"Composer/Performer Ned Rothenberg has been internationally acclaimed for both his solo and ensemble music, presented for the past 33 years on 5 continents. He performs primarily on alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, and the shakuhachi - an endblown Japanese bamboo flute. His solo work utilizes an expanded palette of sonic language, creating a kind of personal idiom all its own. In an ensemble setting, he leads the trio Sync, with Jerome Harris, guitars and Samir Chatterjee, tabla, works with the Mivos string quartet playing his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings and collaborates around the world with fellow improvisors. Recent recordings include this Quintet, The World of Odd Harmonics, Ryu Nashi (new music for shakuhachi), and Inner Diaspora, all on John Zorn's Tzadik label, as well as Live at Roulette with Evan Parker, and The Fell Clutch, on Rothenberg's Animul label."

"Jerome Harris has won international recognition as one of the more versatile and penetrating stylists of his generation on both guitar and bass guitar.

Jerome's first major professional performances were as bass guitarist with Sonny Rollins in 1978; from 1988 to 1994 he was Rollins' guitarist, and appears on five of his recordings. Over the past two decades, Jerome has also recorded and/or performed live on six continents with such jazz notables as Jack DeJohnette, Bill Frisell, Ray Anderson, Don Byron, Bobby Previte, Oliver Lake, Amina Claudine Myers, Bob Stewart, George Russell, Julius Hemphill, and Bob Moses.

His extensive international work has included several stints in Japan with Sonny Rollins, as well as tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department: to six southeastern African countries with saxophonist Sam Newsome and guitarist Marvin Sewell, to India and southeast Asia with flutist Jamie Baum and guitarist Kenny Wessel, to India and several Middle Eastern countries with vibraphonist Jay Hoggard's group, and to five African nations with saxophonist Oliver Lake's reggae/jazz/funk band "Jump Up."

In 1999, Harris served as arranger, rhythm guitarist and assistant to musical director Vernon Reid in the "Joni's Jazz" tribute concert staged in New York's Central Park--with Joni Mitchell herself in attendance--accompanying singers as diverse in style as Chaka Khan, Jane Siberry, Duncan Sheik and P.M. Dawn. Other Harris credits include a Broadway stint as guitarist in the South African R&B/rock musical Kat and the Kings, as well as work on industrial, commercial and film score dates for Galen Communications Group, Rick Lyon Music, and Richard Eisenstein.

Over the years, Jerome Harris has appeared on more than fifty recordings, making for a lengthy and wide-ranging discography. His most recent CD as a leader is Rendezvous--the first-ever jazz release by the audio connoisseur magazine Stereophile--which captures the drive and grace of his quintet in gorgeous high-resolution sound. On Hidden in Plain View (New World), Jerome's acoustic bass guitar underpins an all-star group reinterpreting compositions by jazz trailblazer Eric Dolphy. In Passing (Muse) showcases the first of Jerome's groups to utilize a reeds-trombone-vibes-bass-drums line-up. Jerome's debut as a leader was Algorithms (Minor Music), featuring saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, who has also appeared on the three subsequent Harris releases.

Among Harris's appearances on record as featured sideman are Don Byron's A Fine Line: Arias and Lieder (Blue Note), Malinke's Dance, by Marty Ehrlich's Travelers Tales (Omnitone), Jack DeJohnette's Oneness (ECM), the Ray Anderson Lapis Lazuli Band's Funkorific (Enja) and Ned Rothenberg & Sync's Inner Diaspora (Tzadik), Harbinger (Animul), and Port of Entry (Intuition). Each showcases Jerome's expressive range, stylistic insight, and creativity.

Jerome Harris conceived and organized "Living Time": George Russell's Musical Life and Legacy, an in-depth examination of the work and life of legendary composer/bandleader/theorist/educator George Russell (1923-2009). While Russell's innovative music, challenging ideas and pivotal position in jazz history have been celebrated around the world, he remains somewhat under-recognized in the United States. This event provided a major appraisal of Russell's multi-faceted career and his important contributions to African American improvisational art music. Panelists included David Baker, Gary Giddins, Cameron Brown, Joe Hunt, Stanton Davis, Marty Ehrlich, Ken Schaphorst, Ben Schwendener and Russell biographer Duncan Heining. Professors Ingrid Monson of Harvard and John Howland of Rutgers served as panel moderators. The event was presented by Boston's New England Conservatory of Music on March 21, 2010, as part of its celebration of the 40th anniversary of its jazz studies program, the first fully accredited jazz program at a music conservatory; George Russell taught at NEC from 1969 to 2004.

Harris's scholarly interests have led to an essay, "Jazz on the Global Stage," published in the anthology The African Diaspora: A Musical Perspective, edited by Ingrid Monson (Garland). In this study, he offers an insider's view of the history, present state and future implications of the spread and flourishing of jazz in locales far from its African-American birthplace. He is currently (fall 2009; 2007-2008) adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, teaching courses on the history and social context of jazz and blues.

Born and raised in New York, Jerome began his instrument studies on accordion, then played violin in a middle-school orchestra. Self-taught on guitar as well as bass guitar, as a teenager he immersed himself in a broad range of musics--rock, pop, blues, country, gospel, folk and R&B--as both fan and player.

After earning a B.A. in psychology and social relations at Harvard College in 1973, Harris attended New England Conservatory of Music as a scholarship student in jazz guitar. He graduated with honors in 1977.

In addition to his work on guitar and bass guitar, Jerome performs as a singer, has done voice-over work for audio production houses, and studies several percussion instruments."

