"Joe Morris was born in New Haven, Connecticut on September 13, 1955. At the age of 12 he took lessons on the trumpet for one year. He started on guitar in 1969 at the age of 14. He played his first professional gig later that year. With the exception of a few lessons he is self-taught. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and other guitarists of that period led him to concentrate on learning to play the blues. Soon thereafter his sister gave him a copy of John Coltrane's OM, which inspired him to learn about Jazz and New Music. From age 15 to 17 he attended The Unschool, a student-run alternative high school near the campus of Yale University in downtown New Haven. Taking advantage of the open learning style of the school he spent most of his time day and night playing music with other students, listening to ethnic folk, blues, jazz, and classical music on record at the public library and attending the various concerts and recitals on the Yale campus. He worked to establish his own voice on guitar in a free jazz context from the age of 17. Drawing on the influence of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor,Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman as well as the AACM, BAG, and the many European improvisers of the '70s. Later he would draw influence from traditional West African string music, Messian, Ives, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Lyons, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins. After high school he performed in rock bands, rehearsed in jazz bands and played totally improvised music with friends until 1975 when he moved to Boston.

Between 1975 and 1978 he was active on the Boston creative music scene as a soloist as well as in various groups from duos to large ensembles. He composed music for his first trio in 1977. In 1980 he traveled to Europe where he performed in Belgium and Holland. When he returned to Boston he helped to organize the Boston Improvisers Group (BIG) with other musicians. Over the next few years through various configurations BIG produced two festivals and many concerts. In 1981 he formed his own record company, Riti, and recorded his first LpWraparound with a trio featuring Sebastian Steinberg on bass and Laurence Cook on drums. Riti records released four more LPs and CDs before 1991. Also in 1981 he began what would be a six year collaboration with the multi-instrumentalist Lowell Davidson, performing with him in a trio and a duo. During the next few years in Boston he performed in groups which featured among others; Billy Bang, Andrew Cyrille, Peter Kowald, Joe McPhee, Malcolm Goldstein, Samm Bennett, Lawrence "Butch" Morris and Thurman Barker. Between 1987 and 1989 he lived in New York City where he performed at the Shuttle Theater, Club Chandelier, Visiones, Inroads, Greenwich House, etc. as well as performing with his trio at the first festival Tea and Comprovisation held at the Knitting Factory.

In 1989 he returned to Boston. Between 1989 and 1993 he performed and recorded with his electric trio Sweatshop and electric quartet Racket Club. In 1994 he became the first guitarist to lead his own session in the twenty year history of Black Saint/Soulnote Records with the trio recording Symbolic Gesture. Since 1994 he has recorded for the labels ECM, Hat Hut, Leo, Incus, Okka Disc, Homestead, About Time, Knitting Factory Works, No More Records, AUM Fidelity and OmniTone and Avant. He has toured throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe as a solo and as a leader of a trio and a quartet. Since 1993 he has recorded and/or performed with among others; Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Joe and Mat Maneri, Rob Brown, Raphe Malik, Ivo Pearlman, Borah Bergman, Andrea Parkins, Whit Dickey, Ken Vandermark, DKV Trio, Karen Borca, Eugene Chadborne, Susie Ibarra, Hession/Wilkinson/Fell, Roy Campbell Jr., John Butcher, Aaly Trio, Hamid Drake, Fully Celebrated Orchestra and others.

He began playing acoustic bass in 2000 and has since performed with cellist Daniel Levin, Whit Dickey and recorded with pianist Steve Lantner.

He has lectured and conducted workshops trroughout the US and Europe. He is a former member of the faculty of Tufts University Extension College and is currently on the faculty at New England Conservatory in the jazz and improvisation department. He was nominated as Best Guitarist of the year 1998 and 2002 at the New York Jazz Awards."

"Brad Barrett is a bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator born in Florida, raised in Texas, and currently residing in Jamaica Plain. Brad has been a resident artist at Conservatory Lab Charter School since 2010. Brad holds a BA in Music from Michigan State University, a Master's in Jazz Performance from New England Conservatory and is currently a Doctoral candidate in Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory. Brad has been fortunate to study with many legendary bassists, such as Dave Holland and John Pattictucci, and is an active member of the Boston jazz scene. Brad's background as an improviser brings an important piece to the musicianship of the student body at Conservatory Lab. In his years of teaching at CLCS, Brad believes he has helped to build one of the best public elementary/middle school lower string studios in the country."

