Interviews

Denise White wasn’t thinking of the words strength, light, and bright, when she decided to adopt the name Avery Sunshine. According to Sunshine, she now personifies all of those qualities. When she looks at her life, she wonders how she does it all. “I’ve reached that Avery Sunshine part of …

iRockJazz proudly welcomes Audley Reid to our 2015 iRockJazz Music Festival in Buffalo, MI! Mr. Reid has been a part of the Jazz music scene for over 20 years. He has performed with numerous stars and has performed in venues around the world. Although his charismatic style is identifiable as …

Cuban born pianist and composer Aruan Ortiz expertly blends contemporary jazz with Afro-Cuban rhythms and classical music. The up and coming artist began studying music at the age of eight. Ortiz, classically trained in both the piano and the violin, has won numerous awards with both instruments. As a violinist, …

Arturo Sandoval The year is 1977 and jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie is in Cuba playing ‘impromptu gigs’ with Stan Getz in the Caribbean. There is a young Cuban who also plays the trumpet and is eager to meet his idol Gillespie. A chance meeting occurs, and as they say the …

Antonique Smith is very much known for her acting career, but she is now following her dream as a singer/songwriter. It has taken her two years of working on her album and she is very excited for its release. She has worked with Dr. Dre, Jukebox, and Danja Handz, to name a few. This New …

Annalee is a young, hip vocalist with a fresh vintage vibe. Along with her band, The Midnight Sons, she is putting a new spin on the old jazz standard with the addition of funky back beats and a vibrant creative style, that is re-introducing a whole new generation to jazz …

People go through periods of change or better yet evolution. A time and space for growth, renewal, and rebirth. Singer and songwriter Angie Stone has come out and over the trials, tribulations, the hurts and pains of the past and has evolved in to a stronger woman who is standing …

Two Lady of Soul Awards, five Grammy Nominations and four Top 10 R&B albums are just a few career highlights of musical talent, soul singer and prolific songwriter Angie Stone. With hits ranging from “No More Rain In This Cloud” to “Brotha” and “Wish I Didn’t Miss You”, fans are …

The daughter of an actress, dancer, and theatrical producer Kidjo was born in Quidah, a coastal city in the West Africa country of Benin. Inheriting her mother’s love of performing, she made her stage debut with her mother’s theatrical troupe. She was singing professionally by her 20th birthday. Afro-funk, Reggae, …

  Andy Allo Two of the most celebrated film franchises of the past 30 years have been The Terminator and The Matrix. Both deal with an ominous struggle between humans and machines. The underlining irony that binds the two stories is the conflict was birthed by the people’s embrace of …

  As she reflects on how she fought for social injustice, human rights activist and music composer Sandra Izsadore continues to promote the fight for change in domestic communities and for societies abroad. Recognized historically as the ‘mother of Afrobeat’, Sandra infamously established the genre with the historical, Nigerian music …

Amikaeyla With a Native American name that means “one who fights for love”, jazz artist Amikaeyla seeks to use her vocal powerhouse for good as she seeks to return to the basics of feel-good music. “I want to revisit a place in music where people can drink a glass of …