Nnenna Freelon
Six-time GRAMMY® Award-nominee Nnenna Freelon is hailed as the "international voice of Jazz." A standing ovation from 20,000 in her star-making a cappella appearance on the Grammy Awards telecast! She has shared the stage or recordings with Jessye Norman, Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Take 6, Al Jarreau, the Count Basie Orchestra and more! Phenomenal performances at Carnegie Hall to The Hollywood Bowl, the Monterey Jazz Festival to the Newport Jazz Festival, and from Montreaux to London!
Nnenna Freelon has been heard and seen in feature film in "What Women Want," on In Performance At The White House to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Variety’s The Children’s Charity, on the #1 TV hit Mad Men, and on stage alongside The Roots performing in the hit musical Ask Your Mama.
Freelon’s seventh Concord Records release, Homefree, is amix of tunes that Freelon identifies as “feeling at home in your own skin,” Homefree bubbles with the energy and creativeness that are hallmarks of Freelon’s recordings. This musical celebration includes songs and stories set against the backdrop of Horne's life and legacy. Freelon masterfully presents Horne favorites, like Stormy Weather, intertwined with songs that connect these talented women. "She represented for me the ultimate role model of beauty and class. Through her artistry, I dared dream a dream of my own. A Lovesome Thing is about loving Lena and in turn learning to believe in yourself," Freelon shared.
Benny Green
Benny Green possesses the history of jazz at his fingertips. Combine mastery of keyboard technique with decades of real world experience playing with no one less than the most celebrated artists of the last half century, and it's no wonder Green has been hailed as perhaps the most exciting, hard-swinging, hard-bop, pianist to ever emerge from Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. A perpetual student of the history of Jazz piano, the pianist mentions Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, Phineas Newborn, Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson as some of his main influences. Benny Green's approach to Jazz can be resumed in his own words: "... for myself and a lot of musicians I admire, the main focus is to just swing and have fun, and share those feelings with the audience ... and, if I'm able to convey that, then I feel like I'm doing something positive".
Throughout his career, Benny has appeared on a guest performer on over one hundred recordings, from albums with legacy artists such as: Betty Carter (including Grammy award winner Look What I Got), Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Watson, Milt Jackson, Diana Krall, and he is particularly featured in Ray Brown's trio series of CD's for Telarc: Bass Face (1993), Don't get Sassy (1994), Some of my Best Friends … (1994), Seven Steps to Heaven (1995), Super Bass (1996) and Live at Sculler's (1996). Benny also enjoys working with next generation artists, such as Japan's young drum virtuous and Columbia / Savoy artist, Tiger Onitsuka, with whom he recorded A Time in New York in 2008.
In 2011 Benny released a much-anticipated trio album, recorded with Kenny and Peter Washington, and which serves to remind the world that no contemporary jazz pianist owns the trio format like Benny does.