"Born in Newark, NJ, Steve Swell has been an active member of the NYC music community since 1975. He has toured and recorded with many artists from mainstreamers such as Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to so called outsiders as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor and William Parker. He has over 40 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artists on more than 100 other releases. He runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the NYC public school system focusing on special needs children.

Swell has worked on music transcriptions of the Bosavi tribe of New Guinea for MacArthur fellow, Steve Feld in 2000. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers" (CIMP) ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He has also received grants from USArtists International in 2006, MCAF (LMCC) awards in 2008 and 2013 and has been commissioned twice on the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006 and at Roulette in 2012.

Steve was nominated for Trombonist of the Year 2008 & 2011 by the Jazz Journalists Association, was selected Trombonist of the Year 2008-2010 , 2012 and 2014-2015 by the magazine El Intruso of Argentina and received the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation. Steve has also been selected by the Downbeat Critics Poll in the Trombone category each year from 2010-2016.

Steve is presently a teaching artist through the American Composers Orchestra, Healing Arts Initiative , Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center (Bronx), the Jazz Foundation of America and Leman Manhattan Preparatory School.

Steve was also awarded the 2014 Creative Curricula grant (LMCC) for the project: "Metamorphoses: Modern Mythology in Sound and Words" which was taught in a month long residency at Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan."

"Since the mid-seventies, Ellen Christi has steadily gained ground as an important contributor to American improvised music and contemporary jazz. As a composer/vocalist, Ms. Christi has worked in varying performance venues ranging from multi-media theatrical productions to solo vocal concerts. She has also been an active advocate in supporting innovative performing artists through organizations that she has co-founded or directed.

Ms. Christi came to New York in the nascent period of the downtown loft scene. Jimmy Hopp was a positive catalyst introducing her to a musicians' collective at 501 Canal Street. And it was there that she lived and performed for many years with Tom Bruno, Ray Anderson, David Ware, Dave Burrell, and Coopermore.

Ms. Christi studied piano technique, composition, and arranging with Jaki Byard, an internationally acclaimed pianist/composer and a professor at the New England Conservatory of Music. She studied the bel canto technique with Galli Campi, a coloratura singer with the Metropolitan Opera. Earlier on in her career, she studied vocal technique and movement with Jeanne Lee, an avant-garde jazz vocalist. Presently, Ms. Christi is working with vocal coach, Dr. Virgina Davidson, composer/conductor and founder of New York Treble Singers.

Ms. Christi was one of the co-founders of New York City Artists' Collective, a non-profit organization committed to developing creative independence for artists, fostering appreciation of visual and performing arts, and record documentation/ production (N.Y.C.A.C. Records). New York City Artists' Collective was housed at 501 Canal Street, one ofthe prominent loft performance spaces of the 70's in Tribeca.

She is also the founder of Network Records, an independent record label promoting contemporary jazz music.

She has received numerous grants and commissions from the New York State Council of the Arts and Meet the Composer as well as having received varied commissions for dance and theater performances throughout the years. Her most recent commission has been funded through the prestigious Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. She is currently performing and teaching master classes in vocal technique/improvisation and movement throughout the United States and Europe.

Ms. Christi has been performing and recording with musicians in the United States and Europe for the past twenty five years. She has worked with: Tom Bruno, Ray Anderson, Mark Dresser, Andrew Cyrille, Reggie Workman, Rashid Ali, Tony Scott, Ed Blackwell, William Parker, Lisa Sokolov, Jeanne Lee, Kenny Wheeler, Steve McCall, Rahn Burton, Roy Campbell, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, and Hans Koch.

For the past twelve years, she has been collaborating with Fiorenzo Sordini, Claudio Lodati, Carlo Actis Dato, and Enrico Fazio in Italy. In Switzerland, she has been performing and recording with Thomi Hirt , Fritz Heigi, and Pit Gutmann of the trio, Illustrio. Currently she is working with Joe Gallant's Illuminati, a 22-piece ensemble,as well as performing and producing concerts with her present performing ensemble, Aliens' Talk. She is developing a world music project with Vincent Nguini of Cameroon. And the most recent recording project is with bassist, Habib Faye and balafonist, Babacar Konate of Senegal. A great portion of her time has been spent working as a producer for Bliss Corporation, a euro dance music production company in Torino, Italy."

"Tom Bruno was an American free jazz drummer, known for playing his drums in the subway of NYC. Founder member of Test and The New York City Artists' Collective. Born on April 14, 1932 in Canada; died on August 22, 2012."

"Roy Sinclair Campbell Jr. (September 29, 1952 - January 9, 2014) was an American trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, although he also performed rhythm and blues and funk during his career.

Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1952, Campbell was raised in New York City. At the age of fifteen he began learning to play trumpet and soon studied at the Jazz Mobile program along with Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan and Joe Newman. Throughout the 1960s, still unacquainted with the avant-garde movement, Campbell performed in the big bands of the Manhattan Community College. From the 1970s onwards he performed primarily within the context of free jazz, spending some of this period studying with Yusef Lateef.

