Improv Exchange Podcast

Jeff Lederer is a Saxophonist/clarinetist/composer who has been included in the Downbeat Critics’ and Readers’ poll each year since 2014.  He leads ensembles including the “Shakers n’ Bakers”, “Sunwatcher Quartet,” and “Brooklyn Blowhards” and is the founder and director of the Visionary Youth Orchestra.  Mr. Lederer also plays in the groups of Matt Wilson, Bobby Sanabria, Allison Miller, Jimmy Bo...

On a recent wintry afternoon in Manhattan, Stephan Crump was doing what he has done countless times in the city—toting his upright bass, clad in a heavy black bag, along the sidewalk, as if he had a baby that was also a bear.  Finding his car, Crump shimmied the instrument through the minivan’s side, climbed into the front seat, exhaled, and then grinned. In less than 24 hours, he would fly to Por...

Multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist, CBC Music national radio host and 2026 GRAMMY Award nominee Laila Biali has headlined festivals and venues spanning five continents from New York City’s Carnegie Hall to Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and supported international icon Sting. Her JUNO-nominated 2023 album, Your Requests, featured a stellar cast of guests an...

Sean Mason stands as one of the most compelling jazz pianists, composers, and record producers of his generation. A Grammy Award nominee, Bessie Award winner, and Bistro Award recipient, Mason has quickly distinguished himself in contemporary music through his innovative approach and profound connection to jazz tradition. His discography, highlighted by his critically acclaimed 2023 debut album Th...

Acclaimed international Jazz vocalist Lori Williams has a most impressive resume as a performing artist, veteran music educator, songwriter, producer, musical theater actress, radio host, business owner/founder (PositiveMusicPM.org), and artist-in-residence with over 30 years of experience. Her annual vocal jazz tour and performance at music festivals have taken her to Europe (Austria, Germany, Sl...

Frank Swart was born and raised in Boston. He grew up hearing the big band swing records and classic Broadway show albums that were in his parent’s record collection, along with the music that his sister (who was ten years older) listened to including the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, and Led Zeppelin. He also developed a love for Miles Davis’ 1970s recordings, the spiritual Jaz...

Heather Ward has recently released her second album, Gilded & Silver. Her debut album, Honeysweet was released in May 2024. She is Canadian but has been based in Seattle since 1997. She attended art school, but performing at gallery openings led her to music studies at Vancouver Community College and then Capilano University for a degree in Jazz Performance. She has attended the International...

Diego Pinera was born 1981 in Montevideo, Uruguay and has lived in Germany since 2003. He studied drumming at the Berklee College of Music (USA), at the University of Music in Havana (Cuba) and at the University of Music and Theater in Leipzig (Germany). Pinera’s encounters with Latin American music, and with jazz in all its breadth, have led him to develop an unmistakable style. Through the combi...

In 1989, Keith LaMar (aka Bomani Shakur) was sent to prison at age 19 for murder. He had been living in Cleveland, Ohio, where he sold drugs as a means of survival in the Crack-infested streets he knew as home. On a day that would forever change his life, Keith was robbed at gunpoint and exchanged gunfire with his robbers. He was shot twice in his legs and hit one of the other men in the chest. Th...

Rosen has been hailed by The New York Times as “insanely ambitious,” “a sort of bridge between genres and generations, embracing Broadway standards, pop songs and the music of Tetris.” Broadway World hailed his orchestrations for “Some Like it Hot” — co-written with Bryan Carter — as “explosive… another first-rate team.” Opined JazzTimes of the 8-Bit Big Band: “[These are] innovative spins on a hi...

Gabriela Martina (CH) and Maxim Lubarsky (UA) have been playing together in different musical settings since 2009 and formed this duo officially back in 2019. They both are vivid performers who seek to approach music as a whole, defying any specific style or genre. The project “Explorations in Sound” aims at creating compositions in the moment from scratch, drawing Inspiration from various sources...

Sean Imboden is an American saxophonist and composer. Sean has released three albums as a leader, the most recent being Communal Heart by the Sean Imboden Large Ensemble. His music pioneers forward-thinking, original compositions, and presents cutting-edge live performances. Sean has performed and recorded with GRAMMY-winning artists and jazz luminaries, including Slide Hampton, Taylor Eigsti, Mik...

Lizzie Lee is a genre-defying vocalist blending classical precision with the soul and spontaneity of New York’s jazz tradition. Her voice—praised for its rich color and “acrobatics and élan”—offers a bold reinterpretation of the American Songbook and beyond. Raised in Alaska and trained in Paris and New York, Lizzie brings a rare combination of global sensibility and emotional connection to her wo...

Born in the Pinar del Río province of Cuba, Steinway Artist, Grammy Nominated, and 2014 Jalc Millennium Swing Award! recipient pianist and composer Elio Villafranca was classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. Since he arrived in the U.S. in mid-1995, Elio Villafranca has been at the forefront of the latest generation of remarkable piani...

Pritesh Walia is a virtuoso jazz guitarist, accomplished composer, and dedicated educator hailing from the vibrant city of New Delhi, India. His musical journey began at the age of 13 when he immersed himself in the rich traditions of Indian Classical Music. Fueling his insatiable curiosity for music, Pritesh sought Western influences, pursuing a lifelong mastery of diverse musical styles. Armed w...

Regarded as the most important and influential musician on the Irish jazz scene, saxophonist/flutist and composer Michael Buckley has been playing professionally since the age of six when critics hailed him as a child prodigy. Born in Dublin city in 1971 Michael first came to prominence on an International level when, aged 10, he played flute with the legendary saxophonist George Coleman in the Na...

Trombone-playing singer-songwriter Aubrey Logan hails from the picturesque surroundings near Seattle, WA. Raised by her two music-educator parents, she began her artistic endeavors as a child singing in theatre and in church, Thoughtful songwriters like Billy Joel & Carole King influenced her early childhood via her singing mother and trumpet-playing father, as well as the soulful musicianship...

Yaron Herman is a celebrated French-Israeli jazz pianist and composer, widely recognized for his innovative approach to the piano and his ability to blend jazz with influences from classical music, world music, and pop. Born on July 12, 1981, in Tel Aviv, Israel, he initially pursued a career in basketball before an injury led him to the piano at the age of 16. Within just a few years, Herman’s pr...

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 arti...

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 J...

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 jaz...

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 Kil...

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 coll...

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 di...

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 taste...