"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."

"Dave Sewelson was born in Oakland, California, in 1952. There was a half-size violin kept in the closet in case he wanted to be a concert violinist. He played trumpet at the age of nine, moving to baritone horn at the age of eleven, followed by a stint on drums until settling on electric bass at thirteen, adding upright bass to the mix until the switch to saxophone at the age of twenty-one. He has specialized in the baritone saxophone since the early seventies.

Sewelson arrived in New York City in the summer of 1977, settled in the East Village becoming an active member of the Downtown Scene, playing with the 25 O'Clock Band, Jemeel Moondoc's Jus Grew Orchestra, William Parker's Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra and Saheb Sarbib's Multinational Big Band and the Microscopic Septet. He has played with many wonderful musicians, including, Billly Bang, John Zorn, Peter Kuhn, Alex Cline, Roy Campbell, Sonny Murray, Kidd Jordan, Daniel Carter, Will Connell and Stephanie Stone.. Dave's current projects include, Two Sisters Inc. with David Hofstra and Claire Daly, a quartet with Peter Kuhn, Smooth Freejazz, Sewelsonics, and The Daves."

"Karen Borca (born September 5, 1948, Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States) is an American avant-garde jazz and free jazz bassoonist.

Borca studied music at the University of Wisconsin with John Barrows and Arthur Weisberg, graduating in 1971. While there she met Cecil Taylor, who taught there during the 1970/71 academic year; she studied with him and played in his big bands, ensembles and the Cecil Taylor Unit, and was his assistant at Antioch College, Ohio, in the Black Music Program. She was an assistant to saxophonist Jimmy Lyons in 1974 during his artist in residence at Bennington College, Vermont and married the longtime Taylor sideman; she played in Lyons's band for 12 years until he died in 1986. She performed with her own bands at the Newport Jazz Festival New York City Salute to Women in Jazz, '78 and '79, Soundscape, Vision Festival, Jazz Fest Berlin and other festivals, concerts, clubs and lofts.

She has performed with her own bands in New York City, the U.S. ,and Europe, with musicians such as Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Bill Dixon, Butch Morris, Marco Eneidi, Joel Futterman, Sonny Simmons, Alan Silva, and Jackson Krall."

"Ryan T. Frazier aka Heru Shabaka-ra is a trumpeter, writer and physicist based in Philadelphia. He has been a contributor to Philadelphia's free Jazz and afro-futurist punk scenes for almost a decade. Frazier has worked with a wide range of artists, including underground hiphop/punk band Mighty Paradocs, renowned poets Sonia Sanchez and free Jazz bassist William Parker. With his own band, Napoleon Dolomite, his musical approach is built from the mathematics of Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Wu Tang Clan and MF Doom. Studying music and jazz culture/tradition with the great Donald Byrd as a teenager, he is currently an apprentice in the Sun Ra Arkestra, studying under its legendary director, Marshall Allen."

"As a composer, performer, instrument builder/designer, storyteller, teacher, mentor, and organizer, Cooper-Moore [b. August 31, 1946] has been a major, if somewhat behind-the-scenes, catalyst in the world of creative music for over 40 years. As a child prodigy Cooper-Moore played piano in churches near his birthplace in the Piedmont region of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. His performance roots in the realm of avant jazz music date to the NYC Loft Jazz era in the early/mid-70s. His first fully committed jazz group was formed in 1970 - the collective trio Apogee with David S. Ware and drummer Marc Edwards. Sonny Rollins asked them to open for him at the Village Vanguard in 1973, and they did so with aplomb. A studio recording of this group was made in 1977, and issued as Birth of a Being on hatHut under Ware's name in 1979 (re-mixed and re-issued in expanded form on AUM Fidelity in 2015!). Following an evidently rather trying European tour with Ware, Beaver Harris, and Brian Smith in 1981, Cooper-Moore returned home and completely destroyed his piano, with sledgehammer and fire, in his backyard. He didn't play piano again until some years after, instead focusing his energies from 1981-1985 on developing and implementing curriculum to teach children through music via the Head Start program. Returning to New York in 1985, he spent a great part of his creative time working and performing with theatre and dance productions, largely utilizing his hand-crafted instruments. It was not until the early 90s, when William Parker asked him to join his group In Order To Survive, that Cooper-Moore's pianistic gifts were again regularly featured in the jazz context. In the early 'aughts the group Triptych Myth was his own first regular working jazz group in decades and together they blazed some trails and released two albums: one rich formative, and one exquisite. A destined creative re-union with David S. Ware in the Planetary Unknown quartet, the Digital Primitives trio with Assif Tsahar & Chad Taylor, and continued work with William Parker followed. Cooper-Moore's creative life continues well-strong and unabated into the present day. He will be/was the Lifetime Achievement Honoree at the 22nd iteration of Vision Festval, NYC on May 29, 2017."

