Results for "Straight Ahead"

Straight Ahead

Out of Detroit's lively jazz scene, which has produced some of the best musicians in the world, comes the ground breaking all female jazz group, Straight Ahead. A group of strong, inventive instrumentalists and vocalists, they have shown themselves to be powerful and imaginative composers and arrangers.

Widely recognized for their eclectic and soulful approach to creating music, the Straight Ahead sound ranges comfortably from mainstream jazz R&B ballads, avant-garde to Brazilian funk. Their live performances are a dynamic celebration of power and joy. The ladies delight in changing textures, moods, and tempos and love to throw in the occasional musical joke!

Leigh Pilzer

“A force of nature on the baritone.” –Adam Narimatsu, CapitalBop

Washington, DC native Leigh Pilzer is a baritone saxophone specialist, composer, arranger, and educator. Her performance resume includes appearances with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, The DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore’s Soulful Symphony, and more. She is also a bandleader in her own right, leading the Leigh Pilzer Startet, her all-star quartet/quintet; organ group Leigh Pilzer’s Low Standards; and her latest project, Leigh Pilzer’s Seven Pointed Star. She also co-leads PALS, a duo with bassist Amy Shook and JLQ, the Jen Krupa-Leigh Pilzer Quintet. Pilzer has presented her groups to enthusiastic audience response at top venues including Blues Alley, Keystone Korner, the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, and the Atlas Performing Arts Center, to name a few. 

Mick Foster

Mick Foster is a saxophonist, woodwind player and composer, and is especially known as a baritone and bass saxophonist.  He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and has since worked extensively in the fields of jazz, commercial and classical music.  He has played with many ensembles such as the big bands of John Dankworth, Stan Sulzmann and Mike Garrick, Ginger Baker’s Air Force, Swing Out Sister, The Back To Basie Orchestra, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, English National Opera and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. 

Mick currently plays with his own quartet and quintet, Alan Barnes’ +11 project, Jim Rattigan’s ensemble Pavillon and is a long standing member of The London Jazz Orchestra. He also regularly works with Tony Jacobs, The Pasadena Roof Orchestra and The Syd Lawrence Orchestra. Other notable jazz musicians that Mick has worked with include Dame Cleo Laine, Jacqui Dankworth, Trudy Kerr, Mark Lockheart, Guy Barker, Laura Jurd, Digby Fairweather and the Humphrey Lyttelton Band.  Mick has recorded three albums under his own name and is in demand as a session musician, having played for many film and TV soundtracks including Prometheus, Vice, Don’t Look Up and Downton Abbey. 

Kate Skinner

Jazz pianist and vocalist Kate Skinner maintains an active performing, composing, and teaching career in the western United States.  A native of Ogden, Utah, Skinner pulls influences from the bluegrass and classical roots of her childhood into both her songwriting and performing as a jazz musician.  In her teenage and college years, Kate delved into R&B, funk, and hip hop, genres that also continually find their way into her musical explorations helping to create her own unique voice.  Part of this unique voice is an obsession with alternative keyboard instruments and a study of the great keyboardists of jazz, rock, and funk. 

Detroit Jazz Festival 2023: A Tribute to a Great Jazz City

by Paul Rauch
September 11, 2023

Detroit Jazz Festival 2023 Hart Plaza & Campus Martius Detroit, MI September 1-4, 2023 Opening night is always a gas. Whether it takes the form of the annual rite of spring in baseball, the long anticipated opening of a Broadway play, or for that matter, the opening salvo of a world ...

Joe Wittman

Born: June 26, 1990

Joe Wittman has been an active member in the NYC jazz scene for over 10 years. In searching for the tone of Kenny Burrell, the feel of Grant Green and the phasing of Jim Hall, Wittman hopes to find something altogether different- himself. He enjoys a raw and earthy approach to guitar, with a maturity beyond his years (to quote what was allegedly on Jim Hall’s business card: “can’t play fast, won’t play loud”). You can catch Joe playing nightly around New York City, playing well thought out sets containing a mixture of songbook standards and original compositions

Jeff Lopez

born and raised in New York City, He has been playing bass for over 45 years and is an accomplished composer and arranger. 

Jeff is also an accomplished bandleader, composer, and arranger. This is evident on his first two CD releases, Sun And The Rain 1998 and Jeff Lopez-Jazz Composer, as well as numerous Jazz Ambassador recordings. Jeff’s compositions have appeared in various film and network TV productions.

Jeff’s professional career has included performing and touring that have taken him around the globe, including a 20-year tenure as the bass player of the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, He has toured in 35 countries and all of 50 states in the USA. Some performance highlights were his two orchestral appearances at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall.

Changamire

Changamiré is a jazz vocalist and recording artist from Washington, DC. Glenn "HarrMonika Musik" Turner, pianist for the late Gil Scott Heron, was her first vocal coach and introduced her to recording. She receives vocal training from Howard University Professor, Kehembe Eichelberger.

AllAboutJazz.com writes “It’s difficult to nail down just what makes her voice so darn compelling. Maybe it’s the comfort or familiarity, maybe the confiding honesty. Whatever the case, it works exceptionally well.”

In 2001, Changamiré debuted her critically acclaimed album, Only Human, which features a 14-piece string section. It led to a 2004 DC Commission on the Arts Artist Fellowship that funded her performance at the GIFT Festival in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. She also won the Artist Fellowship in 2022 and 2023.

Marshal Herridge

Born: October 23, 1994

Marshal Herridge is a Vancouver-born jazz bassist currently residing in New York, New York. He has shared the stage with some of North America's preeminent jazz musicians including Anthony Wonsey, Andre White, Kirk MacDonald, Joe Sullivan, Kevin Dean, Al McClean, Remi Bolduc, Dave Laing, Lorne Lofsky, Peter Bernstein, John Scofield, Donny McCaslin, Dick Oatts, Ari Hoenig, Sam Kirmayer, Caity Gyorgy, Tony Moreno, Pat Labarbera, Larry Goldings, Brian Dickinson amongst others. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Humber College, a Master of Music Degree from McGill University in Jazz Performance and an Artist Diploma in Jazz Instrumental Performance from New York University. During his time in these institutions, he was fortunate enough to study with such world renowned performer/composer/educators as Dezron Douglas, Ari Hoenig, Mike Downes and Neil Swainson, where he learned to hone his craft and develop his own musical conception on the instrument. He was awarded the Oscar Peterson Prize from Humber College (the highest award offered in the program) and received a substantial scholarship to both McGill University and New York University. His debut album Chapter One (released in 2019) pays homage to his heroes Scott LaFaro and Paul Chambers. 

Gabe Terracciano

A native of Portland, Maine, Gabriel Terracciano has been playing the violin since the age of three. After eight years of strictly classical training, he discovered the jazz violin playing of Joe Venuti, Stuff Smith, and, later on, Zbigniew Seifert, who all changed his musical life (and life in general!) forever. Since then, Gabe has developed into a versatile multi-instrumentalist and a musician who has been recognized for playing the violin “in a way that’s unlike anyone else” (Sam Pfeifle, Portland Phoenix), while “proving himself as an improviser, never overplaying or imitating his predecessors on his instrument” (iTunes official album review for Crunch Time with Ron McClure). As an improvising string player, Gabe has delved into the fields of modern jazz, Gypsy and hot jazz, Middle Eastern, electronic, pop, bluegrass, and Latin styles, just to name a few! He has played for many years throughout the United States as both a leader and sideman, including multiple performances at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (NYC), part of Jazz at Lincoln Center