YOUR TEACHING TEAM

Each brilliant in their own right... together they're a formidable teaching team with a vast knowledge across all stylistic boundaries.

ARTISTS

KURT ROSENWINKEL

American composer, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and producer Kurt Rosenwinkel is one of the most celebrated musical voices in jazz and is widely renowned as one of the most distinctive and gifted guitarists to have ever played the instrument.
 
Rosenwinkel’s harmonically rich, rhythmically free, and incomparably fluid style has made him one of the most important jazz musicians to emerge in the last thirty years, and his groundbreaking sonic conception of the guitar has changed the way the instrument has been perceived and played ever since. His recordings as a bandleader in early aughts on Verve Records were strikingly original releases that reshaped contemporary jazz in the 21st century. The Enemies of Energy (2000), The Next Step (2001), Heartcore (2003) and Deep Song (2005), would redefine the sound of jazz for a new era, deftly fusing jazz’s deep acoustic traditions with electronics, digital manipulation, programmed beats, and utterly modern harmonic and compositional structures that even today we can still only reference as ‘Rosenwinkelian’.
 
He continues this freethinking experimentalism with albums like Our Secret World (2010), in collaboration with the Orchestra de Jazz Matosinhos, the “contemporary classic” (Kelman, All About Jazz) Star of Jupiter (2012), and Caipi (2017), a Brazilian influenced album with Rosenwinkel taking on most of the instrumental and vocal duties.

He continues to reinvent jazz standards on Reflections (2008) and Angels Around (2020). Rosenwinkel’s most recent releases include Kurt Rosenwinkel Plays Piano (2021), an album of solo piano pieces that offers an intimate look at Rosenwinkel’s relationship to the piano and how it formed his compositional mind, and a collaboration with pianist Jean-Paul Brodbeck entitled The Chopin Project (2022) which finds him reimagining Chopin compositions with Brodbeck in a jazz context. His latest upcoming album, Berlin Baritone is a solo improvisational album on baritone guitar, and a uniquely intimate release, where listeners get to hear Rosenwinkel discover the timbral world of his newfound instrument with reverence and curiosity. Rosenwinkel’s prolific output has always retained his unique voice, and each release is a constellation in his singular musical universe, always expanding outwards, to reach for the next beautiful sound.

In addition to his genre-defining work as a bandleader, Rosenwinkel is also an accomplished sideman, with over 150 credits to his name. His first exposure to international touring was with Gary Burton, the legendary vibraphonist who hired him out of Berklee College in 1992. That same year he joined Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band, and entered into a decade-long musical relationship with the drummer that helped usher in a new era in Motian’s already illustrious career.
 
These collaborative relationships, along with tours as Joe Henderson’s guitarist in 1997 established Rosenwinkel early in his career as a player who had the blessing of giants of the jazz world. His work with Brian Blade Fellowship, Mark Turner, Joshua Redman, Seamus Blake, Donald Fagen, and hosts of other jazz luminaries further cemented his star power.
 
Rosenwinkel’s success has also extended far beyond the world of jazz. He has been a member of the Crossroads Guitar Festival family since 2013, when he was personally invited by blues and rock legend Eric Clapton to perform and share the stage with him. The iconic guitarist who called Rosenwinkel “a genius” also featured on Rosenwinkel’s Caipi (2017), playing on the song “Little Dream”. Rosenwinkel’s collaboration with Q-Tip on The Renaissance (2008) and Kamaal the Abstract (2009) showed that Rosenwinkel’s playing had breadth that extended comfortably into hip-hop that has led to performances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with The Roots, and a collaboration with internet sensations DOMi and JD BECK.

In the winter of 2016, Rosenwinkel formed the independent music label Heartcore Records with the focused intention of signing and promoting a new generation of musicians whose exacting standards and creative passions equal his own. Over the last few years Heartcore has released a series of online masterclasses taught by Rosenwinkel that leads viewers through deep theoretical, compositional, and technical explorations of musical topics with humor and approachability. Heartcore Records has also allowed Rosenwinkel to flourish in another dimension of his ever-evolving musical practice as a record producer of other artists, while still consistently putting out his own music that blazes new pathways in the annals of modern jazz. 