"Classically trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London and an experienced orchestral and chamber music performer, Elinor has been crossing over to jazz and world music for several years. She has performed klezmer, yiddish, balkan, flamenco and jazz concerts and recorded on several albums in various parts of the world. In 2012 Elinor relocated to New York City in pursuit of a music education that only such a city can provide. She completed her master's in jazz performance at NYU under the tutelage of formidable jazz pianist, Kenny Werner. Inspired by the education she received, Elinor won a place in the prestigious doctorate of musical arts program at NEC, relocating once again to educational hub, Boston."

"Born in 1990, Dan O'Brien discovered a joy of sound and music throughout his early childhood listening to film scores and his parents' CD collection. At the age of nine he picked up his father's tenor saxophone, taking advantage of all the opportunities he could find in the Canton, CT public school instrumental music program, while starting on a journey into the world of improvisation by listening to his first musical idols, Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins, and composing short pieces that he would record with friends around town. By high school he was studying with local jazz educator John Mills and writing arrangements for the Canton High School jazz combo and big band, in which he was also playing saxophone and clarinet.

Dan's education continued at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT, where he earned the Bachelor of Science in Music Education degree in May 2012. He also completed the BM Jazz Studies coursework and took advantage of the broad experience of the school's faculty, studying saxophone with Dan Goble, Andrew Beals, and Javier Oviedo, composition with Kevin Jay Isaacs and Jamie Begian, clarinet with Paul Garment and Jo-Ann Sternberg, and flute with Dave Noland. As a standout student in the jazz program, he had opportunities to learn from and perform with master guest artists throughout his time at WestConn, including having his big band arrangement of "Joy Spring" critiqued by Maria Schneider, opening for Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, and participating in masterclasses and performances with Benny Golson, Rich Perry, Dave Liebman, John Scofield, Robert Glasper, Rufus Reid, and Dafnis Prieto.

Following WestConn, Dan pursued graduate studies at the University of North Texas, earning the Master of Music in Jazz Studies degree in May 2014, with a concentration in Composition and Arranging. Two years of dedicated study with Rich DeRosa allowed him to explore many compositional media and expand his concept and output beyond standard classifications of genre. His master's recital included a range of work from arrangements of jazz standards to original compositions incorporating free improvisation, an original narrated setting of Connie Wanek's poem "After Us" for small wind ensemble to a passacaglia treatment of Wayne Shorter's "Nefertiti" for chamber orchestra. In March 2014, his arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" was performed at Carnegie Hall by Chris Washburne's SYOTOS Band as one of three winners of the Carnegie Hall Musical Exchange "Arranging Ellington" competition. Beyond these accomplishments, his studies with John Murphy along with access to the enormous music collection at the UNT Willis Library allowed Dan to expand his musical conceptions through in-depth exploration of music by Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Igor Stravinsky, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Corigliano, Duke Ellington, George Lewis, George Russell, Henry Threadgill, and many other artists who have made profound contributions to music.

After graduating from UNT, Dan returned to Connecticut to take an Artist Instructor position at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, directing the award-winning Jazz Ensemble 3, arranging for and co-directing "The Real Ambassadors" Jazz Choir, and teaching courses in harmony/eartraining/jazz theory, improvisation, and jazz history. He has continued his studies, taking lessons with Ellery Eskelin (improvisation/solo saxophone) and Darcy James Argue (composition), and regularly attending the Improvisations series at Real Art Ways in Hartford to learn about free improvisation from Stephen Haynes and Joe Morris with guest artists. Dan is a member of the George Mastrogiannis Quintet playing woodwinds and plays tenor saxophone with the Nobuki Takamen Quartet. With fellow WCSU graduates Grant Beale, Silvain Castellano, and Dave Campbell he has co-founded the group Dagrasida, which has an emphasis on free improvisation and original composition."