Hailing from Wassoulou in Mali, singer Oumou Sangaré has always addressed the problems and concerns of West African women with a boldness that helped her debut ‘Moussolou’ sell an astounding 250,000 copies in Africa.
Virtuoso guitarist John Etheridge has long been regarded as a lynchpin between the disparate but nevertheless related strands of UK and European jazz
Multi-reedist Theo Travis's melodic and astute institue in his bold improvising, always a treat live as both an outstanding improviser and composer,
Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko has established himself as one of the most distinctive voices from the ECM school of coolly European jazz;
Keyboard legend George Duke has a list of musical credentials as-long-as your arm, that for the record includes starting life as Al Jarreau’s pianist, kicking jazz fusion into gear with Jean-Luc Ponty, getting freaky with Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention circa 1970 before turning it loose with Cannonball Adderley,
Paris-based saxophonist Julien Lourau seemed to be heading into the now overpopulated realms of electro-jazz / dance fusion,
Exuberant Norwegian trombonist Nils Landgren, known mainly as the leader of his crowd-pleasing Funk Unit,
Singer Viktoria Tolstoy was the first Swedish jazz artist to record for Blue Note, 1997 album ‘The White Russian’,
Hugely acclaimed the Apollo Saxophone Quartet play pieces by Richard Rodney Bennett, Django Bates, Bob Mintzer and Michael Nyman,