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Vocalist Lauren Henderson is a sophisticated performer with a sound steeped in jazz, flamenco, R&B, and Latin traditions. The founder of her own Brontosaurus Records, she has garnered acclaim for her genre-bending albums, including 2015's A la Madrugada, 2018's Armame, and 2020's The Songbook Session with pianist Sullivan Fortner. She has also worked closely with vibraphonist Joel Ross and pianist Sean Mason, as on 2022's La Bruja, 2023's Conjuring, and 2024's Sombras.

Born in 1986 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Henderson started out taking piano lessons at a young age and grew up singing in church and her school choir. Influenced by her parents' record collection, she became interested in jazz. After high school, she attended Wheaton College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts with a focus on both music and Hispanic studies. While there, she expanded her skills, becoming the musical director of the school's gospel and R&B vocal ensemble VUJ (Voices United to Jam), was a member of the jazz band, and took classical voice and musical theater classes. There were also opportunities to study privately and in master classes with artists like Barry Harris, Jane Monheit, and Paquito D'Rivera. In 2011, she made her debut with the eponymous standards album Lauren Henderson.

Building upon her varied interests, Henderson traveled to Mexico, where she studied the traditional music of the Yucatán at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. She also spent time in Spain studying flamenco and jazz at La Universidad de Córdoba, before earning an Executive MBA from Brown University (RI) and the IE Business School (Madrid). The founder of her own Brontosaurus Records, Henderson returned with her sophomore production, A La Madrugada, in 2015. It featured a mix of standards and originals sung in English and Spanish.

She has continued to blend jazz, R&B, and Latin styles on albums like 2018's Armame and 2019's Alma Oscura, the latter of which featured contributions by Sullivan Fortner, Michael Thurber, Mark Dover, and others. In 2020, she again paired with Fortner for The Songbook Session. Also that year, she released her first holiday-themed album, Classic Christmas.

La Bruja arrived two years later and found Henderson working with an adept ensemble, featuring vibraphonist Joel Ross, guitarists Nick Tannura and Gabe Schnider, pianists Sean Mason and John Chin, and drummers Eric Wheeler and Joe Dyson. A similar ensemble joined her for 2023's magic-themed Conjuring, which found Henderson mixing standards alongside her original songs. With 2024's Sombras, she returned to a Latin-inflected style, once again backed by Ross, Dyson, Mason, and bassist Jonathan Michel. ~ Matt Collar

New Orleans pianist Sullivan Fortner is an adept, award-winning jazz musician and composer with a bent toward sophisticated post-bop. Born in New Orleans in 1986, Fortner first began playing piano around age four. He was playing in church groups by the time he was nine, and at 13 he enrolled in the famed New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). As a teenager Fortner excelled at piano, earning scholarships to both the Vail Jazz Institute and Skidmore Jazz Studies summer programs. Having graduated from both NOCCA and his regular high school (where he was Valedictorian), he perfected his craft by earning a bachelor's degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and, later, a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Fortner has built an impressive list of credits, performing and recording with such luminaries as vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Theo Croker, saxophonist Donald Harrison, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, and others. In 2015, Fortner won the American Pianists Association Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz. Also in 2015, he released his debut album as leader, Aria, on Impulse! ~ Matt Collar

Known for his warm bass sound and hard-swinging grooves, Dezron Douglas is a stylistically versatile performer whose work straddles post-bop, soul-jazz, and more avant-garde traditions. A protege of Jackie McLean, Douglas garnered early attention as a member of Cyrus Chestnut's trio before establishing his own groups with albums like 2012's Live at Smalls and 2018's Black Lion. Along with teaching at NYU Steinhardt, he has worked with artists Ravi Coltrane, Makaya McCraven, Duane Eubanks, Trey Anastasio, and others. He paired with harpist Brandee Younger for their critically lauded 2020 duo album Force Majeure, and showcased his ever broadening approach to modern creative jazz on 2022's Atalaya.

