Improv Exchange Podcast

Episode #165: Russell Hall

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Russell Hall migrated to the United States in 2007 where his double bass studies progressed quickly through the rigorous programs of The Dillard Center for the Arts and The Juilliard School. Russell deeply understands the jazz tradition, having studied with many of the double bass world's most renowned artists including Ron Carter and Ben Wolfe. Still, he is also an artist looking forward with his own distinct approach to the double bass.  

As a first-call bassist in New York City, Russell has performed with some of the biggest names in music including Joey Alexander, Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Jon Batiste, Roy Hargrove, Kathleen Battle, Christian McBride, Emmet Cohen, Russell Malone, George Coleman and many more. 

Well known for his work with the Emmet Cohen Trio alongside drummer Kyle Poole, Russell also leads his own bands, including Bessie and the Rainbowkids to much critical acclaim. 

Russell Hall joined the Discover Double Bass faculty as a jazz bass specialist in 2022 where he presented his course, Bessie’s Bass Busters. 

Russell Hall is well known as a member of the Emmet Cohen Trio and bassist for the wildly popular ‘Live From Emmet’s Place’ series. In this video, he was joined by non-other than the great Christian McBride for a tasteful double bass duo.

Episode #164: Donald Vega

Donald Vega was trained classically in piano in his native Nicaragua. He emigrated to the United States at age 14 and found a musical home with the Colburn School of Performing Arts (CSPA). He began his studies there in classical piano with Teresa de Jong Pombo and Dr. Louis Lepley. Vega started to learn the language of jazz from mentor Billy Higgins at The World Stage and continued at CSPA with Jeffrey Lavner, then later with bassist John Clayton at the University of Southern California. He went on to graduate from the Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School where he studied with piano great Kenny Barron, Phil Markowitz, and Gary Dial. Vega currently performs internationally as the pianist for world-renowned bassist Ron Carter’s Golden Striker Trio with whom he has recorded several albums. Mr. Vega is also a professor at The Juilliard School and Hofstra University and sits on the board of BackCountry Jazz. This non-profit organization provides music education programs and performances to underprivileged youth. 

Vega’s debut album, Tomorrows, was released in 2008 to rave reviews. In his sophomore album, Spiritual Nature (Resonance Records, 2012), he was joined by the regal rhythm tandem of bassist Christian McBride and drummer Lewis Nash. Vega teamed up again with Lewis Nash on his third album, Concerning Monty, (Resonance Records, 2015) along with Hassan Shakur, the great bassist and former Monty Alexander band member, and long-time friend and Grammy-nominated artist, Anthony Wilson on guitar.  Donald recently finished recording his latest album, As I Travel (2023), with Lewis Nash on drums and John Patitucci on bass, featuring Luisito Quintero on percussion. 

Episode #163: Corey Bernhard

Keyboardist, producer, composer and house musician for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s band, Corey Bernhard will release his sophomore solo full-length album exploring themes of faith, God, love, and loss, A Blessed Leap into Eternity via Birdbrain Records on January 24, 2025. The seven original songs on the album are a sprawling, experimental, folk jazz suite rooted in Bernhard’s love of jazz, hip-hop, improvisation, and indie rock and he worked closely with engineer Michael Cumming (Sun Ra Arkestra, Odean Pope, Lotus, Orion Sun) in the engineer’s Kensington studio, Treacle Mine. “Michael and I were constantly experimenting with different sonic textures and effects to enhance the songs and he is a big part of the sound of the project,” says the composer. “He was also very patient during the mix process as we mixed directly from the board to tape.”

Each of the songs is infused with the composer’s love of musical collaboration as he recruited many of his musician friends in to help him fully realize the tracks and their soundscapes. The album features performances in addition to Bernhard on the keys, from saxophonist and woodwind player Yesseh Furaha-Ali (Snacktime), bassist Jon Smith (played and produced on Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales), and drummer Lenny Mobley (Lauryn Hill, Jazmine Sullivan, J Brown, YG Marley, Musiq Soulchild).

