Jerry Bergonzi has been a saxophonist in great demand for quite some time, from his beginnings with Dave Brubeck until recently with John Abercrombie. He is also an enthusiastic teacher and professor at the New England Conservatory. Jacek Kochan began his career int he 70s of the last century, but he already moved to the U.S.A. a few years later and from there to Canada. He become established as a drummer in demand for Oliver Jones, Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie and others by 1995 and already got to know Bergonzi. He returned to Poland a bit later after that. Since that time, he has been accompanying musicians in Europe such as Greg Osby, Gary Thomas and Marc Copland, among others.
Piotr Lemanczyk has his own quartet project with Tim Hagans and plays in other bands alongside of Clarence Penn, Adam Pieronczyk and Jakob Dinesen. One remarkable feature of his is that he not only accompanies solidly and brilliantly, but that he also has an impressive understanding of melodies.

“One can hear many influences in Bishop’s playing, including more than a touch of Elvin, but he is clearly an original voice…” – Percussive Notes As a drummer, educator, record label owner, graphic designer, and festival presenter, John Bishop has been one of the primary voices in Northwest Jazz for 40 years. He has performed in concerts and clubs with Lee Konitz, Slide Hampton, Benny Golson, George Cables, Kenny Werner, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sonny Fortune, Herb Ellis, Buddy DeFranco, Bobby McFerrin, Joe Locke, Jerry Bergonzi, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Larry Coryell, and countless others. He’s appeared on more than 100 albums, was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 2008, and was named a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2019.
“Great music without exception…a terrific organization and in my opinion, Bishop is one of the best cover designers in the world.” - Rudolf Radnai, Muszerordal, Budapest, Hungary In 1997, Bishop started the jazz label Origin Records (named Jazzweek’s 2009 “Label Of The Year”) and OriginArts, a graphic design & CD production company, to help further the exposure of creative artists and their music. With the help of his ex-drum student, Matt Jorgensen, they have released over 725 recordings by 370 artists from around the world. In 2002 they added another jazz label, OA2 Records, a classical imprint, Origin Classical in 2008, and in 2003 began Seattle’s annual 4-day Ballard Jazz Festival. Bishop has designed over 800 CD packages and numerous book covers, banners, posters, and other graphics for clients around the globe. He was on the NW chapter Board of Governors of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and annually takes part in multiple music conferences & events, including JazzCongress (NYC), JazzWeek (San Jose), JazzAhead (Bremen), Jazz Education Network, and occasionally, NAMM, PASIC, MIDEM (Cannes), and the Grammys.
“…the high level of integration and communication Hal Galper’s trio displays is rare and quite thrilling to experience…” – DOWNBEAT Along with bassist Jeff Johnson, Bishop is a member of New York pianist Hal Galper’s Trio where over the last 15 years, they’ve released 7 acclaimed albums and toured internationally. They also perform with Spanish pianist Chano Dominguez, including an appearance at the 60th Monterey Jazz Festival, and are members of the 20-year-old collective Scenes with guitarist John Stowell & saxophonist Rick Mandyck. Bishop has also toured Belgium and recorded 3 albums over the last decade with the Chad McCullough / Bram Weijters Group, a Belgian/American project.
“Bishop’s drumming is unfailingly imaginative and fervid.” – CODA Magazine Born in Seattle and raised in Germany, Washington, DC, San Antonio and Eugene, Bishop started playing drums at 7 in Washington, DC with the Patriots drum corp. He performed regularly throughout high school and college in Oregon, studying with Mel Brown and Charles Dowd and attending the University of Oregon, later transferring to the jazz program at North Texas State University. He moved to Seattle in 1981 for an extended engagement with the band Glider and never left. An unusually creative and fertile scene at the time, Seattle offered performances with top touring artists and the opportunity to create long and substantial musical relationships with inspired Northwest musicians.
In the early ’80s, he was a member of the fusion group Blue Sky, which released two Top 10 albums and performed extensively throughout the decade. For 20 years, he was with the piano trio New Stories along with pianist Marc Seales and bassist Doug Miller. They had 4 CDs of their own, 6 with be-bop saxophonist Don Lanphere, and a Grammy-nominated RCA release with Mark Murphy. They were regulars at Bud Shank’s Pt. Townsend Jazz Festival, headlined the 1993 JVC Jazz Festival in Vladivostok, Russia, and also appeared in concerts with Tom Harrell, Julian Priester, Charles McPherson, Vincent Herring, Nick Brignola, Conte Condoli, Bobby Shew & Larry Coryell. They also performed around the country as a trio or touring with Mark Murphy, Ernie Watts or Don Lanphere. Their tune “Highway Blues,” from Speakin’ Out, was embedded as one of two music samples in Windows XP, which went on to sell 700 million units. Their 2014 recording, Hope is in the Air: the Music of Elmo Hope, was produced by Don Sickler & engineered by Rudy Van Gelder at his studio in NJ.
“The New Stories trio is likewise nothing less than extraordinary. Drummer John Bishop, particularly, is one of the finest on the scene.” – Jazz Review He’s taught drums privately for 46 years and was on faculty at the University of Washington from 2005-2009. He regularly does drum and jazz workshops throughout the country with the Hal Galper Trio, including recent events at the University of North Texas, University of Indiana, Dartmouth, Cal Arts, The New School, Purchase Conservatory-NYC, William Paterson University, University of Louisville, San Jose State University, The California Jazz Conservatory, and Kent State University. In 2018, Bishop co-founded The Real(ity) Book, a web-based, HD Video Play-Along education system for jazz musicians.
Bishop has also toured internationally with Buddy Greco, the McGuire Sisters, and the Harry James Orchestra, and has performed with Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Bob Newhart, Rich Little, The Hi-Los, Frankie Avalon, the Drifters, the Coasters, the Platters, Pete Barbutti, the Seattle Symphony, and many others.
He has an understanding wife, 2 dogs & a cat, and drives Volvos exclusively… For a more complete list of recording credits, visit the All Music Guide: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-bishop-mn0000810079/credits

