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Jazz guitarist Peter Bernstein (b. 1967, New York City) has been a part of the jazz scene in New York and abroad since 1989. During that time he has participated in over 80 recordings and numerous festival, concert and club performances with musicians from all generations. As a leader, Peter has released nine albums and a DVD, Live at Smoke.

He got his first break while attending the New School when he met the legendary guitarist Jim Hall. Hall asked Peter to participate in his Invitational Concert as part of the 1990 JVC Jazz Festival. The event featured such guitarists as John Scofield and Pat Metheny and was release as Live at Town Hall Vol. 2. by Music Masters. Hall noted that Peter “...has paid attention to the past as well as the future. He is the most impressive guitarist I’ve heard. He plays the best of them all for swing, logic, feel and taste.”

Also in 1990, Peter Bernstein was discovered by alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson and took part in the first of four recordings with him. He was a regular member of his group throughout the 1990s. “Some people just have it.” Donaldson said. “...most of the time you have to teach someone what to do, but Peter knows it all.”

Peter has also enjoyed long musical associations with legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb (Cobb’s Mob), as well as organist Larry Goldings and drummer Bill Stewart as a member of their highly acclaimed trio. The New York Times called them “the best organ trio of the last decade”. Together they recorded a dozen of records, all of which display their distinctive sound, whether exploring the depths of jazz standards or playing their original compositions.

From 1995 through 1997, Peter was a member of Joshua Redman’s band and played on Redman’s Freedom in the Groove CD. He played with Diana Krall’s quartet from 1999 through 2001 and with Dr. Lonnie Smith, the legendary organist who made his debut on the George Benson Cookbook albums. He has also recorded five CDs with organist Melvin Rhyne, known for his association with Wes Montgomery. In addition, Peter has appeared in groups led by Nicholas Payton, Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, Tom Harrell, and Eric Alexander.

Current projects include his recent album, Monk, recorded for the newly reactivated Xanadu label. Together with Doug Weiss and Bill Stewart, he put their own spin on the rich legacy of Thelonious Monk.

In September, Bernstein released a solo guitar record, Solo Guitar – Live at Smalls (Smalls Live), an intimate recording that makes you feel like you’re sitting in the front row at Small’s jazz club in New York City.

Linda Manzer, b Toronto, is a Canadian luthier renowned for her archtop, flat-top acoustic guitars and has designed many multi stringed harp guitars.

She received her training for flattop guitar construction from Canadian master Luther Jean Larrivée between 1974 and 1978 and later arch top guitars with Jimmy D’Aquisto in New York. Her greatest claim to fame is that she has and still does build many custom guitars for renowned jazz musician Pat Metheny including the Pikasso which has 42 strings and three necks. Carlos Santana, Stephen Fearing, Julian Lage, Henrik Andersen, Doug Macaskill, Craig Snyder, Milton Nascimento,  Liona Boyd,  Heather Bishop, Bruce Cockburn, Paul Simon, Marie Lynn Hammond, Sherry Shute, John McGale and Gordon Lightfoot have to be mentioned as special customers too.

Blues rock guitar virtuoso, singer-songwriter and producer, Josh Smith, is hailed the world over as a master guitarist with raw talent and power to spare. Blending his signature mix of blues, rock and jazz into dynamic original songs, Smith is known for his incendiary live performances, whether at the Grammy Awards or the Kennedy Center Honors with Mick Jagger, Raphael Saadiq and others. 

Guitarist Steve Cardenas is following in the footsteps of contemporary stylists such as John Scofieldand Pat Metheny. His warm, lyrical sound and frequently edgy improvisations put him in league with young, rock-influenced jazz players like Pete McCann and Ben Monder. 

Originally from Kansas City, Cardenas is currently a busy sideman and leader in New York. He has performed and/or recorded with Steve Million, Maria Muldaur, Mark Isham, Paul McCandless, Jeff Beal, and pop/rock singer Tracy Bonham. He's also made a mark with several notable two-guitar ensembles, teaming up with Kurt Rosenwinkel in Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band as well as the live incarnation of Marc Johnson's Sound of Summer Running band, and with Brad Shepik in drummer Joey Baron's quartet Killer Joey. 

Cardenas has also worked as a music educator at the New School in New York, Musician's Institute in Hollywood, Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Camps, and the University of Missouri.

Born in Los Angeles in 1968, guitarist and composer Anthony Wilson is known for a body of work that moves fluidly across genres. 

The son of legendary jazz trumpeter and bandleader Gerald Wilson, his musical lineage has deeply influenced his creative trajectory, compositional choices, instrumental groupings, and the wide-ranging twelve album discography that blooms out of them. 

