Gene Ludwig Trio
Duff's Blues
18th & Vine

Produced by Grammy Award winner Jack Kreisberg and established big band leader and arranger Bill Warfield. Gene Ludwig has been called the country’s most passionate exponent of the jazz organ. In a career that has lasted over forty years, he has cemented a place for himself in the first rank of Hammond organ masters. A dynamic and innovative composer, clinician, and educator, Bill Warfield has energized audiences, performers, and writers for more than two decades. He has performed with many well-known artists including Ornette Coleman, Mel Lewis, Paul Anka, Mel Torme, and more.

Bill Easley
Business Man's Bounce
18th & Vine

A brilliant and versatile reed player, Bill Easley performs equally forcefully on alto, tenor, and baritone saxes as well as flute, piccolo, and clarinet. Easley is a renowned session player who has worked with Isaac Hayes and done sessions at Stax. He has performed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Benny Carter, George Benson, Jimmy Smith, Ruth Brown, Bill Mobley, Victor Gaskin, Mulgrew Miller, Ron Carter, and Grady Tate, among others. Bill Easley has also recorded highly acclaimed sessions as a leader on the Sunnyside, Milestone, and Evidence labels. Business Man’s Bounce is a term Easley first heard as a teenager when playing in his father’s band. It refers to a two-beat feel intended to get even reluctant listeners out onto a club’s dance floor. Pianist Larry Ham, based in New York since 1985, has played with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and the Illinois Jacquet Big Band. Bassist Hassan JJ Shakur, formerly known as JJ Wiggins, can swing a sick man into good health. He has worked with the Duke Ellington Orchestra since 1974, when he was seventeen. Drummer Michael Carvin is an amazingly prolific drummer who has contributed greatly to the jazz scene. He has played with B.B. King, Freddie Hubbard, Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Liston Smith, McCoy Tyner, and others, and led his own sessions for Muse and Steeplechase over the past three decades.

Sonny Fortune
You And The Night And The Music
18th & Vine

A truly legendary jazz saxophonist, Sonny Fortune has played with the biggest names in jazz, including Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Nat Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, and Miles Davis. Fortune has had an acclaimed recording career as a leader, including several celebrated sessions with Blue Note in the 1990s. Since Fortune first heard the record My Favorite Things in 1959, John Coltrane has been his biggest influence and primary inspiration. He, more than any saxophonist, has carried Coltrane’s torch after his death. You and the Night and the Music is Fortune’s first recording as a leader since 2003, and captures the spontaneity and thrilling energy of his recent acclaimed live dates. Pianist George Cables gained recognition during stints with Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon, and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He was Art Pepper’s favorite pianist. One of New York’s top drummers, Steve Johns has played with such luminaries as Donald Byrd, Nat Adderley, the Count Basie Orchestra, the Gil Evans Orchestra, Lou Donaldson, and many others. He was the drummer for NPR’s Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center, in which he recorded seventy-fi ve shows with guests including Wynton Marsalis, Nancy Wilson, and Arturo Sandoval. Bassist Chip Jackson, based in New York, is a longtime member of the Billy Taylor Trio and performs at the Time Café with the Mingus Big Band. His style was shaped during his long association in the eighties with drummer Elvin Jones.

Diane Hubka
Diane Hubka Goes To The Movies
18th & Vine

Diane Hubka, a vital part of the Los Angeles jazz scene, is joined by the West Coast’s finest musicians in a tribute to Hollywood, featuring both standards and delightful obscurities heard in movies from 1937 through 1979. She won international acclaim when her debut CD, with alto sax legend Lee Konitz, was nominated for a 1999 Jazz Award for Best Recording Debut. Critic Scott Yanow heralded her second CD, Look No Further, as “one of the best in recent times.” She has performed with jazz luminaries including Lee Konitz, Bucky Pizzarelli, Gene Bertoncini, Frank Kimbrough, Bruce Barth, John Hart and Trio da Paz.

Akiko Tsuruga
Sweet And Funky
18th & Vine

Hailing from Osaka, Hammond B3 organist Akiko Tsuruga played with jazz superstars such as Roy Hargrove and Grady Tate while still in Japan. Tate convinced Tsuruga to emigrate from Osaka to New York City in 2001 and took her under his wing. Very quickly, she established herself as an in-demand player in the hot NYC jazz scene. Tsuruga’s debut CD Harlem Dreams, which featured Grady Tate, was released in 2004 and quickly became a best-seller in Japan. Tsuruga’s free yet cohesive organ grooves have been further seasoned under a long tutelage from organ legend Dr. Lonnie Smith. Sweet and Funky is Tsuruga’s US CD debut, and was produced by Grammy-winning producer Jack Kreisburg.

A master of the music of both the voice and the human body, Cameroon-born Gino Sitson is perhaps the most versatile vocalist in jazz today. Sitson brings a unique African rhythm and melody to this album of original compositions, with a strikingly broad range from Afro-jazz to post-bop. Guest bassist Ron Carter is nothing short of a legend, and one of the great bass players of our time. A genius with rhythm and melody, Carter has made numerous recordings for Blue Note, Elektra, Concord, and Atlantic, among others. Drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts is a percussion virtuoso who rose to prominence with the early Wynton Marsalis band. He has played and recorded with jazz icons such as Geri Allen and McCoy Tyner, and is a member of Branford Marsalis’s Tonight Show Band. Brazilian pianist helio Alves studied at the Berklee College of Music and has recorded over forty albums as a sideman, including three Grammy-winners.

Pianist, songwriter, producer, and arranger Onaje Allan Gumbs has had a storied career, collaborating across three decades with some of the biggest names in jazz and R&B. In the 1970s, Gumbs had major collaborations with Woody Shaw and Nat Adderley. In 1985 his arrangement of “Lady in My Life” on Stanley Jordan’s album Magic Touch stayed at #1 on Billboard’s jazz charts for thirty-seven weeks! He has also worked with Woody Shaw, Betty Carter, Cassandra Wilson, Phyllis Hyman, Norman Connors, Angela Bofi ll, Sadao Watanabe, Denise Williams, Vanessa Rubin, Jeffrey Osborne, Eddie Murphy, and Gerald Albright. A native of Harlem, Gumbs has recorded critically acclaimed solo albums for MCA, Steeplechase, and Half Note. Sack Full of Dreams, recorded live in the studio, crackles with electricity. A mix of classic tunes and brilliant compositions by Onaje, the album features its title cut “Sack Full of Dreams,” first recorded by Grady Tate in 1968, and here carried by a wonderful and rich baritone vocal performance by stage star Obba Babatunde.

Green, Purdie & Wilson is an all-star group of jazz, soul, and funk veterans coming together to make waves! Led by legendary organist Reuben Wilson and jazz guitar legacy Grant Green Jr., the group presents infectious tracks with a fresh sound that appeals to both longtime fans and new listeners alike! In the late sixties, Hammond B-3 organist Reuben Wilson began the ascension to his current status as a godfather of acid jazz by demonstrating a command of funk that helped redefi ne the movement. As the son of legendary jazz guitarist Grant Green, Grant Green, Jr. was exposed to exceptional musicianship right out of the womb. Today, his style blends technical mastery with heartfelt soul, and it is this combination that sets him apart. The “world’s most recorded drummer,” Bernard “Pretty” Purdie has worked with Aretha Franklin, Steely Dan, Isaac Hayes, Donny Hathaway, B.B.King, “Sweet” Lou Donaldson, Joe Cocker, Hank Crawford, and more, laying down the beat on over 3,000 albums to date!