Galper’s 21st century series of trio albums for Origin Records incorporates his development of “Rubato” playing as a means of melding In his fifth decade as a major jazz artist, In his fifth decade as a major jazz artist, Hal Galper continues the innovation that has made him one of today’s most surprising and satisfying pianists. Galper’s 21st-century series of trio albums, with bassist Jeff Johnson and Drummer John Bishop on Origin Records, incorporates his development of “Rubato” playing as a means of melding melodic lyricism with the rhythmic excitement and “sound of surprise” of the bebop tradition, deepening the jazz experience for musicians and listeners alike. The trio’s latest Origin Records release, “O’s Time” is available at originarts.com A student of the piano from the age of six, Galper entered the Berklee School of Music in Boston on scholarship in 1955 and studied technique with the famous Madam Chaloff. He quickly gravitated to the city’s jazz clubs, supplementing his formal Berklee training by studying the performances of such Boston stalwarts as Jaki Byard, Sam Rivers and Herb Pomeroy. It wasn’t long before Galper had soaked up enough practical jazz knowledge that he was employed as house pianist at The Stables, Lennie’s On The Turnpike, and Connelly’s, leading Boston jazz emporiums.
Beginning his international performing career in a three-year stint with trumpeter Chet Baker, he went on to be an integral member of the bands of Cannonball Adderley and Phil Woods. He also worked with Sam Rivers, Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz and John Scofield, among dozens of other major jazz figures. Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Galper formed one of his most critically acclaimed groups as a leader in the early 70’s with trumpeter Randy Brecker, his saxophonist brother Michael, bassist Wayne Dockery and drummer Billy Hart, the new Hal Galper Quintet debuted at Sweet Basil in New York’s Greenwich Village, eventually recording four albums including Reach Out, Speak With a Single Voice, Children of the Night, and Redux 78.
Galper’s discography includes 103 albums, with 32 of them under his name. He is a leader not only as a performer but also as an educator, with emphasis on theory, performance and the worldly side of music as a profession. He was a founding member of New York’s New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and recently retired from his 14 year tenure at Purchase Conservatory. His best selling theory of Forward Motion was the first interactive E-book in which its more than 300 musical examples could be played in a computer browser. It offers insights into the workings of melodies, secrets of phrasing and ways of practicing to enhance jazz performance. Both the E-book and hard cover edition of Forward Motion, along with information on his other books and writings, are available at www.halgalper.com.

Bassist Jeff Johnson has had a dynamic influence on jazz music in Seattle since his arrival three decades ago, despite not having released a recording as a leader since his quartet date almost a decade ago, Suitcase (Origin, 2011). Whether playing live around his chosen hometown, or hitting the road with such artists as Hal Galper and Karrin Allison, Johnson's original style has had a noticeable and immediate impact on his musical surroundings throughout his storied career. While Seattle fans have come to know him as a veritable undercurrent of the vibrant local jazz scene, Johnson's roots run deep from time spent on the road with the likes of Philly Joe Jones, Barney Kessell, Chet Baker, Lew Tabackin, Mark Murphy and Ernestine Anderson to name a few. In the early 90's he began a pair of relationships with pianists Galper and Jessica Williams, and found a vital identity as a trio bassist of the highest caliber. His deeply original sound has a mystical edge that seems to challenge soloists to read and react, producing soaring and spontaneous results. Johnson has recorded and toured with drummer John Bishop and guitarist John Stowell in the trio Scenes that has produced five albums on the Origin label. He has, as well, collaborated with Bishop, along with pianist Bill Anschell and saxophonist Brent Jensen in the Seattle based band, Wellstone Conspiracy. Johnson's well documented work with the ever eclectic Galper has risen to revolutionary proportions in exploring Galper's rubato notions reinventing a concept of time that expresses a read and react elasticity. His elegant vibrato, inventive bow work, and bone crushing use of chords and harmonics allows Galper to live at a musical crossroads that presents many routes of travel. Bishop's almost symphonic drum and cymbal work, dynamically original in itself, joins with Johnson as two souls revolving around a common center. Johnson's partnership with Galper has come full circle in the past two years, with two releases that mostly feature the bassist's original compositions. His compositional work is imaginative and spiritual in nature, providing just enough structure for form, with ample space for free playing. The trio added tenor saxophone giant Jerry Bergonzi for Cubist (Origin, 2018), adding another layer to the fabric of Galper's rubato vision. Just recently, a live trio date recorded at Yardbird Suite in Edmonton was released, bearing witness to the amazing late career surge for Galper that has perhaps been the most startling contribution to the legacy of the piano trio for more than a generation. Aptly titled The Zone (Origin, 2020), Johnson's compositions "Scene West" and "Cubist" highlight a trailblazing approach to composition and melodic improvisation that like his signature playing on bass, stands out as original and fearless. While many writers and broadcasters may view Johnson's career as flying somewhat under the radar, those that have followed his path from his native Minneapolis, to Texas and Oklahoma, and finally to his landing in Seattle in 1990, know him as one of the genre's most inventive bassists. They can hear the midwest. They most certainly can hear the Texas in his approach. Now thirty years into his tenure in Seattle, you can hear the vibe of his chosen home as vividly as the morning rain pounding rooftops around the city on a gray winter's day.