Improv Exchange Podcast

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.”

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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. 

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.

New York City-based pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer Cestari creates a world that melds the sounds of jazz, pop, classical, latin, and free improvisation together. With rich vocals, vivid lyricism, and a powerful approach to the piano, Cestari's music takes on various inspirations that have merged into one distinct sound. Studying Music Business at NYU, Cestari aims to use his knowledge to share evocative, captivating, and impactful stories. In conjunction with the release of his debut album “In A Moment”, Cestari organized “MOMENTS”, a 90-minute concert on young adult life, mental health, and acceptance, which premiered all the music off the album with an 11-piece ensemble as well as never-before-seen music videos at the renowned DiMenna Center for Classical Music. As written in RAG Magazine, “[Cestari has] so many different undertones that range from a cinematic and almost haunting approach to a pop-coated singer-songwriter style [that] also incorporates just about everything in between.” However, this is only the start as Cestari continues to work and grow as one of the most dynamic voices in the New York music scene.

With inspiration from his stylistic ancestors Nat King Cole and Joe Williams, John Dokes brings new life to the deep-souled world of baritone jazz vocals on his elegant new album, Our Day on his Swing Theory Entertainment imprint. In delivering a distinctive post-pandemic outing of classic songs embodied with hopeful passion, Dokes—also promises that his new endeavor is “an album that will make you move.” Our Day features songs associated with Cole (such as the smooth low-toned “Almost Like Being in Love,” the delightful Rodgers and Hart gem, “This Can’t Be Love,” the Latin-vibed “L.O.V.E.” that elicits dancing), two vocalese numbers (Jon Hendricks’ take on one-time Jazz Messenger composer Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin’,” Mark Murphy’s swinging run through Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay”), the full-energy pop vibe on Billy Ocean’s hit “Suddenly,” the calming Michel Legrand tune “I Will Wait for You” made famous from the Frank Sinatra songbook.

“I grew up dancing hip-hop, I made a transition to something that I could do for a longer time in my life,” says Dokes. “I switched to Lindy Hop also known as swing dancing. I came to singing later in my life, but I gravitated to the music I was most passionate about—the eras of the ‘40s, ‘50s, early ‘60s. I started picking songs that really moved me. Dokes’ last two albums were quintet affairs. For Our Day, he convened a nonet that includes members of the New York-based George Gee Swing Orchestra where he launched his career as a vocalist. (He documented that with his debut album, John Dokes Sings, George Gee Swings.) Key to the album’s success is the arranging of Gee’s musical director trombonist David Gibson. “Dave is a great arranger,” Dokes says. “He provides layers for the nonet where everyone has a chance to shine on solos as he fills up the space with his lines.” Now, with his fourth album, Dokes has fully arrived. There’s not a dull moment on Our Day. He opens with “Our Day Will Come.” “It’s a love song,” Dokes says. but it’s also an opening from the past. Now is our time. Now is our day. It’s really a song about us as a band coming back together.”

Originally, Dokes was in the midst of fashioning a trilogy of quintet recordings (2017’s Forever Reasons and 2019’s True Love on Ian Hendrickson-Smith’s Rondette Jazz label). While the third album is still in the works, a couple of events intervened. “I got derailed,” says Dokes. “First, my drummer Lawrence Leathers died after True Love came out. I moved to Chicago with my wife and two children. Then there was the pandemic that changed how I was looking at the future. I had to restart my brain. I decided to work on some of my material that had never been recorded. I contacted George Gee and he was working on his nonet’s Christmas album in May 2023, so we combined that with David arranging my album. It was a back-to-back operation of small big bands.” The nonet comprises saxophonists Anthony Nelson Jr. and Michael Hashim, multi-reeds player Patience Higgins, trumpeters Freddie Hendrix and Andy Gravish, Gibson on trombone. pianist Steve Einerson, bassist Malik McLaurine and drummer Chris Latona.

A native of Little Rock, Arkansas who grew up living in Oakland, California, Dokes never dreamed of becoming a professional singer even though he was fascinated by black-and-white reruns of Nat Coles’ short-lived 15-minute network television show that ran on NBC in 1956. “I watched them nonstop before I ever thought about singing,“ Dokes says. “But there was his elegance, his smoothness, his ease. That resonated with me. And it informed how I approach my singing today. I don’t dive into a lot of vocal acrobatics - but like some of my favorite acrobatic and non-acrobatic singers I like to lean in and tell the story to connect with my audience.” His father was steeped in music while Dokes was growing up. He played Nat King Cole albums in the house, and he was in an r&b band in the Bay Area in the ‘70s that often opened for soul/r&b stars of the day like The Whispers and The Stylistics.

He moved to New York and became a regular at swing dance shows including dates by the George Gee Swing Orchestra. One of his dance partners was the legendary Lindy Hopper, cabaret star, alto sax player Dawn Hampton, the cousin of jazz hero Lionel Hampton and sister of legendary trombonist and composer Slide Hampton. She told him that she really liked his voice when he was dancing. “If Dawn likes my voice, I’m going to surprise her one night and sing a couple of songs with George’s band. George only knew me as a dancer. He saw my potential and asked me to join the band. That built my confidence and gave me the path to get better.”