“With my first solo project, Fool's Pirouette, I was inspired by a lot of musical circles I was a part of that were focused on hip-hop,” says Bernhard. “I had spent a lot of time making beats with my old band (Killiam Shakespeare) and recording at Jazzy Jeff's studio, and most of my friends and collaborators who came through my own studio in Germantown to record were rappers and R&B focused singers. I'm still really happy with how that project sounds and proud of the insane collection of artists and musicians that are part of it. These days making beats just doesn't inspire me the way it used to. I've been playing with musicians like Charlie Hall and getting more excited about indie rock and folk textures. At the same time, I'm surrounded by a band at The Late Show everyday where everyone is a virtuoso on their instrument. I'm listening to and practicing a lot of classical music.”

“I wanted to explore all of that while recording this project. Lenny, Jon, Yesseh, and I have all been playing with each other in countless situations around Philly for the past 10 years,” he continues. “They are elite musicians who aren't afraid to experiment or head into uncharted territory musically. I had a few simple sketches of some tunes, but we recorded live as a band without rehearsing anything. Later we added some extra layers of instrumentation, but the meat of the project is the four of us being in the moment together. The way things came together despite not having a real plan or goal for the sound of the album definitely reinforced the concept of faith as a central theme of the project.”

Episode #162: Benjamin Makinen

Ben Makinen is an award-winning filmmaker, music producer, composer, and percussionist with over 40 years of experience in film, television, theater, and music production. A voting member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYS), he is known for his compelling documentaries that explore the rich interplay between music and culture.

Ben has produced two acclaimed music documentaries, JazzTown and Who Killed Jazz, while his latest film, Echoes of Tradition, which delves into the Native American influences on the birth of jazz, has secured national distribution with PBS for 2025. His works are self-distributed through his company, Bmakin Film, with JazzTown available on platforms like AppleTV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu, and Rocky Mountain PBS.

Currently, Ben is in post-production on We Are Here: Women In Jazz, a documentary that addresses the challenges women face in male-dominated industries, featuring internationally acclaimed recording artists (The Manhattan Transfer, Veronica Swift, Ingrid Jensen, Erena Terakubo, Endea Owens…) His collaborative spirit has led him to work with 11x Grammy-nominated Native American musician R. Carlos Nakai, who served as both producer and cultural advisor for Echoes of Tradition.

Beginning his professional journey as a drummer in 1980, Ben’s early influences include jazz legends Billy Wallace (pianist with Max Roach) and Joe Bonner (pianist with Pharoah Sanders). Since 1990, he has worked as a music producer and composer, and in 2001, he founded Bmakin Film, focusing on diverse projects, including music videos, experimental films, narrative works, and documentaries. Throughout his career, he has produced and performed on over 50 albums across genres, from jazz and blues to pop, rock, electronica, new age, and opera.

Passionate about teaching and mentoring, Ben founded the International Modern Film Alliance (IMFA) in 2020 to promote storytelling through the integration of music and film. He leads workshops for children and young adults in Bali, Indonesia, sharing his love for jazz and cinema. Additionally, he is organizing Bali’s first AI International Film Festival, set to launch in 2025.

Episode #161: Koki Nakano

Koki Nakano is a composer and a pianist, born in 1988 in Fukuoka, Japan.

After graduating Music High School at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, he enrolled at the composition department of Tokyo University of the Arts.

He has performed recitals at the Louvre and the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), Cadogan Hall (London), Lincoln Center (New York). He released his first album Lift in 2016, in collaboration with French cellist Vincent Segal under the Paris-based label Nø Førmat!.

​In 2019, Koki took part in a research workshop at the Reborn Art Festival in the landscapes of Ishinomaki‘s bay. Accompanied by renowned visual artist Kohei Nawa, famous choreographer Damien Jalet, and few dancers, they explore different points of fusion between the human body and the landscape.

​His second album Pre-choreographed is released in April 2020. Koki mixed his classical pieces with electronic sounds and he developed this relationship between dance and music.

In 2021, Koki composed the original music for Damien Jalet’s piece ‘Brise-lames’ and performed it live at Palais Garnier for Paris Opera’s opening gala.

His third album, Oceanic Feeling is released in 2022 as well as four musical videos gathering choreographers and dancers Tess Voelker and Nicolas Huchard, Marion Motin, Mourad Bouayad.

