iRock Jazz LIVE! with Singer Dianne Reeves

DIANNE REEVES is among the pre-eminent jazz vocalists in the world. In her first studio album in five years, Reeves delivers what is destined to become a soul-jazz classic. The album, Beautiful Life, also marks a new relationship with Concord Records —which is not entirely new: Reeves was featured in …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Pianist Kris Bowers

Pianist Kris Bowers is one of the newest and brightest lights on the jazz landscape. Schooled in jazz and classical music, raised amid the rap and hip-hop of the 1990s, inspired by the cinematic power of the great film composers of recent decades, Bowers’ sound – though rooted in traditional …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Singer Akua Allrich

Jazz vocalist and DC-native Akua Allrich has proven herself to be a musician of extraordinary talent and crowd-moving passion. With finesse and charisma, this vocalist, composer and teacher, has successfully etched out a place for her unique musical expression, electrifying audiences in and around the nation’s capital with sold-out performances. …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Water Seed’s Lou Hill

What do you call a musical gumbo that recalls the ancestral strut and joie de vivre of the New Orleans’ Tremé, the drama and ecstasy of the church’s wailing floor, and the suited-up sophistication of jazz threaded with the party funk of Parliament? What do you name sounds that hail …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Fela Film Producer Stephen Hendel

Ruth (Producer) and Stephen Hendel (Co-Conceiver/Producer) Ruth’s Broadway credits include: Death of Salesman (Tony®), Clybourne Park (Tony®), FELA! (with Stephen), American Idiot (with Stephen), Driving Miss Daisy, In The Heights (Associate), Red (Tony®), A View from the Bridge, Hamlet, Mary Stuart, All My Sons, 33 Variations, Passing Strange, Legally Blonde, …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! from Paris with Sian Pottok

Siân Pottok’s Bio: Siân is Welsh, Arabian Horse is Slovak . My parents gave me the chance to travel in my childhood , which certainly contributes to the continuing need a change of scenery , to discover other horizons , to immerse myself in foreign cultures. I love the eclectic …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Pianist Jamar Jones

At the age of four Jamar was enrolled in a music school in his hometown of Philadelphia where he studied piano and began to compose. His first piano recital featured his own compositions!  While a freshman at Temple University, Jamar co-wrote and produced the song, Dear God, for the Grammy …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Cécile McLorin Salvant

Cécile McLorin Salvant was born and raised in Miami, Florida of a French mother and a Haitian father. She started classical piano studies at 5, and began singing in the Miami Choral Society at 8. Early on, she developed an interest in classical voice, began studying with private instructors, and later …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Trumpeter Takuya Kuroda

TAKUYA KURODA

 Rising Son makes for the perfect title for the Blue Note debut from Takuya Kuroda, an ascendant trumpeter and composer who is perhaps best known for his inspired presence in vocalist José James’ band over the past several years. In fact, Rising Son finds Kuroda stepping forth to …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Trumpeter Russell Gunn

If one were attempting to design a prototype for the quintessential contemporary musician, trumpeter/fluegelhornist/composer Russell Gunn is the model. A certified member of the hip-hop generation, Russell’s early aspirations in the world of rap music took precedence over the trumpet that he began playing in fourth grade. When he reached …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Miles Davis’s Family Members

Vince Wilburn Jr., nephew of late jazz icon Miles Davis, oversees Miles Davis Properties, LLC, along with Erin Davis (son of Miles) and Cheryl Davis (daughter of Miles). Wilburn, Jr. is a highly accomplished drummer and producer, who has both toured and recorded with Miles on many legendary recordings from 1984 …

READ MORE →

iRock Jazz LIVE! with Bassist Robert Hurst

When Robert Hurst was growing up in Detroit, so many kinds of great music tugged at him, he could easily have gone in a different direction than jazz. Motown influences abounded: Marvin Gaye lived in his neighborhood, his father was boyhood friends with two of the Temptations, and the music …

READ MORE →