Hailing from the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Steve has been swaying stages, clubs, bars, Museums, Houses-of-worship, and studios the world over for more than a decade now. He’s got the kind of skill that can only be gained from working with great artists from all walks of life! From Shows with R&B/gospel grammy-winner Pj Morton, doing festivals with the Preservation Hall jazz band, and tours through Europe with Swiss Pianist and composer Florian Favre, to studio sessions with the black Keys, jamming in Dc with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, playing in big bands with Ellis, Jason, Branford, and Delfeayo Marsalis, and doing a tribute to David Bowie with Arcade Fire! Courage and care are his motivation for Music and he’s got more than enough of both to give you a sonic fantasy.

Amina Figarova is a quite phenomenal Azerbajan born, New York based pianist and stunning composer. Her sextet is fast developing a huge reputation on the international scene. Amina has toured extensively, developing a tight-knit ensemble that, despite inevitable personnel changes, has attained a distinctive and inimitable voice by concentrating on all-original repertoire for almost 25 years. During that period, having collaborated with musicians residing in both the U.S. and Europe and having built up a circuit of welcoming venues, the Amina Figarova Sextet has triumphed at the main stage of the Newport Jazz Festival, been invited repeatedly to New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, won critical and audience acclaim in Chicago, Detroit, Paris, Amsterdam — and of course New York. Amina's pieces strike a perfect tone, employing genuinely beautiful harmonizations, to capture fleeting thoughts that accompany those precious moments when the puzzling jostle of daily existence comes into unexpected but deeply satisfying sync.

Amina has performed with various artists including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Steve Turre, Wessell “Warm Daddy” Anderson, Nicholas Payton, David Murray, Jamison Ross, Joanne Brackeen, Herlin Riley, Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, and more. She has also performed with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra (Tallahassee, FL) and the Albany Symphony Orchestra (Albany, GA) and is the current bassist for Dee Dee Bridgewater’s DDB Big Band which is an all women big band featuring women from all across the United States. In 2017, Amina was a fellow in the Steans Institute of Music Jazz Program (Ravinia, IL) under the direction of Rufus Reid, Billy Childs, and Nathan Davis. She is also a bandleader in her own right leading her quartet, her six-piece fusion band PHYRA. Amina currently teaches as an adjunct professor at Loyola University New Orleans working with various ensembles and bass students within the Popular and Commercial Music program

David L. Harris is lyricist, vocalist, trombonist, composer and arranger. Harris embodies the edge of modern jazz and the sultriness of blues taking his audiences on an emotionally engaging journey of love and liberation, wrapped in a sound that embraces the groove, grit and swing of the past.

He has toured internationally and domestic performing at The Newport Jazz Festival, The Montreal Jazz Festival, and The New Orleans & Heritage Jazz Festival. David L. has performed and been a featured soloist at legendary concert halls, such as the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, NY, The Lincoln Center in New York, NY, and The L'Olympia Music Hall in Paris, France; and has performed, recorded and collaborated with artist Herlin Riley, Wynton Marsalis, Shannon Powell, Aaron Neville, Aloe Blacc, Dr. Michael White, Dee Dee Bridgewater and The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. He has captured and moved audiences in China, Europe, Taiwan, Russia, South America, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and in over twenty cities in Japan.

Oscar Rossignoli, a native of Honduras, is an in-demand pianist and composer who has been based in New Orleans since 2015, when he arrived to study at the University of New Orleans. Rossignoli folds many traditions into his music, from his classical music formation to his passion for Latin and North American jazz. He has also established his reputation in various settings and bands, including the EXTENDED trio with Matt Booth and Brad Webb, and by leading his own quartet. He collaborates on a wide range of projects with artists such as John Boutté, Jason Marsalis, Joe Dyson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Alexey Marti, among many others.

With her teal hair, vibrant outfits, and vocal stylings reminiscent of Ella Fitzgerald, jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman is hard to miss. Like New Orleans, the city she’s called home for a decade, her performances are infused with spontaneity and color. She achieves this through her love of improvisation, her uncanny ability to scat, and her versatility- no song is sung the same way twice. Her repertoire is expansive, focused mainly on the Great American Songbook and jazz standards with occasional forays into 90s alternative, murder ballads, and bops from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Originally from Long Island, Meryl got her Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with acclaimed vocalists Kate McGarry, Theo Bleckmann, and Peter Eldridge. Though her years of training are evident in her impeccable technique and impressive vocal range, her ability to affect her audiences through her emotional connection with the music is paramount. She “displays her vocal chops with relish,” according to Offbeat Magazine.

Meryl’s performed at venues across New Orleans including the city’s premier jazz club Snug Harbor, as well as Tipitina’s, The Spotted Cat, Three Muses, and Buffa’s, to name a few. She has performed at the French Quarter Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. When the pandemic shuttered bars and clubs, Meryl transformed her front porch into a stage. Under a ceiling bedecked in twinkle lights and tinsel, she sang holiday songs out into the cold night for a crowd of smiling neighbors sitting in rows of camping chairs on the sidewalk. She has self-released two consecutive albums, Crystalline (2020) and A Very Meryl Christmas (2021). “…the more familiar ideas are dressed up in uncommon arrangements that take them into interesting places. Her bossa nova version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” was compelling…” writes music journalist Alex Rawls on his “Twelve Songs of Christmas” podcast. When she’s not performing, Meryl teaches at the University of New Orleans and Loyola University of New Orleans as a private voice instructor.

Victor Campbell Moíses is a young piano player hailing from Camagüey, Cuba. His compelling style combines virtuosity, whimsy, charisma and technical prowess. Campbell began playing piano at 5 years old and went on to train at Cuba’s National School of the Arts. Since his late teens he has played all over the United States and internationally. Victor first visited New Orleans in 2012 as part of an exchange program with the Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp. That visit changed his life, and in 2019 Victor decided to move to New Orleans. He has been feverishly studying all styles of New Orleans music ever since, and incorporating it into his own musical language. He can effortlessly transition from a blues solo, to a Cuban timba montuno, and then right into a classical piano selection. In a 2019 interview, the great Chucho Valdés predicted that "Victor will revolutionize Cuban jazz piano."

Gregory Agid is emerging as the preeminent jazz clarinetist of his generation. The New Orleans based multi-instrumentalist maintains an extremely active performance schedule playing both clarinet and saxophone with GRAMMY award-winning artist Michael Buble, Delfeayo Marsalis’ Uptown Jazz Orchestra, and his own Gregory Agid Quartet, with whom he has released three albums to date. Agid comes from a strong tradition of jazz excellence, education, and mentorship in New Orleans. As the protégée of clarinet guru Alvin Batiste, it is only natural that Agid has found great success and fulfillment as an educator. Alongside drummer Darrian Douglas, Agid is the co-founder of Second Line Arts Collective, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating the artistic and entrepreneurial growth of aspiring creatives. It is no surprise that aspiring clarinetists also look to Agid; his strong social media presence marks him as a leader in the worldwide clarinet community. While boldly and deliberately carving his musical path, Agid says he is simply, “building upon the innovations of his heroes.”

Come in and wind down after work at AMAS! No cover for Teachers, Educators and School Administrative Staff.