Born in 1981 in Hartford, Connecticut, Douglas grew up in a religious, musically inclined family the son of a pastor and the nephew of drummer and composer Walter Bolden. He started on bass at age seven (playing gospel in church) and by the time he was 12 he was playing professionally. After high school, he enrolled at The Hartt School at the University of Hartford where he studied with his mentor, the legendary saxophonist Jackie McLean. While there, he made his recorded debut playing alongside drummer Michael Carvin. It was also while in school that he co-founded The New Jazz Workshop of Hartford, for which he received an Evelyn Preston Grant and recorded Underground. More albums followed on Venus Records, several featuring pianist Cyrus Chestnut (of whose trio he was also a member), including 2012's Walkin' My Baby Back Home and Ganbare Nippon.

In 2012, Douglas made his official solo debut as a leader with Live at Smalls featuring trumpeter Josh Evans, saxophonist Stacy Dillard, pianist David Bryant, and drummer Willie Jones III. He has also played with a bevy of luminaries including Louis Hayes, Steve Davis, George Cables, Papo Vasquez, Enrico Rava, Eric Reed, Tomasz Stańko, and Makaya McCraven. He is a longstanding member of the Ravi Coltrane Quartet and has performed with the Louis Hayes Jazz Communicators. In 2016, he joined trumpeter Duane Eubanks and drummer Charles McPherson as DE3 for Live at Maxwell's. A third Venus album, Soul Jazz, arrived in 2017. The following year, he independently released Black Lion, a funky post-bop date again featuring trumpeter Evans, saxophonist Stacy Dillard, and others.

In 2020, he collaborated with harpist Brandee Younger on their duo album Force Majeure. The following year, he joined the Trey Anastasio Band, replacing the late Tony Markellis. When not performing, Douglas is an educator on the Jazz Studies faculty at NYU Steinhardt. In 2022, he released his sophomore quintet album, Atalaya, featuring pianist George Burton, saxophonist Emilio Modeste, drummer Joe Dyson, Jr., and vocalist Melvis Santa. ~ Matt Collar

The Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based vibraphonist Joel Ross is a sophisticated jazz performer with a sound steeped in the post-bop tradition. A protégé of Stefon Harris, Ross initially gained attention as a sideman with Marquis Hill and Makaya McCraven before releasing his 2019 debut Blue Note album, Kingmaker. Along with his work as a member of Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens' In Common band, he has continued to deliver ever more ambitious albums, including 2020's Who Are You? and 2022's The Parable of the Poet. He also contributed to Meshell Ndegeocello's Grammy-winning The Omnichord Real Book, before delivering his harmonically textural 2024 small-group date, nublues.

Born in 1996, Ross grew up in Chicago's South Side with parents who worked as police officers. A twin, he and his sibling started playing drums at age three, and by elementary school were regularly playing at church, where their father also worked as the choir director. As a teenager, he switched to the vibraphone after joining the All City concert and jazz bands. More opportunities followed including playing with groups at the Jazz Institute of Chicago and eventually enrolling at the Chicago High School for the Arts. Via the school's partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Ross engaged with a bevy of performers including Herbie Hancock, Gerald Clayton, and Stefon Harris; the latter urged him to audition for his Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet at California's University of the Pacific. Ross won the audition and spent two years working with Harris and developing his skills. The vibraphonist ultimately transferred to the New School, where he formed his own Good Vibes ensemble and finished out his degree. In 2016, he took first place at the BIAMP PDX Jazz Festival "Jazz Forward" Competition.

Based in Brooklyn, Ross has played with such luminaries as Makaya McCraven, Peter Evans, and Marquis Hill. In 2018, he joined Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens for the album In Common. A year later, he cracked the Top Ten of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart with his debut record as a leader, Kingmaker, on Blue Note. Work followed with Melissa Aldana, Rob Mazurek, Jason Palmer, and others. In 2020, he returned with his sophomore Blue Note album, Who Are You?, which featured contributions by harpist Brandee Younger and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, among others.

After returning to his work with Smith and Stevens for 2022's In Common III, Ross delivered his own album-length suite, The Parable of the Poet. The following year, he played on Meshell Ndegeocello's album The Omnichord Real Book, which took home the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Jazz Album. Also in 2024, Ross released his fourth album, nublues, which featured contributions by saxophonist Wilkins, along with pianist Jeremy Corren, bassist Kanoa Mendenhall, drummer Jeremy Dutton, and flutist Gabrielle Garo. ~ Matt Collar