"Yuko Fujiyama: Born in Sapporo, Japan in 1954, Yuko Fujiyama started playing piano at the age of four. But it wasn't until a summer morning in 1980 standing on a sidewalk in New York's East Village that she found her calling; someone was playing a Cecil Taylor tape and she was transfixed by the piano sounds. That someone was Taylor's drummer, Jerome Cooper, and that moment opened a door for her to the abstract beauty of music."

"Jason Kao Hwang (composer/violin/viola) recently released the CD Sing House, featuring his quintet, and VOICE, which features several ensembles with poetry. Sing House performances include the Vision Festival and Edgefest (MI). Burning Bridge, his octet of Chinese and Western instruments was one of the top CDs of 2012 in Jazziz and the Jazz Times. Performances include the Festival International de Musique Actuelle (Canada) and Freer Gallery (D.C.). The 2012 Downbeat Critics' Poll voted Mr. Hwang as "Rising Star for Violin." In 2011 he released two critically acclaimed recordings, Symphony of Souls, for improvising orchestra, and Crossroads Unseen, the third CD of his quartet EDGE. His opera, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown, was one of the top ten recordings of 2005 in Opera News. As violinist, he has worked with Wadada Leo Smith, Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Steve Swell, Tomeka Reid, and others. Mr. Hwang has received support from Chamber Music America, US Artists International, the NEA, Rockefeller Foundation and others. Mr. Hwang currently teaches sound design at New York University."

"Dario Acosta Teich: Guitar, Arrangements And Composition

Raised in an Argentinian folky home but with classical education, this "constantly running away from the comfort zone" artist brings a refined guitar technique applied to worldwide popular music through extremely creative arrangements.

Jazz scales, tango beats, Bossa Nova smoothness an open-minded Free Jazz and a meticulous work in the area of the improvisation, come together through Dario Acosta Teich´s music.

He was born in Argentina in November of 1986. At the age of 11, encouraged by his parents, he started to study Guitar at the Conservatory of the city.

He took courses and lessons with recognized teachers and musicians.

In 2008 he decided to move to Buenos Aires to study Composition at the University of La Plata. One year later he was invited to become a cooperating teacher in the academic topic "Argentinian Folklore".

In 2015 he moved to Israel to study a Master´s degree on of jazz at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.

As a performer, he gave numerous concerts in auditoriums, music halls and theatres not only in Argentina, but in many countries. He participated in several festivals, including the 2nd International Young Festival of Chamber Music in Chile, the International Festival "Guitarras del Mundo", the International Jazz Festival of Jerusalem, the "Cosquin Folklore" Festival and the "Encuentro de Músicos Solidarios", in La Plata (participating as arranger and guitarist, accompanying famous musicians from all around the country). He also joined the "Procanto Popular" Project, with which accompanied recognized singers such as Peteco Carabajal, Opus 4, Los Carabajal, Monica Abraham, Quinteto Tiempo, Marian Farias Gomez and Teresa Parodi. Since 2015 he has been touring Europe, Israel, Palestine, United States and Canada, along with the Brazilian singer Timna Comedi, as well as solo. In 2018 he recorded with William Parker in New York.

As a composer, he has written numerous pieces for solo instruments as well as ensembles and chamber orchestra, some of which have been performed by the "National University of Tucumán Symphonic Orchestra". He composed the music track of local movies. He worked as a composer, arranger and main performer of "Argentina: Bombo y Milonga" Music and Dance Project, performing not only in Argentina but also in Mexico, with great review."

"Gerald Cleaver (born May 4, 1963) is an African-American jazz drummer from Detroit, Michigan. Cleaver's father is drummer John Cleaver Jr., originally from Springfield, Ohio, and his mother was from Greenwood, Mississippi. Gerald had six older siblings. Cleaver joined the jazz faculty at the University of Michigan in 1995. He has performed or recorded with Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Roscoe Mitchell, Miroslav Vitous, Michael Formanek, Tomasz Sta ko, Franck Amsallem and others.