In the early 1990s Campbell moved to the Netherlands and performed regularly with Klaas Hekman and Don Cherry. In addition to leading his own groups, he performed with Yo La Tengo, William Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Matthew Shipp, and other improvisors. Upon returning to the United States he began leading his group Other Dimensions In Music and also formed the Pyramid Trio, a pianoless trio formed with William Parker. He performed regularly as part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which is held annually in New York City.

He died in January 2014 of hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at the age of 61."

"A lone performer in a lightning-streaked costume wields an electric axe upon the stage. The guitar synthesizer crackles to life, and a six string orchestra issues forth. A banshee's wail slices through the night air beneath the dazzling lights. A performance of AJ Federico has begun.

Arthur James Federico is a veteran of the New York City music scene. A performer par excellence, he learned his trade from such a range of experiences as bartending at L'Amour's and playing in an 18-piece band. Armed with an Ibanez 770 guitar and GR-30 synthesizer, BR-8 drum machine and killer vocals, he has crafted an unforgettable style.

Edgy and eclectic, AJ's signature style blazes with electric intensity. The rebellious strains of the progressive instrumental called "AJs Race for Your Life", the intricate, sax-laced "Funky Face" and the anthemic "Cut You off At The Knees" carry a youthful intensity that has fans repeating the lyrics like a mantra, while the more thoughtful "It's Only A Dream" takes he listener on a psychedelic journey across distant mindscapes. Through all his crossing of genre boundaries, he has remained true to a single, identifiable style. And with two professional videos that have over a million or more million views each, AJ has built a fan base across the globe.

AJ's stream of musical and stylistic influences runs vast and deep. "I've been influenced by Miles Davis, Steve Vai, Michael Jackson, and even Broadway musicals. I also pay attention to contemporary artists." He has a strong stage presence, seeming born to the stage, and he is naturally expressive.

But AJ has not sought to recreate anything. "I strive to stay true to my material, even though that means not conforming to the "Top 40" variety so prevalent in the music world. I stand by my own brand." Never one to follow a formula for a "hit single," AJ delivers a unique sound that resonates with a jaded audience. And while the mainstay of his work speaks to the younger crowd, his slower offerings find a broader audience.

Passionate and focused, AJ's dedication shows in everything he does. "I'm doing what I feel is important with my life. But it's not about cash flow. I mean, it's nice to be able to pay the rent, but in the end, money is just a way to do things in the physical world. I am more concerned with being a musician. I also have a strong belief in God, and I want to be able to truly help people. When I have the credibility as a performer, I want to support charities like child cancer research and the prevention of animal cruelty."

With his heart in the right place and his music out to touch the hearts and minds of his fans, AJ looks like he has his future well in hand. "

"New York-based saxophonist and composer Sam Newsome works primarily in the medium of solo saxophone, an approach through which he gained world-wide critical acclaim with the release of his 2009 recording Blue Soliloquy: Solo Works for Soprano Saxophone, which received a five-star review in Downbeat magazine.

Many of the notes and sounds that comprise his compositions and improvisations are derived from his own personal sound palette of extended techniques: multi-phonics, flutter tonguing, percussive slap tonguing, soprano saxophone specific micro-tones, air sounds, key clicks, air hisses, acoustic sound manipulation, Tartini tones, and various forms of oral cavity manipulation. Newsome sees himself more along the lines of a visual artist who paints with notes and sounds rather than shapes and colors. "My music, " says Newsome, "is a type of improvisatory art music in which jazz functions more as a resource than a musical genre to be interpreted with stylistic specificity.

Even though Newsome's approach is unorthodox, it has proven to be very fruitful-musically and critically.

In 2017, he was nominated for the Herb Albert Award in the Arts; in 2016, he received the NYFA Artist's Fellowship for the Music/Sound category; the 2016 Jazz Journalist Association (JJA) selected him as a nominee for Soprano Saxophonist of the Year; and he placed #4 in the Soprano Saxophone category in the 64th Annual Downbeat Critics Poll--just behind Wayne Shorter and Dave Liebman.

Newsome has also released six critically acclaimed solo saxophone CDs including Sopranoville: Works for Prepared and Non-Prepared Saxophone (2017); The Straight Horn of Africa (2014); The Solo Concert: Sam Newsome Plays Monk and Ellington (2013); and The Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1 (2012). Jazz writer Ed Enright, from Downbeat Magazine, wrote that Mr. Newsome's The Straight Horn of Africa cd was "a modern masterpiece."

As a performer, Newsome is a frequent collaborator with drummer Andrew Cyrille, vocalist Fay Victor, saxophonist David Liebman, and pianist Ethan Iverson. He also plays in the bands of AfroHorn, and frequently performs solo saxophone concerts around New York and across the country.

Lastly, Newsome is an associate professor of music at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University, where he is the music program coordinator, and teaches courses in jazz improvisation, music theory, and directs the University's jazz ensemble."

"William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City, heralded by The Village Voice as, "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time."

In addition to recording over 150 albums, he has published six books and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists.

Parker's current bands include the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, In Order to Survive, Raining on the Moon, Stan's Hat Flapping in the Wind, and the Cosmic Mountain Quartet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore. Throughout his career he has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Milford Graves, and David S. Ware, among others."