"Joe Fonda is a composer, bassist, recording artist, interdisciplinary performer, producer and educator.

An accomplished international Jazz artist, Fonda has performed with his own ensembles throughout the United States ,Canada , Europe and Asia. He has collaborated and performed with such artists as Anthony Braxton ,Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre, Lou Donaldson, Bill and Kenny Barron, Leo Smith, Perry Robinson, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, , Bill Dixon, Han Bennink, Bobby Naughton, Xu Fengia, Randy Weston, Gebhard Ullmann, Carla Bley, Carlo Zingaro, Barry Altschul, Billy Bang.

Fonda was the bassist with the renowned Anthony Braxton sextet, octet, tentet, from 1984 through 1999. Fonda also sat on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999, and was the President from 1997 to 1999 of the newly formed Tri-Centric Foundation. He has also performed with the 38-piece Tri-Centric orchestra under the direction of Anthony Braxton, and was the bassist for the premiere performance of Anthony Braxton's opera, Shalla Fears for the Poor, performed at the John Jay Theater in New York, New York, October 1996.

As a composer, Fonda has been the recipient of numerous grants and commissions From Meet the Composer New York and the New England Foundation on the Arts . He has released twelve recordings under his own name. (Reviews and recordings available). Fonda was also a member of The Creative Musicians Improvisors Forum directed by Leo Smith, and was the bassist with the American Tap Dance Orchestra in New York City, directed by world renowned tap dancer, Brenda Bufalino.

In 1989, Fonda performed with Fred Ho's Jazz and Peking opera in its world premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From 1982 to 1986 Fonda was the bassist and dancer with the Sonomama Dance Company. An independent producer since 1978, Fonda is the founding director of Kaleidoscope Arts an interdisciplinary performance ensemble and is the producer and musicial director for the Connecticut Composers and improvisors Festival from 2001 to 2011.

Currently Fonda has been recording and touring extensively with the Fonda-Stevens Group, Conference Call , The Fab Trio, The Nu Band and Bottoms Out , with performances at the Bim huis in Amsterdam, Holland, Prague Jazz Festival, Czech Republic, Jazz Halo Festival, Belgium, Jazz Festival Thurinsen, Weimer, Germany, Berlin Jazz Festival Berlin Germany , Jazz Im Agusto Festival Lisbon Portugal, Natt Jazz Festival Bergen Norway, The Vision Festival New York, New York, Jazz and More Festival Sibiu Romania, Bakau Jazz Festival ,Azerbijan, Tondela Jazz Festival Tondala portugal , Vancouver Jazz Festival ,Vancouver Canada, Guelph Jazz Festival ,Guelph Canada .

Two of Fonda's most recent projects are From the Source, The Off Road Quartet.

From the Source is a group that incorporates the tap dancing and poetry of Brenda Bufalino and the healing arts of Vicki Dodd, and four jazz musicians. The group has released their first CD entitled, Joe Fonda and From the Source, on Konnex Records.

The Off Road Quartet is comprised of four musicians from four different countries. Ux Fengia from Beijing China , Carlos Zingaro from Lisbon Portugal , Lucas Niggle from Zurich Switzerland and Joe Fonda New York USA. The Off Road Quartet blends the musics from all four of these musicians cultures into a unique musicial and visual experence."

"Tiziano Tononi (born November 18, 1956, Milan) is an Italian percussionist and composer.

Tononi taught himself to play drums in a pop/rock idiom as a youth, then turned to playing jazz and classical percussion in his late teens, studying with Andrew Cyrille and Bob Moses. Playing locally in Milan in the early 1980s, he joined the Democratic Orchestra Milano and co-founded the Nexus ensemble with Daniele Cavallanti, as well as the group Moon on the Water toward the middle of the decade. Through the 1980s he played in a variety of idioms with musicians such as Pierre Favre, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Maggie Nicols, Barre Phillips, Dewey Redman, Giancarlo Schiaffini, and Gianluigi Trovesi.

In the 1990s Tononi played with the Jazz Chromatic Ensemble and the Italian Instabile Orchestra, as well as in a trio with Beppe Caruso. His Multiphonics Tuba Trio, with Renato Geremia and Michel Godard, was founded in 1997; he also did composition and arrangement work, including the soundtrack to Ketchup and tributes to Don Cherry and Roland Kirk."

"Daniele Cavallanti (born June 6, 1952 in Milan) is an Italian jazz saxophonist.

Cavallanti had from 14 years classical saxophone and clarinet lessons with M. Ezio Zappatini. In the 1970s, he was part of the Gruppo Contemporaneo to Guido Mazzon and Gaetano Liguori, then played with Patrizia Scascitelli, in the band Aktuala and in his own trio with bassist Roberto Della Grotta and drummer Filippo Monico. He lived in 1979/80 in Amsterdam, where he played with Wolter Wierbos and Petro Nikiruy.

After studying harmony and arrangement with Angiolo Tarocchi he worked from 1991 with a quartet of his own, 1993 with Dewey Redman. He played in the course of his career u. a. with international musicians such as Mark Dresser, Herb Robertson, Roswell Rudd, Cecil Taylor, Glenn Ferris, Nels Cline, Raphael Garrett, Jean-Jacques Avenel, Oliver Johnson, Willem Breuker, Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, Elliott Sharp, Jerry Granelli, Keith Tippett as well as in the formations Aktula with Walter Maioli, Muzik Circus, Democratic Milan Orchestra, New Forties Big Band, Nexus, [2] Jazz Chromatic Ensemble and the Italian Instabile Orchestra. In 2010 he appeared in the documentary Il suono unstable della libertà."

"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."

"Clarence "Herb" Robertson (born February 21, 1951) is a jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist. He was born in New Jersey and attended the Berklee School of Music. He has recorded five solo albums for the JMT record label and also worked as a sideman for Tim Berne, Anthony Davis, Bobby Previte, David Sanborn, George Gruntz, Bill Frisell and Paul Motian, among others."