Improv Exchange Podcast

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...

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 ecologic...

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 Instagr...

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...

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 a...

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 role...

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 tour...

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 fascin...

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, disco...

Over a career spanning more than 25 years, award-winning jazz guitarist Nigel Price has become widely acknowledged as one of the hardest working musicians in the business. Musically, his blend of flowing bebop lines, deep blues sensibility, and his mastery of chording continue to delight audiences and fellow musicians alike. His career highlights include a support show for Gladys Knight at The Roy...

Nick Di Maria is a trumpeter, composer, podcaster, activist, and educator based in New Haven, Connecticut. A graduate of Western Connecticut State University, Nick holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Performance. Nick has been a student Dr. Eddie Henderson since 2003. Other musical mentors include Dave Scott, Jeremy Pelt, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Rich Clymer. Nick also holds a Masters of Science in Musi...

Drummer, composer and bandleader Mareike Wiening has distinguished herself bringing “a planar modulating harmonic language and a propulsive drift” (Giovanni Russonello, New York Times) to the most compelling jazz music of today. Ms. Wiening’s music was described as “thoroughly modern, progressive jazz, Mareike Wiening’s album Crosswalk has many layers that unfold with each repeated hearing; she wi...

For more than forty years, drummer Louis Hayes has been a catalyst for energetic, unrelenting swing in his self-led bands, as well as in those whose respective leaders reads like an encyclopedia of straight-ahead post-bop modern jazz. Hayes himself an authentic architect of post-bop swing, began his professional activities at the tender age of 18. He started with tenor saxophonist, flutist and obo...

Eric Wyatt is a saxophonist who plays tenor, alto, and soprano sax. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Eric was taught music by his dad, Charles Jolly Wyatt, who played in the army band in Germany. His dad moved to Harlem in the early 50’s just in time to play with many of the world’s greatest players. Eric can recall stories of his dad taking him to concerts where he would sometimes drive the band membe...

Trumpeter, composer, and educator Jared Hall hails from Spokane, Washington.  He studied at Whitworth University, the Indiana University Jacobs School Of Music, and The University Of Miami’s Frost School Of Music, where he received the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in 2015. His primary teachers include Terence Blanchard, Joey Tartell, Dan Keberle, Whit Sidener, David Baker, and Brian Lynch, under...

Latin Grammy-winning producer, composer, percussionist, and writer, Barrett Martin, has been playing music professionally for over 30 years, including work on over 120 albums and film soundtracks worldwide. His work can be heard on albums by R.E.M., Queens Of The Stone Age, Mad Season, Screaming Trees, Tuatara, Blues legend CeDell Davis, and recording sessions that range from the Peruvian Amazon,...

CONRAD KORSCH is a New York City based acoustic and electric bassist / multi-instrumentalist / vocalist / musical director / bandleader / composer / producer, and educator. After attending the prestigious Settlement Music School throughout his grade school and high school years in Philadelphia, he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Jazz Bass Performance from Temple University, where he attended on scho...

Soaring, poetic, quicksilver, spontaneous, and instantly identifiable are words used to describe the soprano sound of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. She's been steadfastly developing her singular voice on the soprano saxophone for over 40 years creating a body of music that marks her as an American original. She is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, as well as the possesso...

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 pro...

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 fro...

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...

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, Wy...

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, Th...

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...

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...