Artists

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  Azeem

  Azeem is on Mayhem Mystics and Mayhem Mystics/Outbreaks, and can also be found on a track from DJ Zeph’s release, Sunset Salvage (Formerly Sunset Scavenger). He was on the 1994 Lollapolooza tour, sharing the stage with George Clinton, A Tribe Called Quest, and the Beastie Boys.

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  Babak Tondre

  Babak Tondre or simply 'Tondre' is a musician/composer, who sings, plays guitar, bass, and keyboards and also is well known for his percussion skills.

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  Big Black

  Big Black (born Daniel Ray) is a master musician percussionist and conga player. During the 1960s he often worked with “jazz giants” Randy Weston, Freddie Hubbard, Ray Bryant, Johnny Barracuda, Junior Cook, Eric Dolphy and Dizzy Gillespie.

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  Calvin Keys

  Calvin Keys was a jazz guitar legend for over 50 years, and has toured with Ray Charles, the Jimmy Trio, Jimmy McGriff, Jack McDuff, and Groove Holmes.

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  Counterweight

  Producer Gregory Howe returns with Counterweight, a collaborative offering of ten new songs following the success and critical reception of Throttle Elevator Music. Much of the T.E.M. personnel are reunited, with bassist/composer Matt Montgomery and drummer Mike Hughes (both also heard on late guitarist Larry Coryell's Wide Hive release Heavy Feel) joining trumpeter Erik Jekabson (Area J, Throttle IV, and Retrorespective) and the welcome addition of Bay Area heavies Mike Ramos on guitar and Kasey Knudsen on saxophone.

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  Craig Taborn

  Craig Taborn is an American Pianist and keyboardist with several solo recordings on ECM records.

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  Cubik and Origami

  Cubik and Origami balance up-tempo dance grooves with chill downtempo and weave together a solid debut effort that is reminiscent of early Kraftwerk or, more recently, Poets of Rhythm.

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  dissent

  Gregory Howe and Nathalie Sanchez combine with Matt Montgomery and Matt Cunitz to create four albums of subtle harmonies and swirling dance tracks.

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  DJ Quest

  DJ Quest is one of the Bay Area’s most reputable turntablists and has collaborated with may artists including but not limited to: Dan The Automator, Blackalicious, Rob Swift (Executioners), DJ Zeph, and Sacred Hoop.

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  DJ Zeph

  Equally celebrated as a producer, engineer, and turntablist, DJ Zeph’s career is on the steady rise. The momentum has continued with Zeph taking home the honor of “Best DJ/Turntablist” at the SF Weekly Music Awards in 2002.

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  Doug Rowan

  Doug Rowan is an American Saxophonist who has toured, recorded, and performed with Boz Scaggs, Average White Band, and the Pacific Mambo Orchestra.

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  Erik Jekabson

  Erik Jekabson is a freelance trumpet player, composer, arranger and educator living in the San Francisco Bay Area who has performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman.

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  Gregory Howe

  Gregory Howe is a producer, engineer, musician and owner and founder of Wide Hive Records.

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  Harvey Mandel

  A pioneer of modern electric blues from Chicago, Harvey Mandel developed and mastered sustained and controlled feedback, displaying both extroversion and musical virtuosity.

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  Henry Franklin, The Skipper

  Henry Franklin is a jazz double-bassist who is perhaps best known for his solo albums The Skipper and The Skipper at Home on cult label Blackjazz Records.

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  JRK

  Following in the well-established footsteps of Variable Unit, DJ Zeph, and DJ Quest, JRK is an illuminating beat designer that crunches soul and rock into a Hip-Hop envelope with a uniquely raw and inspired touch.

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  Kamasi Washington

  Kamasi Washington is featured Saxophonist on Both Throttle Elevator Music and Phil Ranelin's Perseverance.

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  Kasey Knudsen

  Kasey Knudsen is a San Francisco-based saxophonist, composer, and educator.