Under the name Veil of Names, Cleaver released an album called Adjust on the Fresh Sounds New Talent label in 2001. It featured Maneri, Ben Monder, Andrew Bishop, Craig Taborn and Reid Anderson and was a Best Debut Recording Nominee by the Jazz Journalists Association. Cleaver currently leads the groups Uncle June, Black Host, Violet Hour and NiMbNl as well as working as a sideman with many different artists."

"Masahiko Kono was born December 7, 1951, in Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. He started playing flute in 1966, when he was in high school. In 1971, as a student at Wako University in Tokyo, his friend the late pianist Yoshito Osawa introduced Kono to trumpeter Toshinori Kondo. Soon thereafter Kono gave up the flute for the trumpet in order to study trumpet with Kondo. Preferring the sound of the trombone to that of the trumpet, however, Kono took up trombone in 1976. Among the trombonists he listened to a great deal at that time were Paul Rutherford, George Lewis and Roswell Rudd. Kono formed a free jazz/free improvisation group called Tree which, besides himself, consisted of two sax players and a guitarist. The group toured around Japan for about a year and then disbanded. Subsequently, Kono sometimes participated in the group EEU (Evolution Ensemble Unit), which was formed by Kondo, drummer Toshiyuki Tsuchitori, sax player Mototeru Takagi and bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa, and played with numerous other musicians, including violinist Takehisa Kosugi.

Kono made his first trip to New York City in the fall of 1980 and stayed there for three months. During this time he met and played at jazz clubs with American musicians such as percussionist Milford Graves, guitarist Elliot Sharp and bassist William Parker. After returning to Japan, he played/toured with Japanese musicians like Kondo, drummer Shoji Hano and pianist Katsuo Itabashi (with whom he made a duo album in 1983), and non-Japanese musicians like violinist Billy Bang, drummer Paul Lovens and guitarist Derek Bailey.

In the summer of '83, Kono returned to New York City, planning to go on to Mexico. At the time he had no intention of living in New York. While there, however, he frequented a club called Saint, where alto sax player John Zorn had a weekly gig. When Zorn and guitarist Fred Frith invited Kono to join them in a concert, he postponed his visit to Mexico, and eventually decided to settle in New York with his family. In 1984 he played at the Kool Jazz Festival as a member of bassist William Parker's big band. From 1985 to the early '90s, he often played with alto sax player Jemeel Moondoc's Jus Grew Orchestra. He appeared on FM station WKCR in 1987, performing with alto sax player Ken McIntyre and percussionist Warren Smith. In the fall of that year he gave a duo performance with George Lewis at the club The Kitchen, in a festival showcasing Japanese musicians that was produced by Zorn and guitarist Arto Lindsay. In 1989 Kono participated in a studio recording by drummer William Hooker, which was later released with the title The Firmament Fury. In the same year, Kono received his U.S. residency. He spent a month in Japan in December '91-January '92, during which he played with such musicians as Kosugi, Yoshizawa, Hano and guitarist Haruhiko Gotsu.

In fall of 1992, Kono spent two weeks in Oaxaca, Mexico, a place he had long wanted to visit. In addition to joining in various local bands, including a salsa and a folk dance band, he played alone on downtown streets and near the ruins of Monte Alban. Although his visit was brief, he feels he gained a great deal from his experiences in Mexico. (While there he made a solo recording using a portable cassette tape recorder, and this was later released as a tape entitled Mexico.)

In the '90s, Kono has played and recorded as a member of William Hooker's band and of the Ellen Christie and Fiorenzo Sordini Quintet. The former band's live recordings from November '92 and April '94 were later released as a CD called Radiation; and the latter band's 1991 studio recording was released the following year as the CD A Piece of the Rock. In '93 the Christie and Sordini Quintet, with Kono, toured in Italy, Austria and North America. Kono played often over a one-year period with cellist Boris Rayskin, and participated in William Parker and the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, whose live recording of 1994 was released as th CD Flowers Grow In My Room. For the past several years he has played with José Halac, and he participated in the 1994 Halac recording which became the CD Illegal Edge. Since 1995, Kono has played many times with pianist Cecil Taylor's big band. Currently, he also plays regularly with Japanese bassist Hideki Kato, another New York resident. Kono led a group consisting of himself, Zusaan Kali Fasteau, Halac and Kato in a performance at the Vision for the 21st Century Arts Festival in New York in June of 1996."

