Improv Exchange Podcast

Emma Rawicz is an award-winning young saxophonist and composer, already making waves on the UK music scene. She has been described as a force to be reckoned with' (Jazzwise) and 'a fast-rising star' (London Jazz News). At the age of 20, she has already recorded her eagerly awaited debut album featuring Ant Law, made up entirely of her original compositions, the first single Voodoo was released in February, and the album Incantation is due to be released in May 2022.

She has also created a name for herself both as a bandleader and a sideman. New arrival on the scene, she has already made an impact, regularly playing at major London jazz venues with a wide range of established musicians. Emma is a recipient of the 2021 Drake Yolanda Award.

Emma's influences range from modern jazz and fusion to folk and soul, key figures in her musical development include Chris Potter, Ari Hoenig, Kenny Jarrett, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, and more.  

Growing up in rural North Devon, Emma didn't discover jazz until the age of 15, and didn't pick up a tenor saxophone until a year later, but had spent her childhood otherwise immersed in largely folk and classical music.

Emma is a natural performer. Her music has a unique sound, fusing all her many influences, and her compositions range from lilting Afro Cuban-inspired grooves to hard-hitting modern jazz and funk numbers. In this episode, Emma shares her background, education, and musical journey.

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Naughty Professor is an iconoclastic New Orleans-based jazz-funk sextet whose adventurous
recordings and horn-charged, high-energy live performances have earned them an enthusiastic
fan base, critical acclaim, and widespread attention from their musical peers. Their diligent roadwork has established Naughty Professor as a beloved live act. Weaving together with complex, inventive compositions and loose, organic improvisation, the band honors their hometown's jazz, R&B, and brass-band traditions while looking to the future.

Where their first four releases showcased the group's knack for self-contained instrumental
experimentation, their upcoming EP Good Things continues the trajectory of their 2017 album Identity by joining a trinity of explosive collaborators, whose instrumental and compositional contributions continue to expand the music into new territory. Naughty Professor has shared the stage with artists such as Soulive, Galactic, Snarky Puppy, Fitz, and the Tantrums, The Revivalists, Rebirth Brass Band, The Soul Rebels, Papadosio, George Porter Jr., Victor Wooten, and many more. In this episode, Sam and Noah share their background, education, and musical journey.

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Sigurd Hole has been a vital part of the Norwegian music scene for the past decade, both as part of different jazz ensembles and through his work related to Norwegian folk music. In February 2020 came the monumental "Lys / Mørke".  A solo bass double album recorded on the arctic islands of Fleinvær in Northern Norway, "Lys / Mørke" can in many ways be seen as a response to the climate and ecological crisis, focusing in large on the conscious act of listening to the natural world. The album was premiered in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on February 3rd, 2020, and received worldwide critical acclaim. 2022 sees the release of a new album called "Roraima", out February 18th. "Roraima" was commissioned by Oslo World for the festival in 2020, and reflects themes such as solidarity and ecological vulnerability and draws inspiration from the creation myth of the Yanomami people and the sound of the Amazon rainforest. The ensemble features Trygve Seim, Frode Haltli, Helga Myhr, Tanja Orning, Håkon Aase, Per Oddvar Johansen, and Sigurd Hole, and the music also includes field recordings of the Amazon biophony by US soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause. Besides his own projects Hole is known for his work with ensembles and musicians like Tord Gustavsen trio, Eple Trio, Karl Seglem acoustic quartet, Helge Lien, Bugge Wesseltoft, Eli Storbekken, Nils Økland, Terje Isungset, Frode Haltli and Trygve Seim. In this episode, Sigurd shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Ari O’Neal is a guitarist from Prince George’s County, Maryland. She’s been playing since the age of 10. Although she learned how to play guitar in many amazing music programs (Music & Arts Center, Levine School of Music, Juilliard's Jazz Camp, etc.), she never made it out into any collegiate music programs. After playing in churches and clubs around the DMV area. After being discovered on Instagram, she was called to play for Beyoncé at Coachella in 2018. That show led to the OTRII Tour, and then Normani, Fantasia, Nelly, Alicia Keys, and more. In this episode, Ari shares her background, education, and musical journey.

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Tomas Fujiwara is a Brooklyn-based drummer and composer. Described as “a ubiquitous presence in the New York scene…an artist whose urbane writing is equal to his impressively nuanced drumming” (Troy Collins, Point of Departure), Tomas is an active player in some of the most exciting music of the current generation, with his bands Triple Double (with Gerald Cleaver, Mary Halvorson, Brandon Seabrook, Ralph Alessi, and Taylor Ho Bynum), Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up (with Jonathan Finlayson, Brian Settles, Halvorson, and Michael Formanek) and The Tomas Fujiwara Trio (with Alessi and Seabrook); his collaborative duo with cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum; the collective trio Thumbscrew (with Halvorson and Formanek); and a diversity of creative sideman work with forward-thinking peers like Tomeka Reid and Matana Roberts. In The New York Times, Nate Chinen writes, “Drummer Tomas Fujiwara works with rhythm as a pliable substance, solid but ever-shifting. His style is forward-driving but rarely blunt or aggressive, and never random. He has a way of spreading out the center of a pulse while setting up a rigorous scaffolding of restraint...A conception of the drum set as a full-canvas instrument, almost orchestral in its scope.”

