Ishmael Reed

Combining the swing of Count Basie, the beat of Buddy Johnson, the New Orleans lilt of Fats Domino, and the passion of Dinah Washington, the J Street Jumpers are one of the East Coast’s most popular swing bands. They’ve garnered the respect of the Washington music industry as well, evidenced in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 by Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) Wammie Awards wins: Best Big Band – Swing Duo/Group, Best Big Band – Swing Recording and Best Jazz. Their 1998 release, Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby, was on The Washington Post’s list of favorite local CDs of the year.

Kip Hanrahan (born December 9, 1954) is an American jazz music impresario, record producer and percussionist. Hanrahan was born in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in the Bronx to an Irish-Jewish family. He has an unusual role in the albums released under his name, one which he has analogized to that of a film director. He assembles players and materials, combining modern/avant-garde/free jazz figures like Don Pullen and Steve Swallow, Latin jazz players such as Milton Cardona and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, and occasionally rock musicians like Sting, Jack Bruce and Grayson Hugh, also Bassist,singer,song writer,producer Fernando Saunders.