"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."

"Leonid Galaganov is a New York City based multi-instrumentalist, improviser and composer from a remote Russian Old Believer settlement in Estonia. Embracing a wide spectrum of music practice traditions and perspectives on sound and its meanings, Leonid has been performing and recording on various instruments since 2003 in bands and orchestras, jazz, gamelan and chamber ensembles in Europe, the US and South America.

His current projects gather unique musicians together to realize the poetry of sound through diverse languages of improvisation and structure; engaging in rituals to manifest the invisible mystery with sound and to vitalize the interaction between conscious and unconscious. In the past year, Leonid recorded his trio with William Parker and Anais Maviel, and his quartet with Billy Drewes, Drew Gress and Zack Clarke in addition to fruitful collaborations and projects with many others.

As part of his formal education, Leonid studied orchestral conducting at Tallinn University as well as music performance and composition at NYU, from where he graduated with a BM in jazz studies; currently he's going to SUNY Purchase for a Master's degree in classical composition. In his present performance practice Leonid uses the drum kit, shakuhachi, waterphone, hand drums and other percussion instruments."

"Jean Cook, violinist and Treasurer

Jean Cook has been playing violin since 1979. She is part of the 11tet, a New York based jazz composers workshop, and is a founding member of the PnR Salon in Washington, DC, which brings together post-punk rockers and classically trained musicians. In 2000, she appeared at the Kennedy Center's Hip-Hop Festival and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival with the Hip-Hop Philharmonic, a DC based live hip hop orchestra. Occasionally she plays around New York with the Dixieland group "Wriggle's Red-Hot Agate-Cracking Jassers". She currently records and performs with Beauty Pill, Gena Rowlands Band, Ida, Jenny Toomey, and Jon Langford/Ship and Pilot.

Jean produced and hosted "The Twentieth Century String Quartet" on WKCR-FM, New York from 1995-1996. She was the publicist for Washington Performing Arts Society for three years before moving to New York in 2000. Recently, she curated a western classical recital series for WPAS and produced the multimedia DIY opera, The Nitrate Hymnal. She currently works for a political group called Air Traffic Control that helps musicians to be more effective in the current election cycle."

"Amirtha Kidambi "takes a holistic approach to singing, which can mean treating every element as unfixed: Words can be opened up, rendered nonspecific. Melody can be repeated and frozen and stuck in place. Markings of rhythm can become utterly abstract, freed from cadence." (New York Times). Kidambi is the bandleader of Elder Ones and a soloist and collaborator in groups including Mary Halvorson's newest quintet Code Girl, Charlie Looker's early music inspired dark folk band Seaven Teares, Darius Jones' vocal quartet Elizabeth-Caroline Unit and Samesoul Maker and Pat Spadine's analog percussion and light ensemble Ashcan Orchestra. As Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times, "the aggressive and sublime first album by the band Elder Ones, Holy Science, is a kind of gauge for how strong and flexible the scene of young musicians in New York's improvised and experimental music world can be. At the center of it are drones and phonemes. The group's leader, the composer and singer Amirtha Kidambi, holds forth behind a harmonium, the small keyboard instrument with hand-pumped bellows; it's commonly used in bhajan, the Indian devotional-singing tradition that was central to her musical experience while growing up in a South Indian family." Kidambi formally trained in classical music, singing works by experimental composers including Robert Ashley and Luigi Nono, but the pull of free jazz and Alice Coltrane drew her toward a different path. The influence of both Alice and John Coltrane is especially apparent on the , as is her work with composer and saxophonist Darius Jones, and her study of Carnatic music. Kidambi formally trained in classical music, singing works by avant-gardists including Nono and Stockhausen, but the pull of free jazz and Alice Coltrane drew her toward a different path. The influence of both Alice and John Coltrane is especially apparent on the new album, as is her work with composer and saxophonist Darius Jones, and her study of Carnatic music. Elder Ones performed extensively nationally and internationally, on tours and at festivals such as NYC Winter Jazzfest, Berliner Festspiele in Germany and Festiwal Jazz Jantar in Poland, among other.

