2010 Syracuse Jazz Fest Artists

Evan Knight began playing saxophone at the age of 11. After only one year, Evan began listening to and transcribing the music of various contemporary jazz artists.

The daughter of a preacher, Kimberly Jordan grew up in Detroit with gospel music all around her. She loved it, but upon leaving Michigan for Howard University in Washington, D.C., Kim decided not to study music.

Since he first burst on to the international scene with Harry Belafonte and The Joe Zawinul Syndicate, music critics worldwide, and Syracuse Jazz Fest Director Frank Malfitano, have enthusiastically hailed Richard Bona as the greatest electric jazz bassist on the planet!

More than 3 decades after making his groundbreaking debut as leader of the pioneering Jeff Lorber Fusion group (which featured Seattle saxophonist Kenny G, then Kenny Gorelick), the Philly-born and bred composer, producer and keyboardist still keeps the vibe fresh and keeps the grooves funky.

KJ Denhert is a unique artist, singer, guitarist and songwriter who calls her music "Urban Folk and Jazz." Her voice is powerful, her lyrics full of insight and her musicianship is impeccable.

Richie Havens possesses one of the most recognizable voices in popular music, and his fiery, poignant, soulful style has remained unique and ageless since he first emerged from the Greenwich Village Folk scene in the early 1960s.

Gil Scott-Heron is an American poet, jazz musician and author. Though known primarily for his late-1970s and early-1980s work as a Spoken-word Soul performer, he is also recognized as a pioneer of modern Hip-Hop.

To sing the Great American Songbook convincingly, it helps to believe in fate. All the legendary composers of standards, like George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Harold Arlen, each had something to say about life’s serendipities.

Sheryl Bailey was 18 when she first saw Emily Remler perform, at the University of Pittsburgh Jazz Festival as part of an all-star combo that included Sonny Rollins and Ron Carter. Inspired by Remler's originality and amazing command of the guitar and by the fact that she was a woman - one of only a handful of female guitarists to have achieved prominence during the entire history of jazz - Bailey was profoundly affected by the experience.

Jazz Virtuoso Michael Kaeshammer has been called a Canadian triple-threat, and an Artist whose entertaining high-energy style is a combination of piano virtuosity, vocal ability and major on stage charisma.

Drawing heavily on Funk, Soul, R&B, Bop and numerous other genres, Toph-E and the Pussycats' repertoire is heavily eclectic, with the band passionately performing everything from Miles Davis' to Jazz and Pop classics made famous by Les McCann and Grover Washington Jr.

When Natalie Cole’s seminal Unforgettable…With Love came out in 1991, the jazz collection set a new standard for reinventing the Great American Songbook. The CD, which captured 6 Grammys, including Album and Record of The Year, spent five weeks at No. 1 and sold more than 8 million copies in the U.S. alone.