His first album — Anthony Wilson (1997) — featured a nine-piece “little big band” and received a Grammy nomination for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Recording. It was followed by Goat Hill Junket (1998), and Adult Themes (2000). His fourth recording with the nonet, Power of Nine (2006), was recognized as one of the top ten jazz albums of the year by the New Yorker.  Wilson’s acclaimed trio albums Our Gang (2001), Savivity (2005), and Jack of Hearts (2009) reimagine and reframe the Hammond organ-based genre of post-bop, soul-inflected jazz. In 2011, Wilson released Seasons, a live record and short film documenting the compositional process and premiere performance of his extended song cycle of the same name, written for and performed on a quartet of luthier John Monteleone’s handcrafted guitars called “The Four Seasons.”  That same year, Wilson released Campo Belo, a collection of original instrumental songs recorded in São Paulo, Brazil.

Traveling into, through, and beyond genres, Frogtown (2016) marked a turning point for Wilson as a composer and his debut as a singer. Renowned producer Mike Elizondo teamed with him to realize this collection of layered, intimate musical stories and portraits. Frogtown sets the stage for Wilson's latest, Songs and Photographs (2018), in which his distilled, personal musical compositions enter into a dialogue with his 35mm photography. The work develops from two intertwined paths, one sonic and one visual, that increasingly play complementary roles in Wilson's creative process.

An inventive soloist and sensitive accompanist, he has been a core member of Diana Krall’s quartet since 2001, after joining her for a series of concerts in Paris at the Olympia Theater, which became the Grammy award winning recording and concert film Live in Paris (2002). 

Over the past two decades, Wilson has joined a diverse roster of jazz masters on their recordings and performances, including Ron Carter, Mose Allison, Bobby Hutcherson, Madeleine Peyroux, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, and Harold Land. And while his footing is firmly rooted in the jazz idiom, Wilson pivots with ease into other genres, having contributed his instrumental texture and improvisational authority to albums by pop music legends Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, Aaron Neville, and Barbra Streisand.

Wilson was awarded the Thelonious Monk Institute International Composers’ Award in 1995. He has also received commissions from Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the International Association of Jazz Education, and the Henry Mancini Institute. In 2018, he was selected as a MacDowell Colony fellow.

Hailing from the Netherlands, Jesse van Ruller is a contemporary jazz guitarist. He is known for his unique sound, virtuoso technique and beautiful compositions. In 1995 he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk Award in Washington . The jury, consisting of Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Pat Martino and Mark Whitfield, was of the opinion that Jesse is one of the most promising talents of his time. In the same year he graduated summa cum laude from the Hilversum Conservatory, where he studied with Wim Overgaauw. Since then he has performed with numerous renowned musicians and ensembles such as Pat Metheny, George Duke, Joe Lovano, Peter Erskine, Mike Stern, Tom Harrell, Philip Catherine, Toots Thielemans, the Roy Hargrove Quintet, Christian McBride, Seamus Blake, Metropole Orchestra, Asko Ensemble, WDR Big Band, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Berliner Philharmoniker. He was nominated for the Dutch Bird and Edison Awards several times and to date has released nine albums as a leader.

As a virtuosic improviser who’s collaborated with many of jazz’s greatest figures, Mimi Fox has earned her spot in the jazz guitar pantheon. But the jazz tradition is only one of the powerful currents feeding her music. With her 11th album as a leader or co-leader, This Bird Still Flies, Fox delivers a seamless but far-ranging album that’s breathtaking it its beauty, emotional immediacy and stylistic reach. The all acoustic recording captures a commanding artist in full -  transforming folk tunes, jazz standards, original compositions and popular songs into exquisitely crafted improvisational vehicles.

Bruce Forman’s life and musical journey provide an American saga that is still in full swing. His Texas origins, his early career in San Francisco and New York, and his years on the road, all contribute to the unique and highly personal vision that he demonstrates today. A monster guitarist, teacher, mentor, and personality, Bruce Forman is known the world over as one of the jazz guitar greats.

Ron Escheté is the consummate master of the seven-string guitar. Whether he is playing bebop, ballads or blues he is a musically sophisticated guitarist who plays with grace and dignity. "Escheté is one of the finest jazz guitarists in L.A. – no small achievement in a region dense with superb players," says Jim Ferguson of JazzTimes. His deft and nimble fingers paint a spectrum of sound so rich that his voicings are often compared with those of a pianist. 20th Century Guitarlikens his sound to that of the great Bill Evans.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, removed at the age of four to the vastness of Southern California, schooled at the University of Southern California and the Manhattan School of Music in jazz and classical music, along with a pilgrimage in India under the guidance of master percussionist, Ustad Alla Rakha, Rez Abbasi is a vivid synthesis of all the above stated influences and genres. Making New York home for the past 25 years, Abbasi is considered by many to be one of the foremost modern jazz guitar players the world over. His most recent album Django-Shift reimagines the compositions of the great Django Reinhardt in a modern setting.