Kidambi is invested in the performance creative music, from free improvisation and jazz, to experimental bands, and new music. As an improviser, she has played with Matana Roberts, Tyshawn Sorey, Daniel Carter, Ava Mendoza, Sam Newsome, Peter Evans, Trevor Dunn, and many innovators in the New York scene. A life changing decision to create her own artistic work came from a collaboration with the late AACM founder, composer-pianist Muhal Richard Abrams', performing his Dialogue Social. Kidambi has also premiered Darius Jones' The Oversoul Manual at Carnegie Hall, Samesoul Maker at Roulette, LawNOrder at Winter Jazzfest, a premiere of electronic composer Ben Vida's work Slipping Control for voice and electronics with Tyondai Braxton at the Borderline Festival in Athens, Greece, the premiere of the late Robert Ashley's final opera CRASH at the Whitney Biennial, a Jazz Gallery commission for Mary Halvorson's Code Girl, the premiere of William Parker's Soul of Light and forthcoming recording project Voices Fall From the Sky and a commission from the Jerome Foundation for her quartet Elder Ones at Roulette and artist residency at EMPAC to record the group's debut album.

Amirtha earned a B.F.A. in Voice from Loyola Marymount University and an M.M. in Voice and Musicology from CUNY Brooklyn College, where she served as adjunct faculty. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Ethnomusicology at Columbia University."

"A former journalist (Fuji Television Network Japan) with childhood piano training at Juilliard Pre-College and a stint as a Gulf War reporter on her résumé ('90-'91 working in Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia), Kyoko Kitamura is an oddball vocalist, composer and bandleader who has worked with many distinguished musicians including Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, Steve Coleman, William Parker and Reggie Workman.

She is a featured vocalist on Anthony Braxton's opera Trillium J (New Braxton House 2015), 12 Duets (DCWM) 2012 (NBH 2014), Trillium E (NBH 2011, the first-ever studio-recording of an Anthony Braxton opera), and the Syntactical GTM Choir (NYC) 2011 (NBH 2012). Also known for her interdisciplinary projects, she released her first solo album Armadillo In Sunset Park in 2012, a collection of songs written for and choreographed by Mark Lamb Dance. She can also be heard on the critically acclaimed Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings release Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records 2009), Jamie Baum's Solace (Sunnyside Records 2008), and Steve Coleman's Lucidarium (Label Bleu 2004) among others.

She currently works with Anthony Braxton as a vocalist in his Tri-Centric Orchestra and as the Director of Communications for his Tri-Centric Foundation. She studies counterpoint and Schoenberg harmony with Paul Caputo.

As for her own current projects, she leads Tidepool Fauna (Ingrid Laubrock on sax, Ken Filiano on bass) and co-leads Armadillo In Sunset Park (collaborative project with dancers of Mark Lamb Dance).

Kitamura has garnered critical praise for her "great vocal range, veering from wordless vocalese to near operatic feats" (AllAboutJazz) and All Music Guide describes her as "an expressive vocalist who knows how to be quirky and eccentric but is also quite musical." Most recently, in a performance with the Anthony Braxton Trio at the Angel City Jazz Festival in L.A. (Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, Kyoko Kitamura), Robert Bush of AllAboutJazz wrote, "Enough cannot be said about the stunning abilities of Ms. Kitamura-she functions at the highest instrumental level and was able to deal with pages of dense notation, acrobatic intervals and intricate layering with devastating surety." "

"Called "a thrilling improviser" by Downbeat magazine, Fay Victor consistently hones a unique vision of the vocalist's role in jazz and improvised music. Victor's eight (8) critically acclaimed recordings as a leader since the late 90's has seen praise in venerable media outlets such as Downbeat, JazzTimes, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, The Wire, Signal to Noise, Popmatters.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out Chicago, The Chicago Reader, The New York City Jazz Record and JazzWise (UK). Victor's long standing group, the Fay Victor Ensemble - an expansive and cohesive mix of jazz, rock, blues, new music and free improvisation - released three albums to huge critical acclaim (2009's The FreeSong Suite made it onto numerous year-end lists including The Village Voice, NPR and Popmatters.com). The experimental blues project The Exposed Blues Duo, with FVE guitarist Anders Nilsson delving deep into a variety of blues forms released Bare in 2010. There is Herbie Nichols SUNG, Victor's homage to the unsung be-bop pianist incorporating Victor's lyrics and arrangements in a quintet and trio format. The trio project has been recorded and currently looking for label support for release and 2018 will see Victor release Wet Robots on ESP-DISK, a brand new vehicle for fresh sounds and improvisational approaches in a group called SoundNoiseFUNK.