JOHN SCOFIELD

John Scofield’s guitar work has influenced jazz since the late 70’s and is going strong today. Possessor of a very distinctive sound and stylistic diversity, Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post-bop, funk edged jazz, and R & B.

Born in Ohio and raised in suburban Connecticut, Scofield took up the guitar at age 11, inspired by both rock and blues players. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. After a debut recording with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Scofield was a member of the Billy Cobham-George Duke band for two years. In 1977 he recorded with Charles Mingus, and joined the Gary Burton quartet. He began his international career as a bandleader and recording artist in 1978. From 1982–1985, Scofield toured and recorded with Miles Davis. His Davis stint placed him firmly in the foreground of jazz consciousness as a player and composer.

Since that time he has prominently led his own groups in the international Jazz scene, recorded over 30 albums as a leader (many already classics) including collaborations with contemporary favorites like Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Eddie Harris, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Mavis Staples, Government Mule, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano and Phil Lesh. He’s played and recorded with Tony Williams, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Dave Holland, Terumasa Hino among many jazz legends. Throughout his career Scofield has punctuated his traditional jazz offerings with funk-oriented electric music. All along, the guitarist has kept an open musical mind.

Touring the world approximately 200 days per year with his own groups, he is an Adjunct Professor of Music at New York University, a husband, and father of two.

NELS CLINE

A true guitar polymath, Nels Cline’s recording and performing career spans jazz, rock, punk and experimental musics with over 200 recordings, including 30 as a leader, to his credit. His many accolades include being anointed by Rolling Stone as both one of 20 New Guitar Gods and one of the top 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Born in Los Angeles on January 4, 1956, Cline and his twin brother, drummer Alex, formed a teenage rock band called Homogenized Goo, inspired by the groundbreaking psychedelic guitar work of Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression,” Jeff Beck’s solo on The Yardbirds’ “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago,” George Harrison’s playing at the end of the Beatles “Strawberry Fields Forever” and Pete Townshend’s feedback squalls on “I Can See for Miles.” Later rock guitar influences for Nels included Steve Howe from Yes, Jan Akkerman from Focus and Roger McGuinn from The Byrds. “I just loved psychedelia — reverse guitar stuff, Indian-type drones, distortion and feedback. It all created a sense of the mystery and magic of sound that maybe set the stage for me to not to just play straight rock my whole life.”

Electric Miles Davis, specifically In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Live/Evil, On the Corner and Get Up With It, would open the door for Cline to some new musical horizons, along with late period John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders and Albert Ayler. Nels and his brother Alex would eventually come under the tutelage of such West Coast free jazz icons as multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia and bassist-pianist-composer Eric Von Essen, who played duets with Cline on the guitarist’s first recording, 1980’s Elegies. There followed a series of recordings with New York avant-garde alto saxophonist Tim Berne (The Five Year Plan, 7X, Spectres) and with Berne’s mentor Julius Hemphill (1984’s live Georgia Blue) before Cline hit a prolific streak in the ‘90s with a string of releases by the Nels Cline Trio. The guitarist’s 1999 release, Interstellar Space Revisited (The Music of John Coltrane), his explosive duet with drummer Gregg Bendian, gained a lot of critical attention in the jazz world. He followed with a string of eight uncompromising releases through the 2000s for the Cryptogramophone label, including 2002’s debut by the Nels Cline Singers, Instrumentals, and their 2004 follow-up, The Giant Pin, that put him on the avant-garde map.