​Koki Nakano's new album Ululō is released in October 2024, in collaboration with singers Yaël Naim, Wayne Snow and Jordy.

Episode #160: Tigran Hamasyan

Tigran Hamasyan is considered one of the most remarkable and distinctive jazz-meets-rock pianists/composers of his generation. A piano virtuoso with groove power, Hamasyan seamlessly fuses potent jazz improvisation and progressive rock with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia. Born in Gyumri, Armenia, in 1987, his musical journey began in his childhood home, where he was exposed to a diverse array of musical influences leading to him playing piano at the age of three, performing in festivals and competitions by the time he was eleven, and winning the Montreux Jazz Festival’s piano competition in 2003. He released his debut album, World Passion, in 2004 at the age of seventeen. The following year, he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Additional albums include New Era; Red Hail; A Fable, for which he was awarded a Victoires de la Musique (the equivalent of a Grammy Award in France); Shadow Theater; and Luys i Luso which featured the Yerevan State Chamber Choir focusing on Armenian sacred music stretching stylistically from the 5th century to the 20th century.

 

His Nonesuch debut, Mockroot (2015), won the Echo Jazz Award for International Piano Instrumentalist of the Year; subsequent records for the label include An Ancient Observer (2017) the companion EP, For Gymuri (2018), Revisiting the Film (2021) and most recently StandArt (2022). Hamasyan was awarded the Deutscher Jazzpreis international category in Piano/Keyboards in 2021. Hamasyan has released records on France’s Plus Loins, Universal France, Nonesuch and ECM.

Hamasyan’s new conceptual album “The Bird of a Thousand Voices” was released in August 2024 on Naïve/Believe – his debut with the label. Tigran composed, scored, and arranged the much-anticipated project blending its traditional folk footprints with rock influences. The first single from the album “The Kingdom” can also be experienced as an interactive game at www.bird1000.com. The recently released double album is inspired by an ancient Armenian tale in which a hero travels into unseen realms to find and bring back a mythical bird – whose thousand different songs will awaken people again and bring harmony to the world. The transmedia music theater piece ‘The Bird of a Thousand Voices’, an intriguing immersive light installation with shadow play, digitally programmed voices, live music, and an Armenian-English libretto, premiered at the Holland Festival in June 2024.

 

In addition to awards and critical acclaim, Hamasyan has built a dedicated following worldwide, as well as praise from Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau and the late Chick Corea. “With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements…Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies. You’ll hear nothing else like this” (NPR)

Episode #159: Lao Tizer

Colorado-bred, LA-based keyboardist Lao Tizer embodies what it means to be a 21st-century musician inhabiting the jazz sphere ¾ that being one who embraces musical diversity and has no fear of crossing boundaries. But Tizer also happens to come by this naturally. As the self-described “child of East Coast Jewish hippies,” he was exposed to and was influenced by his parents' extensive musical tastes
from a young age: “My dad had a huge music collection. He loved classical music and had all this world music ¾ Ravi Shankar, R. Carlos Nakai, music of the Sufis ¾ plus my parents were boomers, so that brought in all the Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke, Elvis, Janis Joplin, and Motown. The Temptations were my favorite band as a kid. So, I basically grew up with everything but jazz, which I didn’t really discover until I was about 16.”

It was a couple of seemingly random selections from the Columbia House mail-order club that turned him toward a new and lasting musical direction. ”It was buy one, get twelve free, right? So I ordered Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux. Then one Sunday morning, it all just kind of hit me. To a lot of people trained in the classical tradition, jazz sounds like it breaks all kinds of rules, but I just heard there was a whole other world to explore there.” From there, Tizer hit the ground running, applying his classical piano skills to jazz and releasing his first self-produced solo keyboard albums while still in high school. After graduating from Boulder High, Tizer moved to LA and studied with legendary piano guru Terry Trotter for about two years, forgoing formal music education.