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  Kat Ouano

  Kat Ouano plays keys for Plate Fork Knife Spoon, and on Variable Unit’s Seven Grain, Handbook for the Apocalypse, Cold Flow and Calvin Keys’ Vertical Clearance release.

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  Larry Coryell

  Larry Coryell deserves a special place in the history books, bringing what amounted to a nearly alien sensibility to jazz electric guitar playing in the 1960s, a hard-edged, cutting tone, phrasing and note-bending that owed as much to blues, rock and even country as it did to earlier, smoother bop influences.

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  Laurel Thomsen

  Laurel Thomsen is an American violinist, composer, and musical educator who has performed and recorded both symphony orchestras and singer-songwriters alike since 1998.

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  Lumpy

  Lumpy is a gifted drummer who appears on both Throttle Elevator Music and Larry Coryell's 'The Lift".

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  Matt Montgomery

  Matt Montgomery plays the bass, writes music, and sometimes plays piano/keyboards. He has worked with many accomplished musicians and toured throughout the United States and Europe.

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  Mike Blankenship

  Mike Blankenship is a Bay Area based keyboardist and artist currently composing and performing regularly with Michael Franti and Spearhead.

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  Mike Clark

  Mike Clark is an American drummer and recording artist who has recorded and toured with Headhunters (member), Herbie Hancock (Thrust), Tony Bennett, Larry Coryell, Vince Guaraldi, Joe Henderson, Eddie Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, and Dr Lonnie Smith. Mike Clark is an American drummer and recording artist who has recorded and toured with Headhunters (member), Herbie Hancock (Thrust), Tony Bennett, Larry Coryell, Vince Guaraldi, Joe Henderson, Eddie Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, and Dr Lonnie Smith.

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  Mike Hughes

  Michael Hughes is an American drummer who has performed with artists such as Tal Wilkenfeld, Frank Gambale, and Robben Ford.

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  MIke Ramos

  Mike Ramos is a musician and guitarist who has recently performed in bands such as Jason Newsted's Chop House Band (Newsted was formerly in Metallica), Gregory Howe's Solo Record, and Counterweight (Throttle Elevator Music).

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  Mike Rinta

  Bammy-winning Mike Rinta was the featured trombonist with Sly & The Family Stone, John Lee Hooker Jr., Variable Unit, Calvin Keys, Harvey Mandel, and Brass Monkey Brass Band, Contemporary Jazz Orchestra.

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  Nathalie Sanchez

  Nathalie Sanchez is the primary voice behind dissent (with Gregory Howe.) She has also worked with Kaskade, GE-Ology, Tommy Guerrero, DJ Boogie, Headnodic, Ticklah and DJ Zeph.

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  Pharoah Sanders

  Pharoah Saunders is a Grammy Award winning American jazz saxophonist who is known for his collaborations with John Coltrane in the mid-60s.

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  Phil Ranelin

  Phil Ranelin is loved and respected around the globe as a master trombonist of the J.J. Johnson tradition, as former Freddie Hubbard sideman and as co-founder of Detroit’s famed TRIBE Records.

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  Roscoe Mitchell

  Called part of the ‘American Iconoclast’ by the New York Times, Roscoe Mitchell has forged a lifetime of truly free music and has lead an inspirational life as composer, musician, and teacher.

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  Rosie Steffy

  Rosie Steffy is a East Bay Area based artist, vocalist and musical educator.

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  Ross Howe

  Ross Howe is a Bay Area guitar player and music educator. He performs with several gypsy jazz ensembles in and around the San Francisco Bay Area but mainly leads his own band The Yacht Club of Paris.

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  Sonny Fortune

  Sonny Fortune has played and recorded with jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Elvin Jones.

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  Ticklah

  Victor Axelrod aka Ticklah is a Brooklyn native and independent music producer and artist, who has been a continual and integral part of the NYC music scene for over a decade.

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  Tim Hyland

  Tim Hyland was an American Trumpet and flute player and musical educator. Known for his work with ZaZu Pits Memorial Orchestra, Dissent, and The Wide Hive Players.