"Paul Dunmall was born 1953, Welling, Kent; saxophones, clarinets, bagpipes, miscellaneous wind instruments.

As told to Watson (1989), Paul Dunmall was a working class lad from Welling who left school at 15 and spent two years repairing instruments at Bill Lewington's shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. He turned professional at 17 and, following two years touring Europe with a progressive rock band (Marsupilami), joined the Divine Light Mission, a spiritual movement led by Guru Maharaj Ji and moved from London to an ashram in America. He told Isham (1997), 'I moved to an ashram full of musicians - a music ashram - but it was still spiritual practice. That gave me a spiritual understanding through meditation, Coltrane's music, and all the rest of it, led me to that, and that's been a fundament in my life ever since - that I can actually sit down and meditate and forget my body. I realise how important meditation is in my life... but I don't do it so much these days.' During the three years he lived in America, Dunmall played with Alice Coltrane (in a big band with the Divine Light Mission) and toured for twelve months with Johnny 'Guitar' Watson.

Back in England, he played with Danny Thompson and John Stevens as well as folk musicians Kevin Dempsey, Martin Jenkins and Polly Bolton and then, in 1979 he became a founder member of Spirit Level (Tim Richards, piano; Paul Anstey, bass; Tony Orrell, drums), staying with the group until 1989. During his time with Spirit Level, Dunmall joined the two-tenor front line group Tenor Tonic with Alan Skidmore (1985), played and broadcast with Dave Alexander and Tony Moore in the DAM trio (1986) and formed the Paul Dunmall Quartet with Alex Maguire, Tony Moore and Steve Noble (1986).

In 1987 Paul Dunmall joined the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, being a constant member and appearing on all their recorded output from that date onward. The following year the improvising collective quartet Mujician was formed by Keith Tippett, Dunmall, Paul Rogers and Tony Levin and has continued to be a regular performing, touring and recording group, sometimes augmented by other musicians. Dunmall has also played in a trio with Keith and Julie Tippetts and in Keith Tippett's big band Tapestry. Two other duos have also sprung out of Mujician: Dunmall with Tony Levin (two CD releases) and Dunmall in folk-influenced outings with Paul Rogers. Another regular playing partner throughout this period and up until the present includes Elton Dean.

In 1995, two trios were formed, the first with Oren Marshall, tuba and Steve Noble, percussion, the second with John Adams, guitar and Mark Sanders, percussion, these sometimes coming together as a quintet. More recently, Dunmall has played in another reeds/guitar/drums trio with Philip Gibbs and Tony Marsh and there appears to be regular crossover between all these players. The Paul Dunmall Octet was founded in 1997."

Dunmall also has released a large number of albums and a box set on the UK FMR label, in various configurations and instrumentation.

"Born and based in Derby, Corey Mwamba's commitment to jazz and improvised music in Britain and Ireland drives all aspects of his work, whether through composition, playing, or promoting new music. Corey predominantly plays vibraphone; he also plays dulcimer and uses audio processing software. He is recognised as a highly creative improviser and composer working across a wide range of jazz and contemporary music. Mwamba's distinctive approach and tone is instantly recognisable in any context: a potent blend of pure sound, highly melodic phrases and ethereal textures; barely whispered chords and ear-piercing robotic screams. Corey won a PRSF/Jerwood Foundation Take Five artist development award in 2007; was short-listed for the Innovation category in the BBC Jazz Awards in 2008; and was nominated for "Rising Star on Vibraphone" in the 62nd, 63rd, and 64th DownBeat Annual Critics' Polls.

Mwamba's main group is the critically acclaimed Yana with Dave Kane (bass) and Joshua Blackmore (drums). This group exemplifies a core ideal of creating an "open, living music"; listening and responding spontaneously as a unit to make music that has love, language and a groove. Their first studio release don't overthink it was hailed as "engaging and evocative" (All About Jazz) and described as "the sound of three minds working together in a utopian zone, way beyond the individual ego - and producing something quite beautiful in the process" (Jazzwise). Dave and Corey are also in an improvising sextet called The Spirit Farm, formed out of research by pianist Adam Fairhall. Mwamba and Fairhall also form a trio with drummer Johnny Hunter called Backyard Chassis.

He is a member of the Anglo-French quartet Sonsale with bassist Andy Champion, drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq and cellist Valentin Ceccaldi. Corey also works with Andy in an improvising trio with saxophonist Ntshuks Bonga. He plays in duos with saxophonist Rachel Musson; pianist Robert Mitchell; percussionists Martin Pyne and Walt Shaw; and the multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson. [...]

Mwamba was granted an AHRC studentship for a Master of Research degree in Music at Keele University, for which he was awarded a distinction in 2014. Through this research, he developed new dark art, which is a notational and theoretical music system that takes early European medieval music practice as a starting point to create modern music. He is currently undertaking doctoral research in Jazz Studies at Birmingham City University on a Midlands3Cities/AHRC studentship."