In addition to Victor's band-leading vehicles on record, her voice has attracted esteemed ensembles including Other Dimensions in Music (ODIM), the perennial free jazz outfit joined forces with Victor for 2011's Kaiso Stories on Silkheart Records in 2011, lauded for its impressive fusion of Calypso, the music of Trinidad & Tobago and home to Victor's cultural roots, with free jazz. The legendary and longstanding Dutch outfit, the Instant Composer's Pool Orkest (ICP) led by Misha Mengelberg/Han Bennink invited Victor to tour with them in Europe in 2010 and appear during US tours in 2011, 2014 and 2015. Victor is the first vocalist to work consistently with ICP in it's 50 year history. Victor was one of the vocalists on Trillium E (New Braxton Records 2011) with Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Orchestra and Trillium J during the four-day Braxtonian Festival in 2011. Reedist Ab Baars invited Victor and french horn hero Vincent Chancey to celebrate 20 years with his esteemed trio in 2011 including a 15-concert European tour, the first time Baars had written material for voice and specifically for Victor; that work is contained on The Invisible Blow (Stichting Wig 2014). Victor received a presenting commission from Anthony Braxton himself on behalf of the Tricentric Foundation for Neighborhood Dynamics (co-composed with Jochem van Dijk) that was presented during the TriCentric Festival in a double bill with Anthony Braxton's Nonet in 2014. Neighborhood Dynamics is a piece about gentrification and the changing demographic landscape of Brooklyn, NY, where Victor calls home. Over the past four years, Victor's work with esteemed avant-garde trombonist Roswell Rudd has seen a deeper connection appearing on his 2014 Trombone for Lovers(Sunnyside Records 2014) and now appearing on every track of Embrace (RareNoise 2017), a project of re-imagined standards. Victor was part of a voice/percussion/piano duo with MacArthur genius grant recipient, professor and composer/multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey, with appearances at Constellation in Chicago, IL (2016) and Vision Festival XVVI (2014) amongst their performance highlights.

Victor is also out on record as a part of Glorious Ravage, a sprawling song-cycle in honor of Victorian-era female explorers composed by Bay Area bassist/composer Lisa Mezzacappa (New World Records 2017). Mezzacappa and Victor have collaborated frequently since 2011 and the song cycle was originally inspired by Victor's first trip out West to play with Mezzacappa. Finally, Victor is part of ReDDeer a trio of improvisors that met at MusicOmi in 2010 with a record of live duo/trio recordings in New York & Austria called New York - St. Johann (Evil Rabbit Records 2017) and Victor is a featured guest on Marc Ribot's Songs of Resistance, due for release in January 2018. Victor was just awarded a residency at Yaddo Corp. for Music Composition, staying there for 6 weeks to complete a large work on the life and death of her mother, in early 2018.

Victor performances has included such luminaries as Wadada Leo Smith, Marshall Allen (Sun Ra), NEA Jazz Master Dr. Randy Weston, NEA Jazz Master Archie Shepp, Roswell Rudd, Nicole Mitchell, William Parker, Myra Melford, Lawrence Butch Morris, Gary Lucas, Dave Burrell, Henry Threadgill, Andrew Cyrille, Jason Moran, Sam Newsome, Darius Jones, Anthony Coleman, Aruan Ortiz, Joe Morris, Vijay Iyer, Matana Roberts, Mark Dresser, Steven Bernstein, Marika Hughes, Mazz Swift, Marty Ehrlich, Melvin Gibbs, Henry Butler, Curtis Clark and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Victor has graced stages around the world including BAMCafe Live, The Stone (NY), Symphony Space (NY),The Jazz Standard (NY), Jazz at Lincoln Center (NY), National Sawdust (NY), Firehouse 12 (New Haven), The Bimhuis (The Netherlands), Cankarjev Dom (Slovenia), Koln Philharmonie (Germany), Nardis(Turkey), Rostov Philharmonic Hall (Russia), De Loft (Koln), The 55 Bar (monthly residency for over 5 years - NY), Vision Festival XV, XVI, XVIV, XXI, The ArtActs Festival (Austria), New Frequencies Festival (San Francisco) and River to River Festivals (New York)."

