Artists

Philadelphia Experiment

A one-off studio jam featuring native Philadelphia musicians Ahmir Thompson (the Roots, Erykah Badu, Macy Gray, Musiq Soulchild), Christian McBride (McCoy Tyner, Kathleen Battle, Benny Golson, Benny Green, Ray Brown), and Uri Caine (Mickey Roker, Robert "Bootsie" Barnes, Don Byron), the Philadelphia Experiment players met for three breezy September days in 2000 at the Roots' studio space.

Pizzicato Five

Godfathers of the Shibuya-kei scene, Tokyo kitsch-pop deconstructionists Pizzicato Five originally began taking shape as far back as 1979, when university students Yasuharu Konishi and Keitaro Takanami first met at a local music society meeting.

Portishead

Portishead may not have invented trip-hop, but they were among the first to popularize it, particularly in America. Taking their cue from the slow, elastic beats that dominated Massive Attack's Blue Lines and adding elements of cool jazz, acid house, and soundtrack music, Portishead created an atmospheric, alluringly dark sound.

Quincy Jones

In a career spanning over seven decades, Quincy Jones has earned his reputation as a renaissance man of American music. Since entering the industry as an arranger in the early 1950s, he has distinguished himself as a bandleader, solo artist, sideman, songwriter, producer, film composer, and record label executive.

Red Snapper

Red Snapper are notable for a pioneering and evolving synthesis of acoustic and electronic sounds that has drawn from avant-garde jazz, funk, dub, post-punk, and hip-hop.

Richard Bona

Jazz bassist Richard Bona was born and raised in the West African nation of Cameroon, going on to session dates with Joe Zawinul, Regina Carter, and Bob James as well as a two-year stint as musical director for the great Harry Belafonte.

Ronny Jordan

One of the acid jazz movement's most prominent guitarists, London-born Ronny Jordan was widely credited with returning the instrument to its rightful place as a major force in modern-day jazz.

Roy Ayers

Once one of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R&B bandleader in the 1970s and '80s, Roy Ayers' reputation is now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time. A tune like 1972's Move to Groove by the Roy Ayers Ubiquity has a crackling backbeat that serves as the prototype for the shuffling hip-hop groove that became, shall we say, ubiquitous on acid jazz records.