“Instead of going to music school, I just got my butt kicked on the bandstand. I was always working with musicians who were older and more experienced. School’s great but there’s no better way to grow than playing with people who are going to push you to grow. I was so green, man. Learning to play in a band concept ¾ playing in good time with a rhythm section–was one of the most challenging things, coming from being a solo pianist.” But his approach and talents served him well. At 19, he formed and led the first band under his own name, taking indirect inspiration from another iconic jazz entity. “When I got into listening to The Pat Metheny Group in the late ‘90s, they had that “formula” that definitely spoke to me ¾ great, through-composed music with a lot of room for improvisation. That’s the formula that I love”

In the ensuing years and through various incarnations, The Lao Tizer Band has flown by that directional compass while infusing the bespoke influences and experiences that inform Tizer’s musical worldview.

Subsequently, the band attracted many top players to its ranks ¾ GRAMMY-winning saxophonist Eric Marienthal (Chick Corea), Emmy-winning guitarist Chieli Minucci (Special EFX), Senegalese bassist Cheikh N'Doye (Baaba Maal), violinist extraordinaire Karen Briggs (Stanley Clarke), GRAMMY-winning drum phenom Gene Coye (Hiromi) and legendary GRAMMY-winning percussionist Munyungo Jackson (Stevie Wonder) ¾ and became a steady presence at LA hotspots like The Baked Potato as well as entertaining audiences at premier jazz festivals around the world. Milestones among these were The Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, Cape Town Jazz Festival, Java Jazz Festival, and Atlanta Jazz Festival. The six albums he has released as a leader have seen Tizer steadily grow while constantly defining (and redefining) who he is as a keyboardist, composer, and bandleader. “I think the most important thing as an artist and composer is to have your own identity and your own sound. Everybody comes to where they are in music through whatever path they have followed and I think staying true to what brought you to where you are now helps to create your own true voice. I think I have always had that.”

But not content to rest, Tizer recently decided to take another bold turn with his music. In 2018, The Lao Tizer Band released Songs From The Swinghouse, a project that included fresh, sophisticated takes on a number of vocal-oriented covers from seminal artists such as U2, Led Zeppelin, and Cat Stevens along with a collection of seven original instrumentals penned by Tizer. The album was released to critical acclaim and notched the Top 10 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz album chart.

“We were always only instrumental until that record. The concept was to reinvent covers like ‘Ramble On,’ ‘Pride in the Name of Love,’ and ‘Sad Lisa.’ I had never arranged or recorded any vocal material with my group before, so to take those tunes and make them our own was really fun.”

Now, with his forthcoming album, Amplify, Tizer ups the ante by bringing original vocal-oriented songs into his mix of smart instrumentals ¾ as well as a few potent new additions to the band. “A big part of the concept for Amplify is to cross over. It’s not really a “jazz” record but it definitely has jazz elements, no question. The band still features the core lineup we’ve had for a while now with Eric, Chieli, Karen, Munyungo, Gene, and Cheikh, but now there are a few new faces involved in the group. Namely saxophone and flute wunderkind Danny Janklow (MONKestra) and Rolling Stone 2022 ”Bassist of the Year” nominee Anthony Crawford (Erykah Badu), who shares low-end duties with Cheikh. We augmented our already large band with a horn section and background singers on a few songs as well. The album is nine songs ¾ five vocal, four instrumental ¾ all original, no covers.”

But perhaps Tizer’s most intriguing choice of secret weapon for Amplify is bringing American Idol star Elliott Yamin to handle the vocal material. “Elliott’s first album had that platinum hit single “Wait For You.” He’s very much a throwback to a blue-eyed soul kind of vibe and it was amazing to be able to bring him into the band. This project was a little outside his stylistic wheelhouse because it is a bit more adventurous harmonically. I think he was a little intimidated by the music early on but he’s such a remarkably gifted singer and he’s just singing his butt off. He’s turned out to be unbelievable in this project and the band. He’s super gung-ho about it too, which is great. I couldn’t have asked for a better fit!”

With these continuing steps over boundaries into new stylistic territory, one might wonder if Tizer has any trepidation about alienating the core base of jazz listeners he’s built up over time. Quite the contrary, it seems.

“I love that longstanding boundaries in music are getting broken down. Artists like Snarky Puppy, Robert Glasper, and Kamasi Washington have proven this theory that I’ve long held: If you have music that’s melodic and grooves, you can win over a very broad array of listeners.” Indeed, Tizer testifies to having seen the evidence firsthand.

