Gerard Presencer Gerard Presencer Gerard Presencer (born 12 September 1972) is an English jazz trumpeter. Presencer showed his first interest in what was to become his chosen instrument, the trumpet, at nine. He attributes his early determination to become a trumpeter to hearing Roy Eldridge's solo from a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert. He has cited Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Wheeler, Woody Shaw, and Clifford Brown as early influences. When he was eleven, he became the youngest trumpeter with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. At the age of 18, he began playing with pianist Stan Tracey, in his big
Sylvia Brooks Sylvia Brooks Sylvia Brooks is an American jazz singer. Brooks was born as Sylvia Victoria Ippolito in Miami Beach, Florida. Her father, Don Ippolito, was a jazz pianist who has played with various other icons such as Ira Sullivan, Buddy Rich, Peggy Lee, and Dizzie Gillespie, and her mother, Johanna Dordick, was an opera singer, who founded the Los Angeles Opera Theatre. Brooks began her professional life as an actress; in 2009, she began singing Jazz and formed a collaboration with Thomas Garvin who wrote the arrangements for her debut album "Dangerous Liaisons". In 2012, Brooks released her second album,