Improv Exchange Podcast

As a virtuoso bassist, versatile composer, and acclaimed bandleader, Marc Johnson has been a major innovator on the jazz scene for the past two decades.

Born in Nebraska in 1953, Johnson took up bass at the age of 16, having already studied piano and cello. While completing his formal education in the celebrated music program at the University of North Texas, at age19, Johnson began performing professionally with the Fort Worth Symphony. In 1977, he was on the road with the Woody Herman Band. A stop with Herman in New York City marked a major turning point for Johnson, where he was invited to sit in with Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard. In 1978, he joined Evans' trio, remaining with him until the pianist's death two years later. Johnson appears on numerous albums recorded with Evans, including the Grammy-winning We Will Meet Again and released in 1997, a six-CD box set of live recordings, Turn Out the Stars, weaving his distinctively warm tones and melodic lines into the complex harmonies of the Trio. 

Over the past 20 years, Johnson has performed on more than 100 albums. Many have been with pianists, including Eliane Elias, Lyle Mays, and Enrico Pieranunzi, although Johnson has also recorded with saxophonists Stan Getz, Joe Lovano, and Michael Brecker, drummers Peter Erskine and Paul Motian, and Jack DeJohnette, vibist Gary Burton, and bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi. And many of his most notable recordings have been with guitarists. In addition to his long membership in guitarist John Abercrombie's trio, Johnson formed two guitar-oriented bands that rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Overpass, recorded in January and February 2018 at Nacena Studios, in São Paulo, was produced by Marc Johnson and Eliane Elias.  In this episode, Marc shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Pianist Benito Gonzalez “Two times Grammy nominee” is an internationally beloved artist who combines a long lineage of American jazz traditions with rhythms from around the world. He’s worked with dozens of the greats, and he always brings some of the best rhythm section players in the world.

Today a rising tide of young jazz pianists are attempting to find their distinct voices by taking cues from their elders. But only a few take their artistry beyond their predecessors to make bold 88-key statements on their journeys to new vistas, fresh sounds, inspired expressions. That personal-touch devotion to the wonders of the instrument brings with it a certitude of intuitive creativity. In this episode, Benito shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Alex Corrêa was born on august 17th, 1981. As the son of a classical pianist was at the age of five his first contact with the piano but was at thirteen when he decided to follow the music path. At seventeen, Alex began his undergraduate studies at Universidade Estadual de Londrina - Brazil, which brought him into significant contact with many sound environments, anthropological and philosophical studies, and skills aimed at teaching music. In this episode, Alex shares his background, education, and musical journey. 

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Arturo O’Farrill, pianist, composer, and educator, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. He received his formal musical education at the Manhattan School of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Arturo’s professional career began with the Carla Bley Band and continued as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte.

O’Farrill’s well-reviewed and highly praised “Afro-Latin Jazz Suite” from the album CUBA: The Conversation Continues (Motéma) took the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition and the 2016 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. His powerful “Three Revolutions” from the album Familia-Tribute to Chico and Bebo was the 2018 Grammy Award (his sixth) winner for Best Instrumental Composition. In this episode, Arturo shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Originally from Sacramento, California, Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist, and composer based in New York. He has collaborated with a host of artists on many scenes since the early 2000s, including Marc Ribot, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Darius Jones, David Torn, John Tchicai, Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Trevor Dunn, Terry Riley, Kris Davis, Dave Holland, Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu, Good for Cows, Theory of Ruin, and Mr. Bungle, among others.

He has nine records to his name as a bandleader that features his writing and ensemble curation, and is a devout student of Haitian Vodou drums, performing in religious and folkloric contexts in New York and Haiti for the last decade. In this episode, Ches shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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The Luxembourgish drummer regularly proves his versatility and openness through numerous projects going from jazz to melodic hardcore to art music and electronic music. He was recently chosen by the American Drummer Jim Black to represent Luxembourg at Crisis Cross Europe. Michel Meis Endorses Paiste Cymbals. 

Diversity runs through the Michel Meis 4tet's music like the proverbial thread. Through its diverse moods and complex yet never arbitrary structures. The band offers compositions that are as elaborate as they are playful, as danceable as they are melancholic. This eclectic character is crystallized in Meis' playful drums. In this episode, Michel shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Tawanda Suessbrich- Joaquim is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter from New Mexico. As a first-generation American, growing up in a multi-cultural European, African and American household meant becoming familiar with music, culture, and experiences from all over the world. Soon enough, she was gravitating solely towards singing and performing, from her early youth all the way until graduating in 2017 with a Bachelor's Degree in Contemporary Music from Santa Fe University of Art and Design, where she was studying vocal jazz under Mirabai Daniels and chair of her program, saxophonist and flute-player Horace Alexander Young.

During those years she could be found charming audiences at El Meson with John Rangel’s quartet, honoring the cultural diversity of New Mexican artists at Burque Noir events, and doing plays, performances, fashion shows, and model work. After moving to Los Angeles in 2019, and working hard to stay inspired during 2020, Tawanda has most recently won the 2021 Sarah Vaughan Vocal Jazz competition, a title previously assumed by contemporaries such as Cyrille Aimée, Jazzmeia Horn, and Samara Joy McClendon.

Deeply inspired by the great classics, Billie, Ella, Sarah, and Anita O'Day, richly influenced by her background of world music, classical training, folk, pop, and independent styles, Tawanda looks forward to delving ever further into the worldwide Jazz scene and exploring multi-genre fusion in the near future, with the hopes, always, of giving back to her people and the earth, and refining her gift of story-telling. In this episode, Tawada shares her background, education, and musical journey.

Feifke is an internationally recognized arranger and orchestrator and has written commissioned works for notables like the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra featuring Sean Jones and John Faddis, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with Ken Peplowski, the Malmo Big Band with Katie Thiroux, and the New Generation Festival with Orchestra Senzaspine and Dominick Farinacci. He is the recipient of the 2020 David Baker Prize in composition from the Ravinia Festival and serves as musical director for the Tony Award Winning actor and singer Santino Fontana. In this episode, Steven shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Nicolas Stocker is a core member of the celebrated ritual groove music ensemble Nik Bärtsch's Mobile since 2015. His extensive sideman work includes collaborations with Ricardo Villalobos, Maarja Nuut, Areni Agbabian, Witch’n’Monk, and many more - «...the music is really enhanced by Stocker's outstanding work on drums. In addition to numerous album productions, he has recorded drums for several movie soundtracks and worked with GRAMMY-Award-winning producers Manfred Eicher and David Odlum. He is featured on the ECM Records releases Continuum by Nik Bärtsch's Mobile, Bloom by Areni Agbabian, as well as on John Zorn’s Tzadik Records release Witch’n’Monk, which won the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Both Bloom and Witch’n’Monk have been named Contemporary Album Of The Month by The Guardian. In this episode, Nicolas shares his background, education, and musical journey.

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Born and partly raised in Uganda, Mark Kavuma is a prominent young Trumpet player on the British jazz scene. Leading his own Quartet, the 'Floor Rippers' house band, and his main outfit 'The Banger Factory'. As well as, playing with Jean Toussaint's Young Lions, Jazz Jamaica, Nu Civilisation Orchestra and also one of the brass leaders at London based carnival band Kinetika Bloco. 

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