"Described as both "utterly original" and "a singer with an uncanny emotional touch for the past 50 years of jazz," Andrea Wolper, "brings songs to life, whatever their source, working in a milieu that begins with jazz and reaches out to embrace an expressive area that is uniquely her own."*

Andrea appears in clubs, festivals, and concert spaces in the U.S. and abroad. Performance credits as a leader in her New York home base include the Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Jazz at Lincoln Center), Mezzrow, JVC New York Jazz Festival, Kitano, Arts for Arts Evolving Series, and more, and she has toured across the U.S., in Europe, and beyond. Working frequently as both leader and side-person, Andrea is "an audacious artist [who] flouts genre limitations, singing songs for the love of it and delivering an inventive, thrilling, appealing musical vision."

One of the "great jazz singers" included in "The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide" (Yannow, BackBeat Books), Andrea is as accomplished with the Great American Songbook as she is with more unusual repertoire and spontaneous improvisation. Andrea has also made her mark as a songwriter; Cadence magazine calls her "easily superior to the ever expanding population in the singer/songwriter category," and she has been awarded composing fellowships by Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Ucross Foundation, Newnan ArtRez, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Uncool Residency.

Andrea's third CD, "Parallel Lives" (Jazzed Media) received rave reviews, and was included on several Top Jazz CDs and Notable Releases lists for 2011. Co-produced by Todd Barkan, it features her group with guitarist Michael Howell, pianist Kris Davis, bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer Michael T.A. Thompson. Her previous release, "The Small Hours" (VarisOne.Jazz), built around her trio with guitarist Ron Affif and Ken Filiano, was produced by Barkan, and features drummers Victor Lewis and Jamey Haddad, as well as guest artists Lou Marini (flute) and Frank London (trumpet and flugelhorn).

Andrea also appears as a side person across jazz genres, from holding the vocal chair with the straight ahead Heavenly Big Band to appearing in several performance and recording projects of free jazz bassist William Parker. In addition, she was one third of the improvising trio TranceFormation, with Filiano and the late pianist Connie Crothers; the trio's live CD, "TranceFormation in Concert" (New Artists) was a best vocal CD selection in the 2012 Downbeat critics' polls.

Andrea curated the "Why Not Experiment?" series at Whynot Jazz Room in New York city for nearly two years (2014-15). She is a past President of International Women in Jazz, and served on the Advisory Board of the Jazz Vocal Coalition.

Andrea offers singing lessons in her private studio, and conducts clinics in jazz vocal performance, and workshops and master classes on performance and improvisation.

Fun Facts: Andrea is an accomplished writer whose journalism and poetry have appeared in numerous publications. Among her works are two books, "Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives" (with Julie S. Peters; Routledge) and "The Actor's City Sourcebook" (Watson-Guptill). In addition, she's spent time on the stage, and came to New York from her native California to attend the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She earned a black belt in Shotokan Karate, and has two dust-gathering trophies to tell the tale."

"Karen Borca (born September 5, 1948, Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States) is an American avant-garde jazz and free jazz bassoonist.

Borca studied music at the University of Wisconsin with John Barrows and Arthur Weisberg, graduating in 1971. While there she met Cecil Taylor, who taught there during the 1970/71 academic year; she studied with him and played in his big bands, ensembles and the Cecil Taylor Unit, and was his assistant at Antioch College, Ohio, in the Black Music Program. She was an assistant to saxophonist Jimmy Lyons in 1974 during his artist in residence at Bennington College, Vermont and married the longtime Taylor sideman; she played in Lyons's band for 12 years until he died in 1986. She performed with her own bands at the Newport Jazz Festival New York City Salute to Women in Jazz, '78 and '79, Soundscape, Vision Festival, Jazz Fest Berlin and other festivals, concerts, clubs and lofts.

She has performed with her own bands in New York City, the U.S. ,and Europe, with musicians such as Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Bill Dixon, Butch Morris, Marco Eneidi, Joel Futterman, Sonny Simmons, Alan Silva, and Jackson Krall."

