"Composer/bassist Giovanni Maier started his professional career in 1986 at the age of 21, after finishing his formal studies in classical music at the "G. Tartini" Music Academy in Trieste and having pursued independently his personal interest in jazz music.

In 1986 he co-founded the Transition Jazz Group and, with this and other ensembles, began to write and perform original music in Italy and Europe.

In 1989, he formed his first ensemble to perform his own compositions, and has since recorded over 80 albums featuring his work.

As a member of ensembles, he has performed in many concerts throughout Europe, in North and South America, Japan, North Africa and the Middle East.

As a bassist he features on over 240 albums, including recordings with Enrico Rava, Gianluigi Trovesi, the Italian Instabile Orchestra, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Tim Berne, Marc Ribot, Keith and Julie Tippett, Louis Moholo, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Pino Minafra, Roberto Ottaviano, Carlo Actis Dato, Tiziano Tononi, Daniele Cavallanti, Stefano Battaglia, Michele Rabbia, Chris Speed, Scott Amendola as well as with other leading figures in creative music.

He is currently active as a solo contrabassist, composing for, and performing and recording with, a variety of ensemble projects.

Giovanni Maier is also actively engaged in the field of education through the presentation of workshops and as lecturer at the "G. Tartini" Music Academy in Trieste."

"Alexander Hawkins is a composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader who is 'unlike anything else in modern creative music' (Ni Kantu) and whose recent work has reached a 'dazzling new apex' (Downbeat). A largely self-taught improviser, he works in a vast array of creative contexts. His own highly distinctive soundworld is forged through the search to reconcile both his love of free improvisation and profound fascination with composition and structure. In 2012, he was chosen as a member of the first edition of the London Symphony Orchestra's 'Soundhub' scheme for young composers. He also received a major BBC commission in late 2012 for a fifty minute composition: One Tree Found was first performed and broadcast in March 2013, and was subsequently performed and broadcast for the WDR in Cologne (2014). He has also twice been commissioned by the London Jazz Festival (once as composer, once as an arranger), and by the Cheltenham Jazz Festival (2016).

An in-demand sideman, Hawkins continues to be heard live and on record with vast array of contemporary leaders of all generations, including the likes of Evan Parker, John Surman, Joe McPhee, Mulatu Astatke, Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Marshall Allen, Rob Mazurek, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Harris Eisenstadt, amongst many others. He has also been noted in recent years for his performances in the bands of legendary South African drummer, Louis Moholo-Moholo. Concert appearances have taken him to club, concert and festival stages worldwide."