For the past 15 years, his show, The S.O.U.L. of Jazz, has served as a launching pad for countless local, national and international artists and can be heard daily on Atlanta’s WCLK 91.9 FM.

He was co-founder and head of A&R for the Groovement/Earthseed record label and spearheaded the early recordings of India.Arie, Anthony David and Donnie. He also worked as an on-air announcer for the nationally syndicated radio program, Truth FM, which was sponsored by the Truth.com and also alongside Brian Hurst in the early days of www.soul24-7.com; all before the age of 25.

Awarded the Cultural Warrior Award, by the National Black Arts Festival, and inducted into Who’s Who in Black Atlanta, he is a two time winner of the Best Radio DJ award by Creative Loafing and was most recently awarded the Best Drive time DJ by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Through it all, he held a private passion for America’s only original art form: jazz – in all its many styles, and believed that all contemporary musical genres throughout the world emerged from the same gumbo brewed in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century.

At the turn of the new millennium he started promoting jazz online via the Atlanta Jazz Group, which led to the production of his own radio show – “Jazz In The Present Tense” — which earned him the “Broadcast Personality of the Year” award from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters in 2001.

Scott was branded the “Jazz Evangelist” by local musicians due to his passion for promoting jazz, converting people to it’s many styles and sub-genres.

In 2002 he accepted the position as General Manager, Programme & Music Director at Brenau University’s Eclectic 89.1 FM WBCX. He hosted and produced several live shows throughout the decade, including many jazz formats: Traditional, Hot, Big Band, Swing, Straight Ahead, Hard Bop, World Groove, Funk, Fusion, Acid Jazz and Neo-Soul.

As we move into a new decade, Scott is excited to expand his focus worldwide via Soulandjazz.com. The possibility of the entire planet connected by a common groove provides him with tremendous joy, and renewed hope for the future. As Scott has said in each of his shows “Jazz is timeless and essential. It goes beyond colour, creed and culture – allowing the heart, mind, soul and spirit to swing together in syncopated counterpoint”.

With the obligatory path of mobile DJ followed, he has DJ’d in various clubs through his teenage years and then moving from stage to studio and into the heddy days of London’s pirate radio scene with the iconic Horizon Radio and its successor, and now pan-European based, Solar Radio.

In 2000 Brian created www.soul24-7.com which although suffered many growing pains, was groundbreaking in the fact that it led the way for soul music onto the new medium of the internet. He believes there couldn’t be a better time to fine tune his original concept and present a different and more accessible approach to the music of so many great artists.

Brian couldn’t really tell you his favourite band, singer or style of music but if you think along the lines of Stevie, Donny, Marvin, Ledisi, The Jones Girls, Tommy Sims or Rahsaan Patterson, you’ll be on the right track. His greatest musical influences though came from his father and to this day, the legends that are Tony Monson and Peter Young.

Ms. Cha, as she is affectionately known, began volunteering at WRFG Atlanta and landed a spot as co-host of The World Party. As an entering student at Georgia State University, she became a part of The Weekend Wrekkin’ Crew (WWC) of WRAS Atlanta and soon became the hostess and #1 promoter of Urban Flava: Atlanta’s Soul & Acid Jazz.

Following this she became a full-time reading specialist & grad student, audio engineering intern, and radio hostess on WRAS Atlanta and a short while later took an offer of a part-time position with Hot 107.9, WHTA Atlanta. Exposure to the commercial side of the industry led to an opportunity to work with the TRUTH campaign as a travelling DJ on TRUTH FM. Later she would become Marketing Manager for GTM (Guerilla Tactics Marketing) and additionally, under the helm of Rico Wade & The Dungeon Family, go on to audio engineer records for Ludacris, Sleepy Brown, Brandy, and Earth, Wind, & Fire.

Over the years, Cha-Cha has opened for the likes of Kanye West, Kelis, Dwele, India, Bilal and Jill Scott, and has played the Funkjazz Kafe in Atlanta and the Jazz Café in London.

As Ms. Cha says “At www.soulandjazz.com, I’ll get to play music that doesn’t get the mainstream push along with the radio jams. I love to DJ for people who love music.” Amen to that.

Their first album titled Shape Your Life (IRMA Records/Sony) featured the saxophonist and leader of the Groove Collective, Jay Rodriguez and their music has since appeared on countless world-wide acid-jazz, funk and soul compilations.

In 2003, after a period of inactivity, the band reformed with several new members and has recenlty completed work on their sophomore project: THE DAY IS TOO SHORT TO BE SELFISH. Released on LTF Records on 1st April, 2010, it’s a 12 track journey that was recorded between Bologna, New York and London, expressing a love for all things Afro, Latin, Funk, Jazz and R&B.

