Miles Davis is more than a jazz musician: he is a cultural icon, known even to people who can't tell bebop from fusion. That may seem strange considering that Davis made a career of defying the expectations of critics and audience alike, but it is just one more paradox associated with this mercurial artist.
Blending together funk, jazz, bossa nova, soul, and boogaloo with downbeat and drum'n'bass tendencies, German acid jazz duo Mo' Horizons came together in the late '90s.
The Sheffield-based dance-pop duo Moloko is the end result of Irish-born singer Roisin Murphy's attempt to pick up mixer/producer Mark Brydon at a 1994 party with the come-on, "Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my body."
Monday Michiru stands as one of Japan's finest soul and R&B singers of the 1990s and whose cosmopolitan sensibility and mixed nationality have made her stand out among her contemporaries. Regarded as one of the pioneers of Japanese club music, she was born in 1963 in Tokyo to pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and alto sax jazzman Charlie Mariano but raised in the United States.
As Mondo Grosso, Japanese track-master Shinichi Osawa has acted alone and with various vocalists and collaborators — ranging from Monday Michiru to N'dea Davenport to Tania Maria — to produce some of the most stylish acid jazz, house, and R&B produced in his country during the '90s.
In the past years, Monsieur Dubois has created a strong live reputation with an attractive mix of junglebeats, funk, souljazz and afrogrooves, a.k.a. "danceable hardjazz". With this convincing hybrid, sounding both catchy and sophisticated, Monsieur Dubois has been able to attract an extremely diverse public wherever they show up.
The duo is formed by a couple of twins who play different musical instruments: Francesco (Kekko) at keyboards and Federico (Kikko) at sax, flute and voice. The two brothers, sons of sax player Germano Montefiori, a talented 60’s and 70’s musician, before becoming Montefiori Cocktail, have worked separately. Francesco was a producer of house and breakbeat music, while Federico played sax in many bands, such as Ladri di Biciclette and Good Fellas.
The project founded in spring 2007 has united the best nu jazz forces of Russia. The musicians of Moonglow were born in different parts of the country and joined in St. Petersburg to make fine, delightful and modern music. The musical basis of the project is an accurate and thoughtful electronics from Custo, which was put on delicate harmonies and filled with jazz improvisations.