Cline’s profile was elevated to a whole other level after joining Wilco in 2004, subsequently appearing on 2005’s Kicking Television: Live in Chicago in 2007’s Sky Blue Sky, 2009’s Wilco (The Album), 2011’s The Whole Love, 2014’s Alpha Mike Foxtrot, 2015’s Star Wars, 2016’s Schmilco and 2019’s Ode to Joy. For his ambitious 2016 Blue Note debut, Lovers, Nels defied all expectations by delivering a sumptuous chamber- orchestra feast of mood music that was an unapologetically romantic paean to the Great American Songbook, inspired by his muses Bill Evans, Jim Hall, Gil Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Sonic Youth and Henry Mancini. For his 2018 follow-up on Blue Note, Currents, Constellations, he pared it down to a quartet, dubbed The Nels Cline 4, and showcased a tight two-guitar interplay with his six-string partner Julian Lage on some heated collective improvisations across a wide range of moods. His 2016 double album debut on Blue Note, Lovers, was called “quietly ravishing” by The New York Times, “stunning” by Downbeat and “wildly inventive by Rolling Stone while his 2018 follow-up, Currents, Constellations, was called “vibrant, adventurous…a skronking, shredding, shapeshifting good time” by Stereogum. Joined by his upstart crew of Skerik, Brian Marsella, Trevor Dunn, Scott Amendola, and Cyro Baptista, The Nels Cline Singers take things up a notch on Share the Wealth, his third Blue Note release.

MIKE STERN

 One of the great jazz guitarists of his generation, Mike Stern has the unique ability to play with the finesse and lyricism of Jim Hall, the driving swing of Wes Montgomery and the turbulent, overdriven attack of Jimi Hendrix. Growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, Stern revered all three of those guitar immortals, along with such potent blues guitarists as Albert and B.B. King. Aspects of those seminal influences can be heard in his playing on the 18 recordings he has released as a leader or in his acclaimed sideman work for Miles Davis, Billy Cobham, the Brecker Brothers, Jaco Pastorius, Steps Ahead, David Sanborn, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Joe Henderson and the all-star Four Generations of Miles band.

Stern’s latest Concord Jazz release, Eleven, is an encounter with Grammy-winning keyboardist-composer-producer Jeff Lorber. Co-produced by bassist Jimmy Haslip, who had previously worked with the guitarist on the Yellowjacket’s 2008 album, Lifecycle, this lively collaboration finds Stern at the peak of his powers, following on the heels of 2017’s acclaimed Trip, his triumphant return to recording after a freak accident that threatened to end his career. The multiple Grammy-nominated guitarist was hailing a cab outside his apartment in Manhattan July 3, 2016 when he tripped over some hidden construction debris left in the street, fracturing both of his humerus bones (the long bones that run from the shoulder to the elbow) in the fall. Left with significant nerve damage in his right hand which prevented him from doing the simplest tasks, including holding a pick, Stern faced a series of surgeries and subsequent physical therapy before he could regain control of his nerve-damaged picking hand. And while Trip represented a strong comeback, the intrepid guitarist takes things up a notch on Eleven.

“When the idea was floated for this project, I asked a bunch of cats who worked with Jeff, like Randy Brecker, Dave Weckl and Bob Franceschini, and they all said, ‘He’s cool, he throws down, he can really get it going.’ And they’re right,” said Stern. “Jeff’s got a strong rhythmic groove and he comps really well on the Fender Rhodes, which is kind of his signature sound. And I feel like his music really comes more from soul music than smooth jazz. That Philly soul thing is definitely in some of his tunes on this record.”

Added Lobber of their first collaboration together, “Mike’s just a bebop wizard, he’s got an incredible jazz feeling. And by the same token, he’s got the rock and blues thing covered too. He’s on both sides of the musical spectrum. So when I heard he was up for it, I was delighted to have a chance to work with him in the studio on this project. And I think we really hit it off musically as well as personally.”

One of the top guitarists in jazz since his breakthrough days with Miles Davis' celebrated comeback band ofthe early 1980s, Stern has earned the respect of colleagues and critics alike while also exerting a towering influence on a generation of aspiring players. A guitarist of formidable technique, he continues to awe and inspire six-string aficionados with his seamless blend of bebop facility, scorching rock intensity and uncommon lyricism. As Jon Chappell of Guitar magazine noted, “Stern is not only a magician of the fretboard but a heartfelt and mature composer of great depth.” By combining the legato approach of jazz saxophone greats like John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson with a few touches from the rock camp (i.e., distortion and delay pedals along with some urgent string bending, courtesy of his boyhood blues heroes B.B. King and Buddy Guy), Stern has successfully fashioned a singular voice that comfortably occupies both rock and jazz worlds.

