Seattle, Washington and raised in Eugene, Oregon...
  
  

Disc jockeys

• Blake Aaron
  Blake Aaron
  Blake Aaron is a guitarist, composer, recording artist and radio show host.-Collaborations:Aaron has recorded and/ or performed with such artists, composers, and musicians as Philip Bailey , Bobby Womack and Carlos Santana , The Gap Band, Lakeside, Dynasty, The Drifters, The Coasters, Little...
  
   host of Blake Aaron Radio Show
• Art Good
  Art Good
  Art Good is an American radio personality. He is the host of the Jazztrax Showcase of the Absolute Newest, a weekly syndicated five-hour radio show that counts down America's Top 20 Smooth Jazz singles; he is considered to be one of the pioneers of the modern Smooth Jazz radio format. Prior to...
  
  , host of Jazztrax
• Saxophonist Dave Koz
  Dave Koz
  Dave Koz is an American smooth jazz saxophonist.- Life and career :Dave Koz was born on March 27, 1963 in Encino, California....
  
  , who hosted a morning show in Los Angeles as well as a weekly syndicated program.
• Paul Hardcastle
  Paul Hardcastle
  Paul Hardcastle is an English composer and musician, specialising in the synthesizer.-Discography:In the early 1980s, Hardcastle played the keyboards on several singles on the Oval record label by the dance music groups Direct Drive and First Light, before going solo.He achieved some acclaim for...
  
  , syndicated weekend radio show
• Norman Brown
  Norman Brown (guitarist)
  Norman Brown is a smooth jazz guitarist & singer, often compared to his contemporary George Benson.-Overview:...
  
  , syndicated weekend radio show
• Brian Culbertson
  Brian Culbertson
  Brian Culbertson is a musician and instrumentalist from Decatur, Illinois, United States. Son of jazz band director and trumpeter Jim Culbertson, Brian's instruments include the keyboard and trombone....
  
  , syndicated weekend radio show
• Kenny G
  Kenny G
  Kenneth Bruce Gorelick , better known by his stage name Kenny G, is an American, adult contemporary and smooth jazz saxophonist. His fourth album, Duotones, brought him breakthrough success in 1986...
  
  , syndicated weekend radio show
• Jerry J. syndicated weekend radio show "Jazz all around the bay with Jerry J, For the sounds of tomorrow today". Jazz Beat Radio.Oakland Ca.KECG
  KECG
  -History:Construction of KECG began in 1972 in the basement of the north wing of the old El Cerrito HS.Mr Maynes woodshop built the studios and the electronics dept under Elmer Peterson installed the electronics....
  
  -FM
• Ted Hasiuk, radio host of Café Jazz