Born in San Rafael, California, George Duke studied the piano at school (where he ran a Les McCann-inspired Latin band) and emerged from the San Francisco Conservatory as a Bachelor of Music in 1967. From 1965-67 he was resident pianist at the Half Note, accompanying musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Kenny Dorham. This grounding served as a musical education for the rest of his life. He arranged for a vocal group, the Third Wave, and toured Mexico in 1968. In 1969, he began playing with French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, using electric piano to accompany Ponty's electric violin. He played on King Kong, an album of music Frank Zappa composed for Ponty. He then joined Zappa's group in 1970, an experience that transformed his music. As he put it, previously he had been too "musically advanced" to play rock 'n' roll piano triplets. Zappa encouraged him to sing and joke and use electronics. Together they wrote "Uncle Remus" for Apostrophe (1972), a song about black attitudes to oppression. His keyboards contributed to a great edition of the Mothers Of Invention - captured on the outstanding Roxy & Elsewhere (1975) - which combined fluid jazz playing with rock and avant-garde sonorities. In 1972, he toured with Cannonball Adderley (replacing Joe Zawinul). Duke had always had a leaning towards soul jazz and after he left Zappa, he went for full-frontal funk. I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry (1975) combined a retrospective look at black musical forms with warm good humor and freaky musical ideas; a duet with Johnny "Guitar" Watson was particularly successful. Duke started duos with fusion power-drummer Billy Cobham, and virtuoso bass player Stanley Clarke, playing quintessential 70s jazz rock - amplification and much attention to "chops" being the order of the day. Duke always had a sense of humor: "Dukey Stick" (1978) sounded like a Funkadelic record. The middle of the road beckoned, however, and by Brazilian Love Affair (1980) he was providing high-class background music. In 1982, Dream On showed him happily embracing west-coast hip easy listening. However, there has always been an unpredictable edge to Duke. The band he put together for the Wembley Nelson Mandela concert in London backed a stream of soul singers, and his arrangement of "Backyard Ritual" on Miles Davis' Tutu (1986) was excellent. He collaborated with Clarke again for the funk-styled 3 and in 1992 he bounced back with the jazz fusion Snapshot, followed by the orchestral suite Enchanted Forest in 1996, and Is Love Enough? in 1997. Further albums have followed, showing that Duke was on a creative roll at the turn of the century, and beyond.

Grammy winner Luciana Souza is one of Jazz’s leading singers and interpreters. Hailing from São Paulo, Brazil, she grew up in a family of Bossa Nova innovators. Her work as a performer transcends traditional boundaries around musical styles, offering solid roots in jazz, sophisticated lineage in world music, and an enlightened approach to classical repertoire and new music. As a leader, Luciana Souza has eight acclaimed releases including her four Grammy nominated records "Brazilian Duos," 2002, "North and South," 2003, and "Duos II," 2005, and “Tide,” 2009. Her debut recording for Universal/Verve (produced by her husband, Larry Klein), "The New Bossa Nova," (2007) was met with critical acclaim (Billboard Latin Jazz Album of the Year) and on “Tide,” Luciana “continued her captivating journey as a uniquely talented vocalist who organically crosses genre borders. Her music soulfully reflects, wistfully regrets, romantically woos, joyfully celebrates… (Billboard).” Souza has performed and recorded with greats like Herbie Hancock (on his Grammy winning record, River – The Joni Letters), Paul Simon, Maria Schneider, Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Hermeto Pascoal, and many others. Luciana Souza’s singing has been called "transcendental, "perfect, "and of "unparalleled beauty." Entertainment Weekly said, "Her voice traces a landscape of emotion that knows no boundaries.

Singer/guitarist Raul Midón is a contemporary soul singer whose impassioned acoustic percussive guitar playing -- a mix of jazz, rock, classical, and flamenco -- has gotten him just as much attention as his silky, soulful tenor singing. Blind since birth, Midón was born in New Mexico, to an Argentine father and African American mother. Midón also uses his improvisational mouth horn technique, in which he creates a bebop “trumpet” solo entirely with his lips, earning himself a spontaneous burst of mid-song applause from the audience in the process. Midón funnels all that creativity and fiery passion into his third album, Synthesis, which he recorded in Los Angeles in June 2009 with legendary producer and bassist Larry Klein, who is noted for his work with such luminaries as Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, and Peter Gabriel. A genre-defying blend of soul, pop, jazz, folk, and Latin elements, Synthesis showcases Midón’s evolution as an artist as he sets some of his more biting insights about betrayal, fear, loss, and the American Dream to deceptively up-tempo swinging rhythms and deliriously catchy melodies. Now comes Synthesis, which Midón began working on last summer, demoing the songs at his home studio using a PC-based software program called Sonar, which makes Windows accessible to blind people. Synthesis will be released by Universal in fall 2009 in Europe and Japan and in Spring 2010 in the United States.