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LENI STERN

Leni Stern was named one of the “50 Most Sensational Female Guitarists of All Time” in Guitar Player magazine’s 50th anniversary issue in 2017, with the publication aptly dubbing her “a genre-defying adventurer.” Leni’s example shines beyond just prowess on her instrument. The pursuit of her career across more than four decades has been in effect a political act – a practice in strength and defiance to be a woman and a bandleader, a female electric guitarist and a composer, an artist who produces her own albums and manages her own career. Moreover, given our recent political climate, it is now more essential than ever to celebrate the immigrant experience that brought Leni to the U.S. from Germany and her bandmates from Senegal and Argentina. Leni’s inspiration has long been the interconnectedness of music, history and our humanity. She says: “Music is one of the truest, most beautiful expressions of the human spirit, crossing borders, dissolving tribalism, binding us together – if we let it.”

Leni has been on an evolutionary road over the past decade and a half, as she fused her long-honed contemporary jazz sound with a deeply felt exploration of West African styles. She has traveled and studied extensively in Mali and Senegal, performing with the likes of iconic singer-songwriter Salif Keita and other African notables. The Munich-bred New Yorker’s trans-Atlantic journeys have yielded a fresh, personal idiom, one where progressive virtuosity blends seamlessly with age-old folk traditions. Leni’s trio with bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Eladji Alioune Faye – both natives of Senegal – released the albums 3 in 2018 and Jelell in 2013, along with figuring into the expansive cast of her Dakar Suite of 2016. Now the trio has become a quartet with the addition of Argentinian keyboardist Leo Genovese, a highly regarded talent on the New York scene as both a leader and as a collaborator with the likes of Esperanza Spalding and Jack DeJohnette. Leni’s first album with her quartet – released in summer 2020 and aptly titled 4, for showcasing the new foursome – drew on the crystalline guitar, West African rhythms and multilingual songs that listeners know from her recent string of releases, with Genovese’s improvisational fire and hints of South American lyricism now integrated into the mix. The result earned 4 glowing reviews in both DownBeat and JazzTimes, among other publications.

The newest album from Leni is Dance, to be released in June 2021. A product of pandemic times, Dance was written and rehearsed in autumn 2020 and then recorded, under safe conditions, at Shelter Island Sound in December 2020, with Leni producing. For those in need of music to purge the pandemic blues, Dance fits the bill perfectly, brimming as it does with rhythmic joie de vivre and hum-along melody. The album sees Stern again fronting her cross-cultural New York quartet, featuring Genovese, Ba and Faye. One of Leni’s confreres from her days playing in Salif Keita’s band, Haruna Samake, also added his harp-like kamele n’goni to several tracks from afar and co-wrote one song with Leni, the buoyant “Kono” (“Bird”). Dance – Leni’s 23rd album since 1986 and surely her most irresistible to date – is another set of hook-heavy, multilingual songs colored with a blend of international rhythms and Leni’s jazzy, ever-melodious six-string sound. The release of Dance will be preceded by multiple singles, the first being the swaying, prayer-like “Yah Rakhman,” written by Leni and Faye. Other Dance highlights include the freshly arranged, richly harmonized traditional West African griot tune “Daouda Saane” and the hard-grooving, Genovese-penned “Kani” (“Spicy Pepper”), which includes some characteristically high-flying solos by the pianist.

About the new album, Leni says: “Well, first of all, the music we made is so bouncy – the rhythms just took over! You can’t keep still, playing or listening – that’s why I titled it Dance. But it felt special just to be in the studio. Simply getting together to make music is something to cherish, now more than ever – you can’t take anything for granted. Some of these conditions, though, I’m used to… I’ve worked a lot in Africa over the years, and health precautions were just a part of being there, taking care not to catch malaria or dengue fever. That’s part of the reality of life there. Trying to make the best of things during a lockdown has also been part of my experience. I made my album Smoke, No Fire in Mali during the military coup there in 2012, with curfews and all the anxiety. When the world around you is threatened, it creates a sense of urgency and focus. We made Dance like that, but trying to invoke a spirit of joy – and resilience.”