"Steven Saunders-guitar, composer

Having recently graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with a first-class honours degree in Jazz, Steve Saunders is a composer working within both the contemporary classical and jazz idioms. He has studied composition and improvisation under such internationally renowned figures as John O'Gallagher, Hans Koller, Percy Pursglove, Jörg Achim Keller, Mike Williams, Mark Hodgson, Greg Cohen, Jez Franks and Chris Montague. With John O'Gallagher, Steve studied post-tonal music from the Second Viennese School to the late twentieth-century modernists, whilst his studies with Hans Koller and Jörg Achim Keller specialised in arranging and composition for large ensembles, ranging from a small big band up to, and including, a symphonic orchestra. Steve studied with Jörg and Greg Cohen at the prestigious Jazz-Institut Berlin, during his undergraduate exchange period.

Throughout his university epoch Steve also sought private lessons with composer and pedagogue Lee Differ, with whom he undertook studies in harmony, counterpoint and form, analysing the classical tradition through to the modernist period.

In his final year of study, Steve developed an interest in the French 'spectral' movement, most notably, composers Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey. This, alongside his technological advances inside IRCAM's own 'OpenMusic' software and his attraction to computer music, inevitably led to a composition exploring this area. Entitled Abstract Visions of a Foreign Land, this piece was a forty-minute, six-movement composition devised for an eleven-piece ensemble, aiming to amalgamate the intricacies of spectral harmony (as well as its relationship to time) with formal frameworks and improvisatory concepts taken from contemporary jazz. This piece was Steve's final project in the Conservatoire and was received to critical acclaim from a large audience, receiving one of the highest marks to ever be awarded to a final project.

After attending the premiere, US-based violin and percussion duo, 'String Struck Duo' (Shannon Riley and Gloria Yehilevsky respectively) commissioned Steve to write a piece for their series of winter concerts; this composition will premiere in Buffalo, New York and Chicago in winter 2019, and aims to further explore the concepts introduced by frequency-based composers.

Asides from his compositional pursuits, Steve has been an active guitarist on the UK jazz and improvised music scene for the past six years, leading several of his own projects (such as G L I T C H, his electronic based improvisatory trio, or his contemporary jazz group, 'Steve Saunders Sextet') as well as performing as a prolific sideman in other projects, playing alongside such notable musicians as John O'Gallagher, Jim Bashford, Percy Pursglove and Chris Mapp. Additionally, he has been an active educator, teaching guitar and music privately and in organisations for several years, as well as assisting in school workshops introducing children to improvisation and composition."

"Composer/ Bassist Dave Kane was born in a small town called Bangor in County Down in Northern Ireland. At age 16 he bought an electric bass guitar from a catholic priest for 50 pounds, and began moving his fingers up and down the ' E ' string in local punk and alternative bands. With aspirations of eventually playing on the other 3 strings of the bass, Kane began studying music at a local college with the internationally acclaimed composer and bandleader Brian Irvine. As a direct result of hanging out with Irvine, Kane began to explore the idioms of free improvisation, contemporary jazz, classical music, funk, metal, red wine and general mayhem! Further exploration was required, so Kane rowed across the irish channel on his double bass and studied Contemporary music (essay writing!) at Bretton Hall College of the University of Leeds.

Unfortunately there were no influential teachers there like Irvine, so he learnt how to use a library and subsequently encountered the music of John Cage, Edgar Varese, Cecil Taylor, Barry Guy, John Coltrane, Iannis Xenakis, Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa and John Zorn. Upon graduating from University Kane lived and worked in London for a while trying to get his 'shit together' and playing free music with some British Jazz legends including; Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall, Elton Dean, Evan Parker, Tony Levin, Mark Sanders, Paul Rogers, Alex Maguire and many other heads! Currently based in Leeds, Kane is a founder member of L.I.M.A. (Leeds Improvised Music Association) and the musical director/ composer for the L.I.M.A orchestra. An ever expanding large improv orchestra featuring some of the UK's finest young musicians inc, Matthew Bourne, Chris Sharkey, Christophe De Bezenac, Petter Fadnes. Other projects include; The internationally acclaimed Bourne/ Davis/ Kane. Dave Kane ( solo double bass + voice ). The Shank Trio (featuring saxophonist James Allsopp and drummer Tim Giles). Didrik Ingvaldsen's Quartet Alpha. Dave Kane's Rabbit Project."

"Just like his father, internationally respected free jazz drummer Tony Levin, Miles Levin is a jazz drummer."

"Handsworth-born Xhosa Cole is an embodiment of the success of numerous community arts programmes in Birmingham.

Having first played the Tenor at Andy Hamilton's Ladywood Community Music School, he's now among a long legacy of Birmingham Saxophonists. In October 2018, he won the BBC Young Jazz Musician competition following a critically acclaimed performance in the Final at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the BFI London Jazz Festival.

Xhosa's earliest memories of the arts are with ACE Youth Dance group. However, since playing in Holyhead School's Jazz band with Ray Prince and Sid Peacock he decided to pursue music and joined the Jazzlines Ensemble, Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra, Midland youth Jazz Orchestra among others. While studying at Bishop Vesey's Sixth Form Xhosa attended courses with the National Youth Jazz Collective and National Youth Wind Orchestra.

Xhosa continually pushes his playing while studying with teachers and mentors including Mike Williams, Jim Bashford and David Austin-Grey; Performing regularly around Birmingham; Writing for commissions by the Ideas of Noise Festival and Bobbie-Jane Gardener's 'For-Wards' and teaching Birmingham's next generation of talent alongside his former teacher Toni Grehan."