Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.
He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards. Shorter's output has earned worldwide recognition, critical praise and various commendations, including multiple Grammy Awards.
Shorter first came to wide prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he went on to join Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, and from there he co-founded the jazz fusion band Weather Report. He has recorded over 20 albums as a bandleader.
Shorter was born in Newark, New Jersey, and attended Newark Arts High School from which he graduated in 1952. He loved music, being encouraged by his father to take up the saxophone as a teenager (his brother Alan became a trumpeter). After graduating from New York University in 1956, Shorter spent two years in the U.S. Army, during which time he played briefly with Horace Silver. After his discharge from the army, he played with Maynard Ferguson. It was in his youth that Shorter was given the nickname '"Mr. Gone", which would later become an album title for Weather Report.
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace music synthesizers and funk music (characterized by syncopated drum beats). Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success among pop audiences. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz. In his jazz improvisation, he possesses a unique creative blend of jazz, blues, and modern classical music, with harmonic stylings much like the styles of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Hancock's best-known solo works include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man" (later performed by dozens of musicians, including bandleader Mongo Santamaría), "Maiden Voyage", "Chameleon", and the singles "I Thought It Was You" and "Rockit". His 2007 tribute album River: The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album ever to win the award after Getz/Gilberto in 1965.
Dave Holland (born October 1, 1946) is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years.
His work ranges from pieces for solo performance to big band. Holland runs his own independent record label, Dare2, which he launched in 2005. He has explained his musical philosophy by quoting fellow jazz artist Sam Rivers. "Sam said, ‘Don’t leave anything out — play all of it,’ ”
Holland has played with some of the greatest names in jazz, and has participated in several classic recording sessions.
Born in Wolverhampton, England, Holland taught himself how to play stringed instruments, beginning at four on the ukulele, then graduating to guitar and later bass guitar. He quit school at the age of 15 to pursue his profession in a top 40 band, but soon gravitated to jazz. After seeing an issue of Down Beat where Ray Brown had won the critics' poll for best bass player, Holland went to a record store, and bought a couple of LPs featuring Brown backing pianist Oscar Peterson. He also bought two Leroy Vinnegar albums (Leroy Walks! and Leroy Walks Again) because the bassist was posed with his instrument on the cover. Within a week, Holland traded in his bass guitar for an acoustic bass and began practicing with the records. In addition to Brown and Vinnegar, Holland was drawn to the bassists Charles Mingus and Jimmy Garrison.
Brian Blade (born July 25, 1970) in Shreveport, Louisiana is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter.
As a young boy, Blade grew up in a home in Shreveport, Louisiana in which he frequently heard Gospel music and soul music. In elementary school, his music appreciation classes furthered this musical upbringing, and at age nine he began playing the violin; he continued to do so until age thirteen, when he, inspired by his brother, Brady Blade, Jr., became a drummer.
During highschool Brian began listening to the music of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Elvin Jones, and Joni Mitchell. By the age of eighteen, Brian moved to New Orleans to attend Loyola University. During this period, he was able to study and play with most of the master musicians living in New Orleans, such as: John Vidacovich, Ellis Marsalis, Steve Masakowski, Bill Huntington, Mike Pellera, John Mahoney, George French, Germaine Bazzle, David Lee, Jr., Alvin Red Tyler, Tony Dagradi and Harold Battiste. Blade made his first recorded appearances as a sideman with Kenny Garrett and Joshua Redman and continued to work in that capacity with other musicians.
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano (born December 29, 1952) is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players[says who?], earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls. He is married to jazz singer Judi Silvano.
Lovano was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Sicilian-American parents. His father's family came from the town of Alcara Li Fusi in Sicily, and his mother's family came from Cesarò, also in Sicily. In Cleveland, Ohio, Lovano was exposed throughout his early life to jazz by his father, Tony "Big T" Lovano. John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Stitt were among his earlier influences. After graduating from Euclid High School in 1971, he developed further at Berklee College of Music where he studied under Herb Pomeroy and Gary Burton, then served a big band apprenticeship with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd and the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.