Saxophonist, composer, arranger, producer, and educator Tim Ries has had a unique and varied career, which began in 1983 with the great Maynard Ferguson. He has performed with the Rolling Stones from 1999 to the present, and his other performing and recording credits include a who’s who of jazz, rock, pop, and world music icons: Stevie Wonder; Paul Simon; Donald Fagen; Michael Jackson; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Rod Stewart; Lyle Lovette; and jazz greats Red Garland, Donald Byrd, Hank Jones, Jack DeJohnette, Phil Woods, and more.

Ries has released nine CDs as a leader, including The Rolling Stones Project (Concord) and Stones World (Sunnyside). Both offer his versions of Stones classics arranged in jazz and world music genres and have drawn rave reviews across the globe.

Bernard Fowler is most widely known by millions of people around the world as the longtime collaborator and backing vocalist for the Rolling Stones, a position he has proudly held for thirty-one years and counting. His dynamic vocals have appeared on hundreds of albums for artists as diverse as Herbie Hancock, Yoko Ono, Alice Cooper, Bootsy Collins, and many more.

Fowler’s newest solo endeavor, Inside Out (released April 19 on Rhyme & Reason Records), is a brilliant reinterpretation of songs from the Rolling Stones catalog, recasting them in a mode often reminiscent of the pre-hip-hop work of the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron. In the process, Fowler forges a new, very personal identity for songs he’s performed for decades alongside the “the world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band.” The first single from Inside Out is a conga-driven remake of “Sympathy for the Devil,” but generally the album dives into Rolling Stones deep cuts. Darryl Jones, Steve Jordan, Ray Parker, Jr., and many other luminaries join in for some remarkable grooves.