John Raymond and Real Feels

John Raymond and Real Feels is a jazz trio based in New York City. Featuring unique bass-less instrumentation and approach to music, the group features highly-improvised interpretations of familiar songs such as “This Land is Your Land,” “Amazing Grace”, and “Yesterday.” Their latest album "Real Feels" also received glowing reviews from many major publications, including a 4 1/2 star review from DownBeat Magazine:

"Electrifyingly new and strangely familiar at the same time...with his mix of modern sounds and old-fashioned feeling, Raymond is steering jazz in the right direction."

John Raymond's music incorporates jazz, classical, folk and indie-rock influences. He was recently nominated in the Trumpet "Rising Star" category of Downbeat Magazine's Critics Poll. He recently joined the faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as assistant professor of music in jazz studies–trumpet, and he is also an active guest clinician & soloist at schools around the world such as the University of North Texas, Oberlin College, the Brubeck Institutue, New Trier High School, and Lawrence University. He has performed with musicians such as Billy Hart, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Orrin Evans, Linda Oh, Ethan Iverson, Dan Tepfer and Gilad Hekselman among others. He has also recorded with Grammy-nominated singer Sara Bareilles, Dove Award-winning producer Darnell Davis, and performed at events such as the Austin City Limits Music Festival and on NPR's 'Toast of the Nation.'

Named DownBeat Rising Star guitarist of 2017, Gilad Hekselman has been developing a reputation as one of the most promising guitarists in New York since his arrival in 2004. Gilad is the winner of the 2005 Gibson Montreux International Guitar Competition. He received the America - Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship for studies abroad to attend The New School in New York, where he completed his BFA in performing arts in 2008. After only a few years this native Israeli has shared the stage with some of the greatest artists in the New York City jazz scene including Chris Potter, Mark Turner, John Scofield, Anat Cohen, Ari Hoenig, Esperanza Spalding, Sam Yahel, Jeff Ballard, Gretchen Parlato, Avishai Cohen, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Tigran Hamasyan, Aaron Parks and Greg Hutchinson. He is constantly touring world-wide.

Drummer Colin Stranahan has been a sought after musician and recording artist since his teenage years in Denver, Colorado. One of the winners of the 2012 Thelonious Monk Drum Competition, he is now living in Brooklyn, New York and performs alongside artists such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jonathan Kreisberg, Dr. Lonnie Smith,Fred Hersch, Terence Blanchard, Dave Kikoski, Kevin Hays, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter. Colin Stranahan currently holds adjunct teaching positions at Aarhus Royal Academy of Music and London's Royal Academy of Music and maintains an active schedule of master classes all around the world.