“There’s been a really cool renaissance and rebirth with all these genre-defying artists and I’ve seen a shift in the crowd at our shows too. There’s a lot of 20 and 30-somethings coming out, and that’s so cool. That’s what the future audience is going to be. If we want to have long careers like our predecessors, we need to have our peers and younger listeners connect to this music and follow it.” With eyes set on the future and a willingness to keep exploring, Tizer’s simplest ethos perhaps sums it up best: “I say forget the boundaries. Just make good music and try to connect with as many listeners as you can.

Episode #158: Bill Warfield

Bill Warfield, a dynamic and innovative composer, bandleader and trumpeter, has energized audiences, performers and writers for over four decades. Warfield’s most recent accomplishments are two highly regarded recordings including “Mercy Mercy Mercy”, recorded on the BluJazz label by the Hell’s Kitchen Funk Orchestra in 2015 and “Trumpet Story” with Randy Brecker on Planet Arts Records, recorded in 2014. These recordings are a celebration of the composer’s formative musical experiences. The two groups perform Jazz selections based on the genres of funk, Latin Jazz, and Hard Bop, all arranged by Warfield.

He holds an M.M. in Jazz Commercial Trumpet Performance from the Manhattan School of Music where he received the William H. Borden Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Jazz/Commercial Music, The Carmine Caruso Award for Outstanding Musicality and Trumpet Performance and the Maynard Ferguson Scholarship. In 1990 he participated in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, directed by Bob Brookmeyer and Manny Albam.

Episode #157: Akira Ishiguro

Guitarist Akira Ishiguro studied Jazz performance and composition at Berklee College of Music. Since graduating in 2006, he has been entrenched in the New York City jazz scene.  

 

Tour life has taken him to Japan, Chile, Coasta Rica, Canada, and much of Europe. He has six albums as a leader or co-leader and has appears in over 20 records.

 

He has shared the stage with Myron Walden, Nate Smith, Ari Hoenig, Mark Guiliana, Takuya Kuroda, Maria Schneider, Dayna Stephens, Jason Lindner, Henry Hey, Will Vinson, John Zorn, George Garzone, Christian McBride, Joe Martin, Matt Penman, Seamus Blake and many more.  

 

Ishiguro’s accolades include grand prize in the 2013 Wilson Center Guitar Festival and Competition, and first prize “Public’s Choice” as well as overall second place in the 2009 Gibson guitar competition as part of the Montreux Jazz Festival. 

 

His latest album “BON” was released in August 2024. 

Episode #156: Jonathan Barber

International Recorded artist, composer, educator, and bandleader Jonathan Barber was voted the #1 Up-and-Coming Drummer of 2018 in Modern Drummer. Barber has already recorded and toured worldwide with such artists as Pat Metheny, Erykah Badu, Nicholas Payton, Buster Williams, Jimmy Greene, Jeremy Pelt, Wallace Roney, Terrace Martin, Jennifer Holiday, Harold Mabern, Steve Davis, J.D. Allen, The Brooklyn Philharmonic and many more.

In addition to his first-call status as a sideman, Barber has recently stepped forth as a composer and leader with his Vision Ahead band. Even with Barber’s history of high-profile gigs and recordings taken into consideration, DownBeat magazine gave his latest album “Legacy Holder” 4.5 stars.

Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead is a powerful declaration of intent for a band that’s been making waves on the modern jazz scene. Barber’s blend of classic, swinging jazz with elements of gospel, rock, soul, and fusion is a compelling showcase of Barber’s broad stylistic range as a drummer, performer, and composer.

Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead was featured and headlined the 2018 Rainy Days Jazz Festival held in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, 2019 Hartford Jazz Festival, and the 2020 Clifford Brown Jazz Festival. During Spring 2020, Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead completed their first national tour performing throughout the West-Coast. Being an independent artist Jonathan Barber just released his third album with Vision Ahead entitled “Live at Jazz Standard” which is exclusively on Bandcamp. Also stepping into the role as a Drum Clinician, Barber toured as a solo clinician in Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina) and China (Kumming, Loyung, Hefei, Nanjing, Beijing).

Barber endorses Ludwig Drums, Istanbul Agop Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Promark Drumsticks, and Sunhouse Percussion. In this episode, Jonathan shares his background, education, and musical journey.