"Matt Lavelle (Paterson NJ 1970), began his music career with a High School Big Band tour of the Soviet Union in 1988, and then a 5 year period of study with Hildred Humphries, a Swing era veteran that played with Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and many others of the time. Lavelle played Trumpet during this time as a member of Hildred's band.

Lavelle then made his move on New York City to go through the trials of all new Jazz musicians, and played Straight-ahead Jazz until 1995. When he relocated to Kingston New York, and immersed himself in the study of the Bass-clarinet, keeping the trumpet going, creating the only known successful double of these 2 challenging instruments.

Lavelle returned to New York seeking out what is known as the Downtown community in 1999, which he has been a member of to this day (2009). Along the way Lavelle has played with William Parker, which also consisted of a tour in Sardinia Italy, Sabir Mateen, consisting of a tour of Northern Italy, and also toured in Scotland with an improvisation collective known as Eye Contact.

Lavelle began study with Jazz Legend Ornette Coleman in 2005, having huge impact and transformational impact on the Musician, also resulting in the addition of the Alto Clarinet as another voice.

Matt also was the key in the return and resurgence of Jazz legend Giuseppi Logan, playing on and producing his comeback record after a 40 year absence.

Lavelle has played and collaborated with Ornette Coleman, Giuseppi Logan, Hildred Humprhries, William Parker, Eric Mingus, Sabir Mateen, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, Jemeel Moondoc, Mat Maneri, Ras Moshe, Potato Valdez, and many others."

"Ras Moshe has been playing in various groups throughout New York City for almost twenty years, with William Hooker, Sabir Mateen, Steve Swell, Marc Edwards and others. His style has been compared to post-1965 John Coltrane and Frank Wright, among others. Born and raised in New York, and with a family history rich in the jazz tradition, Ras has uniquely positioned himself to bring the lineage of free jazz into the present day."

"Composer and Tubist, Ben Stapp, although classically trained with Tommy Johnson and Roger Bobo while pursuing his love for jazz tuba, Ben further opened up his horizons while living in Portugal, hanging out at Clean Feed's record store. Since then he's been living in New York since 2007 and experienced the diversity of New York's music scene including engagements with Steven Bernstein's Universal Melody Brass Band, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), toured with Red Barrat, played with the Garden State Philharmonia at Carnegie Hall, with Slavic Soul Party, Mario Pavone's Accordion Project, playing Earle Brown with the ECCE Ensemble at MIT, frequent traditional jazz and brass band freelancer, Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain, tubist for the Chelsea Symphony, with TILT at Lincoln Center to Premier John Luther Adam's Sila, for Eli Yamin's Blues Band, Sousaphone player for Jacob Sac's live Heavens Trombone Choir, plays tuba in Stephen Haynes Quintet with Joe Morris, Warren Smith, and William Parker, and dedicated Colombian-music tubist with Martin Vejarano's Cumbia River Band, Chia's Dance Party, Pablo Mayor's Folkore Eurbano, and the experimental Alejandro Florez' Tin Throat Ensemble."

"Stephanie Griffin is an innovative violist/composer based in New York City. She founded the Momenta Quartet in 2004, is a member of Ensemble Ipse and the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and has received prestigious composition fellowships from the Instituto Sacatar (Brazil), the Bronx Arts Council, the Jerome Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School and teaches at Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges."

"Claire de Brunner first played the bassoon at the age of 14, and was soon awarded a scholarship to study with the principal bassoonist of the NY Philharmonic and to attend the Dalcroze School of Music. She later attended the High School of Music and Art where she earned a scholarship to study at North Carolina School of the Arts. She went on to study with Stephen Maxym at the Manhattan School of Music and played in various orchestras and chamber ensembles before deciding to venture beyond the classical arena.

In the 1980s she answered an ad in the Village Voice, which called for a musician who loved Kafka, Captain Beefheart and Lennie Tristano, having no idea who the latter two were at that time, and shortly thereafter became a founding member of 101 Crustaceans, an integral band of the post-punk era in NYC. She later joined Church of Betty, another seminal band at that time. She played at the major venues of the era including the Knitting Factory, Sidewalk Café, Pyramid, ABC No Rio, Dixon Place, CBGB's and has recorded CDs with both bands.

