Harpist Alina Bzhezhinska, one of 15 European artists DownBeat critics selected as must-hear music.

“I always let the music lead me, and it’s led me to a really rich life,” Hilton said.

“Just like my parents who raised me to be who I am today, all my musical influences live inside me, in my bloodstream forever, as if they were my musical moms and dads,” Eli Degibri said.

“His music will live on forever,” the Onaje Allan Gumbs & Sandra Gumbs Community JazzArts Foundation said in a statement.

“I knew that I would be playing music, and that it would be part of my identity, the way that it’s part of my dad’s identity,” Gerald Clayton (right) said of his upbringing with his father, John.

“Songwriting is intuitive for me,” Eugenie Jones said.

“I came to terms with my influences — accepting that I love this or that player, but being comfortable in my own skin, recognizing that I have an identity,” Michael Weiss said.

BMI’s Senior Director of Jazz and Musical Theatre Patrick Cook (left) with Musical Director Andy Farber, prize winner Helen Sung and Assistant Musical Director Alan Ferber at the 33rd Annual BMI Jazz Composers Workshop Summer Showcase, held June 13 at Dizzy’s in New York.

Ernesto Cervini’s upcoming album Joy is based on author Louise Penn’s “Gamache” series of mystery books.

​“The power of unison is super,” Turner said. “It’s 10,000 years old, or more.”