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WOLFGANG MUTHSPIEL

The guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel (*1965) lives in Vienna and is considered one of the most influential guitarists of his generation. After being classically trained on the violin, he discovered his love for guitar at the age of 15. An interest in both his own and improvised music eventually led him to focus on jazz. After studying with Mick Goodrick at the New England Conservatory and then later at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he toured with the Gary Burton Quintet for two years, establishing an excellent reputation in the jazz scene. Starting in the mid-1990s, he lived and worked in the jazz capital of New York. He ventured into the world of pop music with the singer Rebekka Bakken, while also pursuing the electronic project Muthspiel/Muthspiel with his brother. He has also been a regularly sought-after sideman for artists such as Trilok Gurtu, Dhafer Youssef, Youssou N’Dour, Maria Joao, Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, Paul Motian, Bob Berg, Gary Peacock, Don Alias, Larry Grenadier, John Patitucci, Dieter Ilg, the Vienna Art Orchestra, and many more.

In 2000, he founded the Material Records label, which has released numerous recordings of artists in an international format. After a European tour with his new quartet (2008) and the duo project Friendly Travelers, in collaboration with the drummer Brian Blade (2008), Muthspiel devoted himself more and more to the trio MGT (Muthspiel – Grigoryan – Towner), which, after several concert tours, released the highly acclaimed debut album From a Dream. In addition, he has composed pieces for various ensembles, such as the Klangforum Wien and, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Joseph Haydn’s death in 2009, a commissioned work for the Esterhazy Foundation. He has produced recordings of young musicians, and since 2004, he has led the guitar programme of the Basel University of Music FHNW.

In 2017, Muthspiel founded the Focus Year program at the Jazzcampus Basel and has since been artistic director of this globally unique year-long programme of intensive musical exploration.

In June 2012, the recording of the project Vienna Naked, a song programme composed by Muthspiel for guitar and voice, was released.

Muthspiel made his debut with MGT in 2013 with the album Travel Guide on the renowned Munich label ECM. In 2014, he made his debut as a band leader at ECM. The trio recording Driftwood with Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier garnered huge critical praise and in 2014, Muthspiel was given a contract for his own concert series at the Konzerthaus Wien. The Vienna World project was followed by another vocal recording in 2015, for which he performed and recorded with eighteen musicians in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, New York, Sweden and Vienna.

Rising Grace was released on ECM Records in autumn 2016. This quintet recording with Brad Mehldau, Ambrose Akinmusire, Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier adorned many of the bestof lists of 2016, was given five out of five stars by DownBeat magazine, and led to the Wolfgang Muthspiel Quintet playing numerous sold-out concerts worldwide. In 2018, the quintet performed and recorded Where The River Goes, with Eric Harland on drums, which led to many more performances and concerts.

The Wolfgang Muthspiel Large Ensemble was launched in 2019, which led to a programme consisting of pieces by Muthspiel in new arrangements by Guillermo Klein the following year. The 19-member ensemble combined European jazz legends with virtuoso representatives of chamber music, and toured and performed in the autumn of the same year in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and the Wiener Konzerthaus, among others.

Recorded during a joint tour of Japan in 2018 with Scott Colley and Brian Blade, the trio album Angular Blues was released in the spring of 2020. Planned US and EU concerts have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Muthspiel’s numerous awards include the Hans Koller Prize for Musician of the Year and the award for European Jazz Musician of the Year 2003. In addition, Musicians magazine has selected him as one of the “top 10 jazz guitarists of the world”. December 2020

In 2021 he received the German Jazz Prize in the Category „String Instruments International“.