"Jean Cook, violinist and Treasurer

Jean Cook has been playing violin since 1979. She is part of the 11tet, a New York based jazz composers workshop, and is a founding member of the PnR Salon in Washington, DC, which brings together post-punk rockers and classically trained musicians. In 2000, she appeared at the Kennedy Center's Hip-Hop Festival and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival with the Hip-Hop Philharmonic, a DC based live hip hop orchestra. Occasionally she plays around New York with the Dixieland group "Wriggle's Red-Hot Agate-Cracking Jassers". She currently records and performs with Beauty Pill, Gena Rowlands Band, Ida, Jenny Toomey, and Jon Langford/Ship and Pilot.

Jean produced and hosted "The Twentieth Century String Quartet" on WKCR-FM, New York from 1995-1996. She was the publicist for Washington Performing Arts Society for three years before moving to New York in 2000. Recently, she curated a western classical recital series for WPAS and produced the multimedia DIY opera, The Nitrate Hymnal. She currently works for a political group called Air Traffic Control that helps musicians to be more effective in the current election cycle."

"Ryan T. Frazier aka Heru Shabaka-ra is a trumpeter, writer and physicist based in Philadelphia. He has been a contributor to Philadelphia's free Jazz and afro-futurist punk scenes for almost a decade. Frazier has worked with a wide range of artists, including underground hiphop/punk band Mighty Paradocs, renowned poets Sonia Sanchez and free Jazz bassist William Parker. With his own band, Napoleon Dolomite, his musical approach is built from the mathematics of Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Wu Tang Clan and MF Doom. Studying music and jazz culture/tradition with the great Donald Byrd as a teenager, he is currently an apprentice in the Sun Ra Arkestra, studying under its legendary director, Marshall Allen."

"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."

"Described as "excellent, musical" by Classical 91.7 Music Library Reviews, mezzo-soprano AnnMarie Sandy is garnering praise for her operatic, concert, and recorded work. She is featured on the New World Records 2011 recording of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, which BBC Magazine called "a work of tremendous significance", and is said to be "among the inspired cast's stand-out performances" by Classics Today.

In 2003 Ms. Sandy performed the role of Eliza Brooks in the Central City Opera world premiere of Gabriel's Daughter. She has sung the roles of Stephano with Opera North in Roméo et Juliette, Second Lady with Brevard Music Center in The Magic Flute, and Mercedes with One World Symphony in Carmen.

In 2007 AnnMarie made her Lincoln Center debut at Avery Fisher Hall, performing the alto solo in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013 singing the role of Ursula, performing with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Collegiate Chorale, and the Manhattan Girls Chorus, in the Strauss opera Feuersnot.

In the fall of 2014 the mezzo-soprano returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago and performed in the ensemble cast of Porgy and Bess. She was featured in the work Let My People Go! A Spiritual Journey Along the Underground Railroad with the Susquehanna Valley Chorale, and also performed in recital the Ravel song cycle Chansons madécasses at Bucknell University.

In 2017 AnnMarie performed in the concert [GENERATE] William Parker: Healing Songs from the Tone World, which was held at the experimental Brooklyn venue Roulette. She joined the cast of ¡Figaro! (90210), back again Off Broadway at The Duke Theater on 42nd Street, reprising the cover role of Donna Curson. The mezzo-soprano is featured on the album Voices Fall from the Sky, the vocal compilation album of renowned free jazz bassist and composer William Parker. Described by PopMatters as William Parker's "album of a lifetime", in the featured piece The Blinking of the Ear the magazine states Ms. Sandy as: "stretching her operatic range to sing notes of freedom, healing, and peace." Recent performances include the Jazz at Lincoln Center venue Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, with William Parker featuring In Order to Survive Extended Ensemble. She will perform at Carnegie Hall with American Symphony Orchestra and Bard Festival Chorale, featuring Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony and Schoeck Trommelschlaege."

"American singer Leena Conquest is a recording artist steeped in the jazz tradition and full of all things soulful. Her ability to bridge that eternal divide, moving from the classic to the modern; fusing music genres along with a captivating presence puts her in a class with the best. This Texas- born chanteuse has been heralded for her work on several recordings including Raining on the Moon (thirstyear.com), Cornmeal Dance and I Plan to Stay a Believer (aumfidelity.com), selected for this year's 2011 DOWNBEAT Critics Poll TOP 10 Albums. She has worked with a host of jazz luminaries including trumpeter Doc Cheatham, pianist Mal Waldron and vibesman Roy Ayers who is featured on her Come Fly Away CD."