Charnett Moffet
Appearing on over 200 recordings, Charnett Moffett is a veritable bass legend and has one of the most distinguished careers in jazz. His father Charles was a drummer with Ornette Coleman, and Charnett was always around jazz royalty. In fact, his name is a tribute to both men. He first appeared on a recording at age seven with the Moffett Family Band. At age sixteen he left Juilliard to join the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, before starting his nonstop career working innumerable icons of music including Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, McCoy Tyner, Tony Williams, Dizzy Gillepsie, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Arturo Sandoval, Anita Baker, Stanley Jordan, HArry Connick Jr., David Sanborn, Branford Marsalis, and Bette Midler. Most recently he’s been touring with vocal sensation Melody Gardot. Charnett recorded three albums for the esteemed Blue Note label and six others on various labels before his path led him to Motéma Music. Whether as the leader or in a supportive role, his intense and energetic solos inspire audience ovations around the world....
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Charnett Moffet
Appearing on over 200 recordings, Charnett Moffett is a veritable bass legend and has one of the most distinguished careers in jazz. His father Charles was a drummer with Ornette Coleman, and Charnett was always around jazz royalty. In fact, his name is a tribute to both men. He first appeared on a recording at age seven with the Moffett Family Band. At age sixteen he left Juilliard to join the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, before starting his nonstop career working innumerable icons of music including Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, McCoy Tyner, Tony Williams, Dizzy Gillepsie, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Arturo Sandoval, Anita Baker, Stanley Jordan, HArry Connick Jr., David Sanborn, Branford Marsalis, and Bette Midler. Most recently he’s been touring with vocal sensation Melody Gardot. Charnett recorded three albums for the esteemed Blue Note label and six others on various labels before his path led him to Motéma Music. Whether as the leader or in a supportive role, his intense and energetic solos inspire audience ovations around the world.
Stanley Jordan
In a career that took flight in 1985 with immediate commercial and critical acclaim, guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan has consistently displayed a chameleon-like musical persona of openness, imagination, versatility, respect, and maverick daring. Be it with bold reinventions of classical masterpieces or soulful explorations through pop-rock hits, to blazing straight-ahead jazz forays and ultramodern improvisational works—solo or with a group, Jordan can always be counted on to take listeners on breathless journeys into the unexpected. At the age of eleven, he took up the guitar; initially due to the influence of Jimi Hendrix. Within a couple of years, however, he had moved on to jazz. Throughout his teen years, he worked at adapting a two-handed piano-playing style to the fretboard of the guitar. His mastery of this “touch playing” had reached such a level of development by the time he was seventeen that it won him the soloist competition at the Reno International Jazz Festival. He attended Princeton University where he took time outside of his formal education to perform with both local bands and, on occasion, jazz luminaries such as Dizzy Gillespie. Jordan’s reputation eventually led to an audition for head of the musician division of Elektra Records, but he put off signing a contract for over a year, choosing instead to refine his technique. When at last a deal was made, his contract had moved over to the newly resurrected Blue Note label. Jordan’s 1985 album Magic Touch would be the company’s first contemporary release of the period—and an enormous critical and commercial success, remaining at the top of the jazz charts for fifty-one weeks.
Jeff “Tain” Watts
Jeff “Tain” Watts holds the unique distinction of being the only musician to appear on every GRAMMY-winning jazz record by both Wynton and Branford Marsalis. One of the most in-demand jazz drummers in the world today, Watts initially majored in classical percussion at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Univeristy, where he was primarily a timpanist, followed by enrollment at the Berklee School of Music where her pursued jazz studies. He joined the Wynton Marsalis Quartet in 1981 and proceed to win three GRAMMY Awards with the ensemble before leaving in 1988. After working with George Benson, Harry Connick Jr., and McCoy Tyner, he joined the Branford Marsalis Quintet in 1989. Along with his explosive power, blinding speed, and mastery of complex rhythms and time signatures, Watts brings a rare sense of elegance, tried-by-fire composure, and a gritty street funk to his music. A true jazz innovator, Watts never fails to deliver the percussive magic that has been his trademark since his emergence on the contemporary jazz scene.
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