Giovanni Rodriguez is a Nashville based Grammy Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, born in Italy to Dominican parents. Growing up in Europe, and through the diversity of his parent's music, Giovanni showed an interest in music at an early age and learned to appreciate and respect all genres of music.

Giovanni is a composer, producer, arranger, educator, and works as a session musician. He is also bandleader of the Music City Latin Orchestra, Giovanni Rodriguez & 12 Manos and Music City Soul Breakers​

In 2018, Rodriguez received a Grammy for the percussion work he did on CeCe Winans', "Let Them Fall In Love" record which was went #1 on Billboard’s Gospel Music Chart. He has also recorded percussion on Victor Wooten’s double album titled “Swords & Stones/Words & Tones.”

In 2010, Rodriguez and his musical partners released an Afro-Caribbean record titled "The Movement" under the group name EL MOVIMIENTO.

 At the time, affordable rent brought Goodman to Nashville to live with some friends where she could practice and play often. Goodman thought she would eventually move to New York. Despite its reputation as the center of country music, Nashville was also home base for a community of jazz artists. Their welcoming vibe and depth of talent persuaded her to stay. And it’s from their ranks that she assembled The Sofia Goodman Group, her platform for creation onstage and in studios. 

   Goodman’s journey has been long and eventful, with many milestones still ahead, including a project titled Receptive with mentorship from award-winning composer Pascal Le Boeuf thanks to the Chamber Music America Performance Plus Grant. Next, she wants to create another project wherein she plans to work with more women who are prominent performers in the jazz scene, while exploring her heritage musically. Her fuel thus far has been, as she puts it, “this idea of ‘I have to do this. This is the marker of success.’ But now I’m shifting into being open to whatever comes to me. I still love to write music and to practice my instrument; I’m just trying now to do both from a place of gratitude, because my sound is an absorption of everything that I’ve listened to and learned in my life. Which is how it should be."

Dara co-wrote the title track to, "Oklahoma” the 2020 GRAMMY-winning "Best Americana Album" for singer-songwriter, Keb’ Mo’. Her six studio albums contain an array of unique stories and melodies that evoke a wide range of experiences and musical expressions including standards, spirituals & soul. The most recent, “Dreams of Waking: Music for A Better World,” highlights the call for change that has swept across The United States in recent years. Tucker presents reimagined classic singer-songwriter and soul compositions of the protest era through the lens of jazz. For this project, Dara’s collaborators include pianists Cyrus Chestnut and Sullivan Fortner, bassists Dezron Douglas and Vicente Archer, drummers Johnathan Blake and Joe Dyson along with saxophonist John Ellis and trumpeter Giveton Gelin.

As an independent artist and bandleader, Dara has toured nationally with her own bands and with hybrid guitarist Charlie Hunter's group. She's opened for Grammy-winning vocalist Gregory Porter, appeared on NPR's Jazz Night in America and made her national television debut on The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS. As a vocalist, Dara won the Johnny Mercer Foundation Award, the Ben Tucker Jazz Award and the silver medal in the American Traditions Vocal Competition. Dara has also contributed to the Huffington Post as a cultural commentator and essayist. Before leaving Nashville, she captured, "Song of the Year" and "Jazz Vocalist of the Year" awards at the Nashville Independent Music Awards.

Who do Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and an extensive list of rock icons have in common? Bill Evans, that’s who.

Evans is a world class saxophonist and producer who made his debut on the international music scene in the 1980’s with Miles Davis (at the age of 21) and recorded 6 records with Davis. This led to touring and recording with the likes of John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and Mick Jagger to name a few. Today, with 26 solo albums to date, Grammy nods, and countless collaborations and tours, Evans has continued to explore a dazzling variety of adventurous musical settings as a pioneering bandleader, consistently winning fans in the worldwide arena.

Recent highlights include touring and/or performing with his own Bill Evans Band, Robben Ford (Soulgrass meets Blues), Phil Lesh & Friends, The Mike Stern/Bill Evans Band, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Zen Amadeus - the group Bill and drum icon Simon Phillips put together. There were countless sit-ins with The Allman Brothers Band, Warren Haynes, and a collage of others. Evans spent much of 2016 and 2017 touring the world with the Bill Evans Band in support of his album “Rise Above”.

Bill toured extensively with the Randy Brecker/Bill Evans Soulbop band (formed in 2003) for over 15 years, which incorporated the many influences they both have had in their careers in the Jazz arena. This cooperation produced a live recording called the “Soulbop Band Live“.

Deeply intrigued and ultimately inspired by Jazz, as well as American roots music, Evans wrote, produced and recorded “Soulgrass” in 2005, garnering a Grammy nod in the process.( his 2nd one to date ) Soulgrass was a breakaway new fusion of jazz and American roots music, blending the banjo, fiddle, mandolin and Dobro, combining the best musicians from Jazz and Americana together. According to Bill “the music and soundscape change, but it’s still me and my saxophone!“ Three more CDs followed in the Soulgrass genre, “The Other Side of Something”, “Dragonfly”, and the 2014 release of “Live in Moscow” recorded during the first of two sold out U.S. State Dept sponsored tours of Russia. Each subsequent release found Bill pushing the musical boundaries of Jazz and Improvisational groove. Says Evans “Miles always told me to write and play what inspires me. I’ve kept true to his advice from the very beginning regardless of the challenges they may create. Miles gave me the confidence to believe in myself as a player and a composer.“

After 10 years of touring and breaking new ground with Soulgrass, in 2015 Bill introduced the “Bill Evans Band”, a hard hitting montage of Contemporary Jazz. The “Bill Evans Band” featured Bill on saxophone/vocals as well as drummer/singer Josh Dion. This band represented a seamless blend of Jazz and groove. Evans was also seen singing on stage for the first time. “People really relate to this band. The Bill Evans Band takes people on a musical journey. For me, that’s the definition of jazz – improvisation and exploration that people can still relate to. It doesn’t have to be mass confusion. I like to connect with the audience and inspire people with new kinds of music you can feel as well as hear.”