Every track on the album tells a story and reflects the different personalities of the composers and their musical background. A number of special guests from the world of contemporary soul music feature and include: Omar, Deborah Jordan, Laurnea, Alison Crockett, Nick Rolfe, April Hill and Maya Azucena

The full line-up of musicians appearing on the album include Doc Bix (percussion), Lurpak (bass) Salvo (guitar) and other accomplished musicians such as Pino De Fazio (piano and keyboards), Mirco Zagnoli (drums), Adriano Pancaldi (saxophone and horns arangements), Federico Tassani (trombone) Fabio Morgera, a trumpet player well known as a member of the Groove Collective, Stefano Serafini, trumpet player with Mario Biondi and Daniele Giardina, trumpet player with Fiorello’s Orchestra.

The band has many years experience of playing live both in Italy and abroad and have opened for concerts by Earth, Wind and Fire in 1998 in Switzerland, for Chuck Berry and Willy DeVille at the Pistoia Blues festival in 2005, and have performed at the Blue Note Club in Milan in the same year.

Live Tropical Fish have been the resident band during 2009 at the highly popular “Bravo Caffe” in Bologna, one of the leading clubs for live music. Here they’ve performed monthly with a number of different international and national guests who also feature on the new album .

Stephen graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida where he also served as publisher of the student newspaper and played on the varsity football team.

His love of music guided Stephen’s early career as he developed several major label rock bands. He then managed the recording studios of world-renowned musician and songwriter Tommy Sims (known for Eric Clapton’s hit Change The World and Tommy’s solo album Peace And Love).

Following a stint in music publishing where he signed 2x Grammy-winning producer/songwriter Andrew Ramsey (India.Arie, Jonny Lang) and Nathan & Caleb Followill (4x Grammy-winning Kings of Leon), Stephen served as A&R representative at Atlantic Records.

Stephen admits to knowing just a little about soul music and very little about jazz, but he looks forward to broadening his base of musical knowledge, like he promised Ahmet Ertegun he would do, through the development of www.soulandjazz.com.

This in turn led to the launch of her career in radio. In addition to her production, promotional and administrative work, Traci has also hosted Saturday Evening Jazz, a Contemporary Jazz program on WCLK. From 2004 until 2006 she also had the pleasure of hosting Weekend Gospel on 1260 AM WTJH in Atlanta – a program that aired on both Saturday and Sunday and featured a mix of traditional and contemporary Gospel music.

As well as her work in radio, Traci also stage manages live concerts, does voice-over work and freelance production. She is also a member of Harmony in Life, an Atlanta based collective dedicated to the creation of an alternative option to ‘traditional’ record deals.

A life-long lover of music, Traci credits her sister for initially inspiring that love, but her work since has both broadened her knowledge and nurtured a comprehensive understanding in both genres of soul and jazz. A self proclaimed ‘perpetual student of life’, she hopes to remain a ‘perpetual student of music’ as well. We certainly don’t see any reason why not. Downbeat in tempo the show may be, but this is not a word that you would ever attribute to Traci. The smile says it all.

A pianist, producer, singer and composer, he has recorded twenty five solo albums, including the Grammy nominated “Concert for Garcia Lorca,” and has produced recordings for such noted artists as Van Morrison, Diana Ross, Mose Allison and Jon Hendricks. He composed the soundtrack for the acclaimed film “Hoop Dreams”, and scored the documentary “Vietnam: Long Time Coming”, which won both the Aspen Film Festival audience award and an Emmy. He is the author of two books on the subject of Jazz, “Black Talk,” a cultural history of the music, and “Talking Jazz,” a series of conversations with well known musicians.

Although he holds a PhD. in American Studies from Sussex University, he has generally avoided the academic life, preferring instead to spend his time performing—most recently in Europe and Asia—producing radio and records, and completing his memoir, “A Life in the Music” (Taylor Trade Press, February, 2003). His most recent records include “Walk Pretty”, the songs of Alec Wilder, “Nick’s Bump”. and “Cien Noches” recorded live in Madrid. Ben’s recently completed an album of Bob Dylan songs (“Dylan Different”) and is working on a text, “Jews, Music and the American Dream”.

As a child, she took lessons in the violin, piano, and was part of her school’s orchestra and choir. One of her favourite past times though would be recording and listening to the DJ’s and their music they played on the radio. This was at a time when the people behind the mic always had something to talk about and consistently managed to play that ‘just right’ blend of music. The love affair had begun.

During her junior year of college at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nicole decided to take a break, returning a full seven years later to finish her bachelor’s degree in Communications at Temple. It was there she interned at the school’s classical & jazz station, WRTI-FM, and the love affair continued to grow – his name? Jazz. The internship turned into a permanent position where Nicole was known for her deep and husky voice which blends so perfectly with the music.

In 2007, Nicole moved to Atlanta where she landed at the ATL’s only jazz station: 91.9 FM WCLK. Here she brought a fresh yet classic vibe to her daily show The Mid Day Jazz Swing which she has now hosted for the past two years. Nicole is known to mix the classics and the newbies without literally missing a beat. She allows her older listeners to reminisce while her younger audience thinks twice before having to turn the dial!

It’s all what we knew when we asked Nicole to come to SoulandJazz.com. Her arrival heralds a far more comprehensive approach to the genre and her expertise, wonderful delivery and understanding makes the Jazz 60 (Remixed) an essential weekly download.