"Billy Martin was born in NYC in 1963 to a Radio City Rockette and a concert violinist. At age 17, he devoted himself to music and dove into Manhattan's thriving, eclectic musical landscape. In the years to follow, he honed his craft everywhere from Broadway orchestra pits to Brazilian nightclubs and burgeoning underground performance spaces.

From the roots of the downtown scene he emerged with Medeski Martin and Wood, bridging the harmonic complexity of jazz, the conversational fluency of free improvisation, and the groove and swagger of classic R&B and funk. A series of albums and high-profile collaborations with John Scofield, John Zorn, iggy Pop, Natalie Merchant, and others, brought the band international acclaim.

Martin has relentlessly pursued diverse musical contexts, from free improvisation to chamber compositions to film scores. Much of his work is available via his Amulet Records label, which recently released the Road to Jajouka-a series of collaborations (produced by Martin) between the Master Musicians of Jajouka and such artists as Ornette Coleman, Flea, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Lee Ranaldo, Bill Laswell, Mickey Hart, MMW and more.

Martin is also an accomplished filmmaker and visual artist, whose work has been exhibited in solo and group installations around the world including 2014's Cartegena de indias Bienal in Colombia and the Drawing Sound series at The Drawing Center in NYC (2015)

What began for Martin as tireless enthusiasm for music, percussion, and improvisation evolved into a wide ranging search for the roots of inspiration. Among the most valuable undertakings in this ongoing exploration is teaching. "When I teach," he explains, "I learn and discover methods to build my vocabulary and style, and I love to help others do the same"

His experiences as a teacher, student, and musician led him to create and direct Life on Drums, a cinematic exploration of percussion and the creative process with his childhood drum instructor, Allen Herman.

Billy is currently Executive Artistic Director and CEO of the legendary Creative Music Studio

He also owns and manages his own record label Amulet Records."

"Adam Rudolph (born September 12, 1955) is a composer, improviser, and percussionist actively involved in modern music. For the past four decades Rudolph has performed extensively in concert throughout North & South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Rudolph has been hailed as "a pioneer in world music" by the New York Times and "a master percussionist" by Musician Magazine. He has released over 25 recordings under his own name, featuring his compositions and percussion work. Rudolph composes for his ensembles Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures, the Hu Vibrational percussion group, and Go: Organic Orchestra, an 18 to 54 piece ensemble for which he has developed an original music notation and conducting system. He has taught and conducted hundreds of musicians worldwide utilizing the Go: Organic Orchestra concept. In 1995 Rudolph premiered his opera The Dreamer, based on the text of Friedreich Nietzche's "The Birth of Tragedy."

Rudolph has performed with Don Cherry, Jon Hassell, Sam Rivers, Pharaoh Sanders[1], Bill Laswell, Herbie Hancock[1], Foday Musa Suso[1], Massimo Laguardia, L. Shankar, A.A.C.M. co-founders Fred Anderson and Muhal Richard Abrams, Wadada Leo Smith, and Omar Sosa. He has toured extensively and recorded 15 albums with Yusef Lateef including duets and their large ensemble compositional collaborations.

Rudolph grew up in the Hyde Park area of the Southside of Chicago. From an early age he was exposed to the live music performances of the great blues and improvising artists who lived nearby. As a teenager, Rudolph started playing hand drums in local streets and parks and soon apprenticed with elders of African American improvised music. He performed regularly in Chicago with Fred Anderson and in Detroit with the Contemporary Jazz Quintet. In 1973 Rudolph played on his first record date with Maulawi Nururdin and with the CJQ at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz festival.

In 1977 he lived and studied in Ghana, where he experienced trance ceremonies. In his travels throughout West Africa he saw how music can come from a cosmological grounding beyond music itself and can also be about something beyond music itself. In 1978 he lived in Don Cherry's house in the Swedish countryside. Cherry inspired him to start composing and showed him about Ornette Coleman's concept and the connection of music to nature.

Rudolph is known as one of the early innovators of what is now called "World Music." in 1978 he and Gambian Kora player Jali Foday Musa Suso, along with fellow percussionist Hamid Drake, co-founded The Mandingo Griot Society[1], one of the first groups to combine African and American music. In 1988, he recorded the first fusion of American and Gnawa music with sintir player and singer Hassan Hakmoun. Rudolph intensely studied North Indian Tabla for over 15 years with Pandit Taranath Rao. He learned hundreds of drum compositions and about how music is a form of Yoga - the unity of mind, body and spirit. In 1988 Rudolph began his association with Yusef Lateef, with whom he has recorded over 15 albums including several of their large ensemble collaborations. Lateef introduced Rudolph to the inspirational practice of Autophysiopsychic Music - "that which comes from one's spiritual, physical and emotional self." Rudolph has performed worldwide with Dr. Lateef. Their performances have ranged from their acclaimed duet concerts to appearances as guest soloists with the Köln, Atlanta and Detroit Symphony Orchestras.

Rudolph continues to also create visual art - painting, drawing, photography ‑ and to write. In 2006, his rhythm repository and methodology book, Pure Rhythm was published by Advance Music, Germany. In 2010 Rudolph's article Music and Mysticism: Rhythm and Form was published in Arcana V, edited by John Zorn. Other essays have been published by Parabola Magazine and Morton Books. Rudolph has been on the faculty of Creative Music Studio (New York and Istanbul), Esalen Institute, California Institute of the Arts and the Danish Jazz Federation Summer Institute. Rudolph has received grants and compositional commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, Mary Flagler Cary Trust, the NEA, Arts International, Durfee Foundation, Phaedrus Foundation and American Composers Forum."