VERMONT JAZZ CENTER
Jim Ridl, a New York City-based jazz pianist, composer and teacher, performs and records worldwide with a variety of jazz artists, including The Joe Locke Quartet, The Paul Jost Quartet, and The Dave Liebman Big Band. His own groups perform regularly at the renowned 55 Bar in NYC, and at Brooklyn’s Soapbox Gallery, both venues for creative and original jazz. Jim has 9 recordings of his own, including Ask for the Ancient Path (May 2022), and Standards Live (August 2022), and he has been featured on hundreds of recordings of other artists. Jim is on the faculty at New York Jazz Workshop and The City College of New York, and maintains an active private studio.
Jim was raised on a farm and ranch in North Dakota, and discovered his love for piano and jazz at an early age. He attended the University of Colorado at Denver, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Scoring and Arranging, and was awarded its Student Achievement Award for composing “Ocean Sojourn,” an orchestral tone poem which he performed with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. In Denver, Jim began his professional career performing and touring with local and nationally-recognized musicians, including the Grammy-nominated vocal jazz group, Rare Silk.
https://jimridl.com
Donald Edwards has played across the globe with some of the finest musicians in jazz and other genres. He has now built a reputation all his own. He is a 2018 recipient of the Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works Grant, A Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Jazz Project. After winning the Louisiana Arts Ambassador’s Award in 1994 for Music Composition, Donald Edwards became one of the most sought after drummers on the Baton Rouge/ New Orleans music scene. He grew up playing different kinds of music ranging from marching band, hip-hop and pop to r&b, jazz, funk and gospel music. As a result, Edwards is now called on to play many different genres of music and meets them with creative interpretation and virtuosity. Donald Edwards is among the vanguard of players on the New York scene today. Edwards has 4 recordings as a leader and is also involved in the production of numerous recording projects.