GILAD HEKSELMAN

Gilad Hekselman is one of the leading voices in jazz guitar. Only a few years after his arrival to NY in 2004, this native Israeli was already sharing stages with some of the greatest artists in the New York City jazz scene including Chris Potter, Eric Harland, Fred Hersch, Mark Turner, Anat Cohen, Ari Hoenig, Esperanza Spalding, Jeff Ballard, Ben Wendel, Gretchen Parlato, Ben Williams, Avishai Cohen, Tigran Hamasyan, Aaron Parks and Becca Stevens among many others.

In May 2019, Hekselman featured his quartet at the legendary NYC venue The Village Vanguard. He has also been playing all other major jazz clubs in New York City, including the Blue Note, The Jazz Standard, Dizzy's Club and Smalls. He is constantly touring world-wide and has played most noteworthy jazz festivals and venues including Montreux, North Sea, Montreal & SFJazz to name a few.

Hekselman has released 9 critically-acclaimed records as a band-leader, many of which have made it into 'best of the year' lists on NY Times, Downbeat Magazine, Amazon, All About Jazz and many other publications. His 10th record, Far Star, was released on Edition Records in May 2022. It's an all-original album in which Hekselman plays many instruments, and it features special guests such as Eric Harland, Shai Maestro, Ziv Ravitz and more. The record release will be celebrated with a week-long engagement at the Village Vanguard in NYC at the end of March 2022.

Gilad is the recipient of several prestigious awards and recognitions. In 2017, Gilad placed first in the Rising Star category of Downbeat Magazine. That same year, he won the 7 Virtual Jazz Club international competition 2017. In 2018 Gilad was asked by guitar legend Pat Metheny to perform as part of his NEA Award ceremony at The Kennedy Center, alongside some of Metheny's other favorite young guitar players. Gilad is also the winner of the 2005 Gibson Montreux International Guitar Competition, which led to a string of performances including opening for guitar legend Paco de Lucia with his trio at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2006.

Gilad began his prolific recording career in 2006 with the release of his debut album, SplitLife (Smalls Records), recorded with bassist Joe Martin and drummer Ari Hoenig. It received rave reviews from the press as did his second album, Words Unspoken (LateSet Records), recorded and released in 2008 with Joe Martin, drummer Marcus Gilmore and tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm.

In 2009, Gilad recorded three tracks for Walt Disney Records, one of which was included in the record Everybody Wants To Be a Cat (2011). The album features versions of Disney songs played by a top-shelf lineup of musicians including Dave Brubeck, Joshua Redman, Esperanza Spalding, Diane Reeves, Roy Hargrove, Kurt Rosenwinkel, The Bad Plus and many other jazz legends.

Born in Israel in 1983, Gilad studied classical piano from age 6 and began studying guitar at the age of 9. From age 12 to 14 he performed regularly with the band of a weekly children's television show. He attended the prestigious Thelma Yellin School of Arts, graduating with excellence from the jazz department at age 18. Gilad received the America - Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship for studies abroad to attend The New School in New York, where he completed his BFA in performing arts in 2008.

CAMILA MEZA

A fluidly inventive Chilean jazz guitarist and singer/songwriter, Camila Meza makes ambitious, lyrical music that combines progressive fusion, post-bop, and Latin American folk traditions. It's a sophisticated sound born out of her love for artists like Pat Metheny, Milton Nascimento, and Joni Mitchell. Meza first garnered attention with her 2007 debut, Skylark, before moving to New York. Since then, she has collaborated on projects with other boundary-pushing artists like Ryan Keberle, Aaron Goldberg, and Fabian Almazan. Applying her distinctive approach to jazz and pop standards, as well as her own emotive original pieces, Meza has garnered widespread acclaim for her genre-crossing albums, including 2009's Retrato, 2016's Traces, and 2019's ebulliently orchestral Ambar.