Born and raised in Boston, MA, Tomas studied with legendary drummer and teacher Alan Dawson for eight years before moving to New York at the age of 17. He is currently a member of ensembles led by Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Matana Roberts, Nicole Mitchell, Matt Bauder, and Tomeka Reid, in addition to projects with artists such as Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Michael Formanek, Ben Goldberg, and Benoit Delbecq, and has performed at festivals and venues across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. He also has many experiences outside the jazz realm, including a five-year run with the Off-Broadway show Stomp and performances with the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Fela!, featuring Patti Labelle and members of Antibalas.

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Multi-instrumentalist Gebhard Ullmann grew up near Bonn, studied medicine and music in Hamburg starting in 1976, and moved to Berlin in 1983 to live as a professional musician. One year later, the 27-year-old was leading (and co-leading) his own bands, releasing his first albums in 1985. The next few years saw him working with Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Paul Bley (among many others) as well as touring the Middle East, East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, Turkey, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia.  In this episode, Gebhard shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Multi-GRAMMY®-winning pianist/singer/composer Eliane Elias’ distinctive musical style has emerged as one of the most unique and immediately recognizable sounds in jazz. Elias blends her Brazilian roots and alluring voice with her virtuosic instrumental jazz, her classical and compositional skills, while she consistently displays her pianistic mastery and ability to integrate the many artistic roles she takes on.

With nearly 30 albums and over 2.3 million albums sold to date, Eliane Elias is critically acclaimed, has a strong presence on Spotify with 565,000 monthly listeners and over 22 million Spotify listens for her song “Little Paradise.” She has toured in 71 countries, is a four-time Gold Disc Award recipient, a three-time Best Vocal Album winner in Japan and winner of the 2018 Edison Lifetime Achievement Award in Holland to name a few accolades. Her 2019 album Love Stories was voted “Downbeat’s Best Album of 2019- Masterpiece” and as most of her previous releases, hit #1 on the jazz charts worldwide.

Eliane’s skills together with her charismatic personality, bring a wide spectrum of musical experiences and unique presentations to the audience. As Jazziz proclaimed, Eliane is “A citizen of the world” and “An artist beyond category.” In this episode, Eliane shares her background, education, and musical journey.

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Myele Manzanza is a drummer and composer who has rightfully earned himself a reputation as a visionary musician who is not afraid to experiment. Born in New Zealand to a Congolese master percussionist, and currently residing in London, Manzanza was raised listening to hip hop, jazz and dance music all of which strongly inform his current practice.

As a drummer and a sideman Manzanza regularly tours and collaborates with a broad range of artists across multiple genres including Theo Parrish, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Amp Fiddler, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Jordan Rakei, Ross McHenry, The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Ria Hall, Marcus Strickland, Recloose and Sorceress among countless others.

Manzanza has truly established himself on the world stage having being selected from over 20,000 applicants to participate in the Red Bull Music Academy in London. He has multiple solo album releases on esteemed international labels Sound Signature, First Word and BBE and is recognized as one of NZ top jazz musicians, having been nominated for the 2017 NZ Jazz Album of the Year for his sophomore album OnePointOne and 2020 APRA Best Jazz Composition for his work Mortality from the A Love Requited LP. In this episode, Myele shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Jonny was brought up in a musical family, his parents played in a country and western band along with his aunt and uncle that toured the UK with Chet Atkins. His Grandma on his father's side was a proficient pianist and his mother's parents played in the salvation army brass band. In this episode, Jonny shares his background, education, and musical journey.

At a very early age, Jonny became fascinated with the piano, it was through this instrument he would discover his love for music and singing. At the age of 14, Jonny played the Accordion that his grandfather bought for him and it was from this he found his passion for the instrument.

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Jihye Lee is a jazz composer and bandleader based in New York, highly regarded for her personal and adventurous storytelling approach to large-ensemble jazz. A native of South Korea, Lee had no jazz or classical training growing up, though she found success in Korea performing as an indie-pop singer-songwriter. She graduated from Dongduk Women’s University with a degree in Voice Performance, discovering her love of large-ensemble jazz only after beginning her studies at Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2011. Confidently she began to explore her own identity and voice within this exciting, historically rich medium, winning Berklee’s Duke Ellington Prize just months after declaring her Jazz Composition major (and again the following year). Though she could never have anticipated this new path, she has followed it to greater heights, moving to New York in 2015 and earning a master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music under the guidance of the great Jim McNeely, with generous funding from school scholarships and the CJ Cultural Foundation. In this episode, Jihye shares her background, education, and musical journey.

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