Featured Label, Essential recordings from Mack Avenue Music Group

Founded in 1999 by Gretchen Valade, chairwoman at American apparel company Carhartt and passionate jazz fan, Michigan-based label Mack Avenue is home to some of the finest jazz players going, many of whom hail from North and South America; while you'll see some big-name artists on its roster like Christian McBride, Danilo Pérez and Kevin Eubanks, Mack Avenue also champion young emerging artists, having been the home to the likes of Veronica Swift and Cécile McLorin Salvant when they made their major-label debuts.

In its over two decades of existence Mack Avenue has amassed quite the catalogue, but where to start? We've collected some of our favourite artists from the Mack Avenue past and present...

Veronica Swift

Vocalist Veronica Swift's music career began much earlier than many of her contemporaries thanks to her upbringing with two musical parents, the late pianist Hod O'Brien and vocalist/educator Stephanie Nakasian, releasing her debut album Veronica's House of Jazz at just 9 years of age. By 25 she'd toured with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and played headlining shows at jazz clubs like Birdland and the Jazz Standard. We've been big fans of Swift over the years - you can read our reviews of her 2019 Mack Avenue debut Confessions here, and her 2021 album This Bitter Earth here.

Christian McBride

Bassist and composer Christian McBride boasts over 300 recording credits - and that's just counting his sideman gigs - including the bands of Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and many more. McBride has been releasing his own music with Mack Avenue since 2009, his work encompassing both small-ensemble recordings of various sizes and the highly-acclaimed Christian McBride Big Band.

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Although she's recently moved to Nonesuch Records for her latest album Ghost Song, much like Veronica Swift earlier in this list, fellow vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant also made her major-label debut on Mack Avenue with her 2013 album WomanChild. That debut album would end up landing her a 2014 Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album, as well as a Downbeat 'Album of the Year'; Cécile would eventually go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2016 for For One to Love.

Connie Han

Up-and-coming jazz pianist and Steinway artist Connie Han was picked up by Mack Avenue for her 2018 album Crime Zone, and followed it up with 2020's Iron Starlet. Citing jazz piano greats like McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea as some of her key inspirations for her work, Han's style draws heavily on bebop with a modern edge.

Danilo Pérez

Panaman musician Danilo Pérez is not only a jazz pianist and composer, but humanitarian and activist. Besides making records, Pérez was also behind the founding of the Panama Jazz Festival, itself a supporter of the Danilo Pérez Foundation which brings music education to the most impoverished parts of Panama. Pérez has recorded music on Mack Avenue since 2010's Providencia, an eleven-part suite encompassing Latin American, classical and jazz sounds, and as recently as earlier this year released Crisálida with his Global Messengers band of Berklee Global Jazz Institute graduates.

Kevin Eubanks

Guitarist and composer Kevin Eubanks kept himself busy for a good 15 years as the bandleader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, during which he took a break from recording his own studio albums and only performed on a handful of other projects. While in the mid-90s Eubanks was releasing albums on Blue Note, after this stint on the Tonight Show ended Eubanks returned to the studio to record 2010's Zen Food for Mack Avenue, and their relationship has continued since with more new recordings including a duets album with fellow axeman Stanley Jordan.

Cameron Graves

Pianist Cameron Graves is an interesting chap to listen to - it was his fast, technical playing style informed by heavy metal bands - on his short but sweet 2021 album Seven - that first turned me on to his music, while the preceding Planetary Prince was a lengthy concept record that spanned post-bop, fusion, hip-hop and rock.

Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett's career kicked off with a bang when he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra (then led by Mercer Ellington) at just 18 years old, landing him further gigs in the bands of Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Freddie Hubbard to name a few. While he made his bandleading debut in 1985 on Criss Cross Jazz with Introducing Kenny Garrett, his recent run of albums - including last year's excellent Sounds From the Ancestors - have all been with Mack Avenue.