Born in 1985 in Santiago, Meza grew up in a creative, intellectually minded family the daughter of two journalists. Her father, who also played piano, encouraged her to play music. She also drew early inspiration from her brother, a drummer, who introduced her to prog-rock. By her teens, Meza was taking guitar lessons and listening to music by Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, as well as singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell. At 15, she formed a rock band with friends from school. She eventually discovered jazz, especially the genre-bending work of Pat Metheny, who quickly became a major influence. Soon, Meza was studying the styles of other influential guitarists like George Benson, John McLaughlin, and John Scofield. She also developed a deep passion for Latin American music traditions, including artists like Victor Jara, Milton Nascimento, and Mercedes Sosa. Along with playing live shows, she studied with noted Chilean artists Jorge Vidal and Jorge Díaz. In 2007, she released her debut solo album, Skylark. 

In 2009, Meza moved to New York City to attend the New School, where she further honed her skills studying with guitarists Peter Bernstein, Vic Juris, and Steve Cardenas. That same year, she released her sophomore album as leader, Retrato, which featured her original songs, alongside covers by Luiz Bonfa, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, and more. It was around this time that she also began to branch out, developing close creative relationships with artists like Ryan Keberle, Lucas Pino, Fabian Almazan, and others. An EP, Prisma, arrived in 2013 and found Meza working with pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Pablo Menares, drummer Clarence Penn, and saxophonist John Ellis. 

In 2016, Meza made her Sunnyside debut with Traces, singing in English and Spanish. The album featured contributions by Shai Maestro, Matt Penman, Kendrick Scott, Sachal Vasandani, and others. It earned Meza two Independent Music Awards, including Best Adult Contemporary Album and Best Latin song for "Para Volar." She returned in 2019 with the orchestral-string-inflected Ambar on Sony Masterworks, which again found her playing her own songs, alongside selections by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque, and others.

RODNEY JONES

In 1976, Jones began touring with Dizzy Gillespie. He joined the Maceo Parker Band in 1989. Jones’ albums include The Liberation of Contemporary Jazz Guitar, Articulation, (Verve) When You Feel the Love, The “X” Field, Right Now!, (Blue Note) The Undiscovered Few, Soul Manifesto, Soul Manifesto Live, Dreams and Stories, and A Thousand Small Things. He has collaborated with Ruth Brown, Lena Horne, Jimmy McGriff, Jaki Byard, Chico Hamilton, Lucky Peterson, Kenny Burrell, Lonnie Smith, Ray Brown, Billy Strayhorn, and others. In 2001, Jones began teaching at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2007, he joined the faculty of The Juilliard School as a professor of jazz guitar studies where he served for 12 years. Jones’ book Hip Guitar Lines: The Lines, Fingerings, and Ideas That Will Transform Your Playing was published in 2020. Jones owns New Tide Music.

JOEL HARRISON

Guitarist, composer, arranger, lyricist, writer, educator, and vocalist Joel Harrison has “created a new blueprint for jazz” (New Orleans Times-Picayune). A Guggenheim Fellow (2010) whose compositions have been commissioned by Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, New Music USA, the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, Harrison is a two-time winner of the Jazz Composers Alliance Composition Competition and has appeared repeatedly on DownBeat Magazine’s “Rising Star” poll.

His twenty-two releases as a leader showcase his prowess as a shapeshifting composer, with works for orchestra, string quartet, solo cello, and percussion as well as the PASIC award-winning marimba solo Fear of Silence. Notable releases include Free Country, featuring Norah Jones and David Binney; the recent America at War for jazz orchestra; String Choir: The Music of Paul Motian; and Search, featuring Donny McCaslin. His ever-surprising body of work seamlessly connects multiple American traditions. Harrison’s music may be founded on jazz but veers into classical, rock, country, and all manner of American roots music. Succinctly described by the New York Times as “protean… brilliant,” he is also an active film composer, having worked on the Oscar-nominated Traffic Stop and the Sundance awardee Southern Comfort.

A former student of Jimmy Wyble and Mick Goodrick, Harrison is the founder and director of the Alternative Guitar Summit, a yearly festival devoted to new and unusual guitar music. The festival has featured such artists as Fred Frith, Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, and Pat Metheny, who has called the Summit “one of the most interesting and distinguished forums for guitar on the planet.”

www.alternativeguitarsummit.com

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