Dave Douglas
Dave Douglas is a prolific trumpeter, composer, educator and entrepreneur from New York City known for the stylistic breadth of his work and for keeping a diverse set of ensembles and projects active simultaneously.
His unique contributions to improvised music have garnered distinguished recognition, including a Doris Duke Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland award, and two GRAMMY® nominations. While his career spans more than 40 recordings as a leader, his active projects include his Quintet; Sound Prints, a quintet co-led with saxophonist Joe Lovano; Riverside, a quartet co-led with Chet Doxas; a duo with pianist Uri Caine; and, High Risk, an electronic-inspired quartet with Mark Guiliana, Jonathan Maron and Shigeto.
Chet Doxas
Brooklyn-based Chet Doxas is quickly becoming one of the most well-respected and sought after saxophonists of his generation. He is best known for his ability to add his unique voice to a wide variety of musical settings and styles. He currently leads his own group featuring guitarist Matthew Stevens, bassist Zack Lober, and drummer Eric Doob. They have performed several international tours and are preparing to release their second album in this formation. Chet also co-leads, Riverside, a group that he shares with trumpeter, Dave Douglas, bassist, Steve Swallow, and his brother, Jim, on drums. They released their debut, self-titled, album in 2014 to critical acclaim and have since toured throughout North America and Europe at premier concert venues and some of the most celebrated jazz festivals in the world. Chet’s has shared the stage or recorded with many of today’s leading artists including John Abercrombie, Vijay Iyer, Sam Roberts, Rufus Wainwright, Maria Schneider and many more. He has recorded seven albums as a leader or co-leader and is a Juno nominee.
Carla Bley
Carla Bley was born in Oakland, California in 1936. Her father Emil Borg, a piano teacher and church organist, began giving her music lessons when she was three years old and she was soon playing at church functions. But her musical education ended at the age of eight. Her formal education stopped entirely when she dropped out of high school after completing the tenth grade.
During her adolescence Carla was drawn to jazz and moved to New York City to be closer to the musicians she admired. She resumed her musical education by working as a cigarette girl at the notorious Birdland jazz club, where she was able to hear the greatest jazz musicians of the day. She met pianist Paul Bley and eventually relocated to Los Angeles, where Paul and his quartet had a steady gig at the Hillcrest Club. She began to write music. When saxophonist Ornette Coleman came on the scene in the mid-fifties, Paul Bley immediately hired him and Carla was exposed nightly to ‘free’ playing, a powerful influence that was to affect her writing for many years.
Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow is a New York based jazz bassist and composer noted for his numerous collaborations. Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, Swallow studied composition at Yale University, where he played Dixieland with many of the greats, among them Pee Wee Russell, Buck Clayton and Vic Dickenson. In 1970 he became one of the first double bassists in jazz to switch entirely to electric bass guitar, on which he has a distinctively nimble sound.
Jim Doxas
Drummer Jim Doxas was born in Montréal, Canada, into an artistically vibrant family and established himself early on in his career as a versatile percussionist.
Heavily influenced by rock, jazz, Motown and world music, his credits on various recordings range from drummer, percussionist and composer. In addition, he is also an established recording engineer and a lecturer at McGill University. Doxas is a popular featured artist at jazz festivals worldwide and has worked with John Abercrombie, Joe Lovano, Hank Jones, Edward Simon, Dave Binney, the John Roney Trio and Chet Doxas Quartet.