In the early 90s, having been encouraged to build on her ability to improvise, she studied jazz improvisation with saxophonist Lee Konitz and pianist Connie Crothers. She found herself, in effect, having to learn an entirely new instrument and it was nearly a decade before she began to feel a sense of mastery in the genre.

She has since played with many notable musicians including Ras Moshe, Ed Pastorini, Carol Liebowitz, Francois Grillot, Daniel Carter, Matt Lavelle, Chris Rael, Oren Bloedow, Ratzo Harris, Blaise Siwula, Deep Singh, Adam Caine, Pete Drungle, Tom Zlabinger, Anders Nilsson, Vlada Tomova and Rima Fand, to name a few.

In 2010 she co-produced the CD Macroscopia, which was released on the Metier label and features a quartet comprised of New York free jazz musicians including Daniel Carter.

She continues to play at music venues in NY such as The Firehouse Space, BAMcafe, Ibeam, Barbes, Issue Project Room, Goodbye Blue Monday and has several recording projects in the works.

While her musical development is varied, it reflects the natural outgrowth of the ongoing pursuit and exploration of her deepest passion."

"Hilliard Greene has been studying music for more than 30 years and has been playing professionally over twenty. His emphasis is in classical, jazz, rock, blues, R&B, Tango as well as the music of other continents and US regions, and solo performances.

Greene studied at the University of Northern Iowa and at Berklee College of Music in Boston and has been teaching private students and classes for over 25 years. He is currently a faculty member at the Bass Collective in New York City. He continues to teach privately and to do workshops and master classes in upright and electric bass for both children and adults.

He performs widely in the New York City area: recitals, nightclubs, concert halls (including Carnegie Hall), recording studios, radio and television. Also performs in major cities throughout the United States, Canada, Europe east and west, Asia, the West Indies, and South America.Greene performed and recorded with Jimmy Scott for 20+ years, serving as his Musical Director from 1995 to 2013. Greene was also Cecil Taylor's Concert Master for his group "Phtongos". He was in residence at Minton's a.k.a. legendary Minton's Playhouse as the house bassist.

Greene works / worked with Rashied Ali, Barry Altschul, Lucian Ban, Billy Bang, Kenny Barron, David Berger, Karl Berger, Cindy Blackman, T.K. Blue, Dougie Bowen, Joanne Brackeen, Oscar Brown Jr., Uri Caine, Roy Campbell, Carnival Cruise Lines Carnival Skin, Daniel Carter, Carla Cook, Akua Dixon, Dave Douglas, John Esposito, Bobby Few, Erik Friedlander, Camille Gainer, Eddie Gale, Charles Gayle, Eddie Gladden, Electric Symphony, Alex Harding, George Haslam, Jon Hendricks, John Hicks, Jason Kao Hwang, The Inkspots, Yoron Israel, Vijay Iyer, Klaus Kugel, Leroy Jenkins, Howard Johnson, Frank Lacy, Gloria Lynne, Michael Marcus, Sabir Mateen, Jason Moran, Bern Nix, Greg Osby, Jimmy Ponder, Don Pullen, Lenore Raphael, Matana Roberts, Perry Robinson, Josh Roseman, Vanessa Rubin, Nipsy Russell, Warren Smith, Steve Swell, Grady Tate, Jacky Terrasson, Gebhard Ullman, Marlene VerPlanck, Village Vanguard Orchestra, Petras Vysniauskas, Jack Walrath, Bobby Watson, Mars Williams...

Hilliard Greene has recently formed The In&Out Band, a trio using jazz standards as a vehicle for free improvisation. Also, he is co-leader of the classical crossover ensemble ZigZag Quartet. He produced three CD's with his own ensemble The Jazz Expressions, a solo bass CD entitled "Alone", and co-produced self-titled ZigZag Quartet CD."