"Raffi Garabedian is a tenor saxophonist and composer living in Oakland, California. A dedicated improvisationalist, Garabedian utilizes spontaneous composition to create sonic atmospheres in which different perspectives on rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic progression can take shape. Garabedian's compositional work remains strongly informed by his relationship with improvisation, a relationship which expresses itself in unique ways. His second record, Melodies in Silence, was marked in part by the remote nature of its recording, which opened new avenues in terms of production and processing. A record in part of grief and loneliness, Melodies in Silence allowed Garabedian to deepen and broaden the possibilities for composition and playing communal music when alone. On 2024's The Crazy Dog, Garabedian began writing for voice-which he treated as a part of the horn section-in part of a cross-generational effort to bring his own, his father's, and his grandmother's voices into one piece of art. The result is what Downbeat calls a "deeply personal and musically inventive" work, full of "complex, contrapuntal ambitions."

Garabedian was born and raised in Berkeley, California, and attended the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, from which he received a BFA in Jazz Performance. He has toured extensively-both at the helm of his own projects, and as a member of other groups-and has played and recorded with luminaries such as Jorge Rossy, Ben Street, Dayna Stephens, and Johnny Talbot. Garabedian also plays in several projects in and around the Bay Area, including Insect Life-a group focusing on collective improvisation, with Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Danny Lubin-Laden (trombone), Ben Davis (cello), and Gerald Cleaver (drums)-and Sticklerphonics, again with Lubin-Laden, and Scott Amendola (drums).

In addition to his music practice, Garabedian is a seasoned educator, and is on the jazz saxophone faculty at Sonoma State University, while teaching at Berkeley High School. He has taught regularly at the California Jazz Conservatory, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and works with private students."

"Ben Goldberg is an American clarinet player and composer. Born August 8, 1959 (age 58) in Denver, Colorado.

He grew up in Denver, Colorado. Goldberg grew up playing clarinet, playing in school bands, and has an undergraduate music degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Arts in composition from Mills College. He was a pupil of clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. Interested in the intersection between jazz (the music) and clarinet (the instrument), Goldberg started exploring the rich clarinet traditions found in klezmer music.

After a stint with the Bay Area band The Klezmorim, he branched out and created his own band, the New Klezmer Trio, named after the New Tango Quintet,[citation needed] with Dan Seamans and Kenny Wollesen. This was the first of many ensembles that Goldberg would lead and/or participate in, primarily in and around the Bay Area. The New Klezmer Trio has produced three albums and the free improvisation on "Masks and Faces" was described as having "kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music." Goldberg's musicality is inspiring, to audiences and to his fellow musicians; "Sometimes the most influential musicians are the ones who don't call much attention to themselves. Take Berkeley clarinetist Ben Goldberg, who for the past two decades has quietly inspired some of the Bay Area's most creative musicians."

In addition to composing for and playing in the Ben Goldberg Quintet, he has performed in the groups Tin Hat, Plays Monk, Myra Melford's Be Bread, Nels Cline's New Monastery, Afterlife Music Radio, and Go Home. The eleven-piece Ben Goldberg's Brainchild performs his on-the-spot compositions.

Goldberg has played with Bill Frisell, Don Byron, Ellery Eskelin, Jenny Scheinman, John Zorn, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, Miya Masaoka, Roswell Rudd, Steven Bernstein, Vijay Iyer, Wayne Horvitz, and Zeena Parkins.

Goldberg is also the founder of the music label BAG Production.

Recently Goldberg has branched out into songwriting. His "Orphic Machine" project, largely commissioned by Chamber Music America, premiered at the Jewish Music Festival in March 2012 and was also performed in Los Angeles, California. The song-cycle is based on the writings of Allen Grossman and, for one critic, "the piece's thoughtful, sprawling compositions course through such a variety of styles and open-ended impulses that it would be tempting to dub this a new kind of world music." Regarding songwriting and composing, in a 2010 profile piece in All About Jazz, Goldberg said, "I don't just want to give people something that they can appreciate or understand, or that makes them think, or something like that. I used to kind of feel that that's what I wanted to do, but that's not what I want anymore. I want to give people something that they can love." "

"Danny Lubin-Laden is a trombonist and composer based in Oakland, CA. Danny attended Berkeley High School and then The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC where he studied with Art Baron, Alan Ferber, Lee Konitz and Ambrose Akinmusirie. Danny has spent time performing, composing and touring both nationally and internationally. Danny currently performs regularly with Scott Amedola's quartet, JACKNIFE, Johnny Talbot, the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, Brass Magic, and also leads his own projects. Danny is a dedicated music educator with yearly teaching duties at Berkeley High School and the Stanford Jazz Workshop."

"Ben Davis is a cellist from the United Kingdom known for his improvisation. His group Basquiat Strings was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2007. He is a member of the F-IRE Collective.

Ben Davis' self-stated aim is to make "alternative string music that people want to listen to". His group, Basquiat Strings, originated as a standard string quartet (two violins, a viola and a cello). Only later did cellist Davis decide to add double bass "to strengthen the rhythmic accompaniment". Basquiat Strings were nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize.

Ben Davis studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and later at the Banff School of Fine Arts with Dave Holland.

He has since pursued a varied musical career encompassing classical, world, pop, early music and jazz. He has performed with Django Bates, Hassan Erraji, The Dufay Collective, Evan Parker, Christine Tobin, Steve Buckley, Huw Warren, Jason Yarde, Kylie Minogue, Julian Joseph, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and the R. S. C. He has recorded with Claire Martin, Jamiroquai, Ingrid Laubrock, Oriole, Julia Biel, Patricia Kass, D-Influence and the Ben Davis Group, which was featured on BBC Radio 3's Jazz On 3 programme. He recently completed a world tour with the French super-star, Patricia Chass and also formed The Jazz Cello Trio featuring Phil Robson. Ben Davis also teaches jazz cello and has led workshops for kids."

"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."

"Zachary James Watkins studied composition with Janice Giteck, Jarrad Powell, Robin Holcomb and Jovino Santos Neto at Cornish College. In 2006, Zachary received an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College where he studied with Chris Brown, Fred Frith, Alvin Curran and Pauline Oliveros. Zachary has received commissions from Cornish College of The Arts, The Microscores Project, Beam Foundation, Somnubutone Radio Series, sfsound and the Seattle Chamber Players. His 2006 composition Suite For String Quartet was awarded the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for Composition and has subsequently been performed as part of the Labs 25th Anniversary Celebration and as part of the Labor Sonor Series at Kule in Berlin, Germany, the later of which the live recording is being released by the London new music label Confront. Zachary has presented works in numerous festivals across the United States and in Berlin Germany including the Internationales Klankunstfest 09, Sounds Outside Festival, the 2007 Bent Festival in Los Angeles, the 2006 International Computer Music Conference, the 10th Annual Music For People and Thingamajigs Festival and the second Biennial SJ01 Global Festival of Arts on the Edge. In 2007, Zachary premiered a new multi-media work entitled Country Western as part of the Meridian Gallery's Composers in Performance Series that received grants from The American Music Center and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts. An excerpt of this piece is published on a compilation album entitled The Harmonic Series along side Pauline Oliveros, Ellen Fullman, Theresa Wong Charles Curtis and Duane Pitre among others. Zachary received a Subito of California Grant to assist in the production of the evening length composition movable, long commutes between loved ones, music for motors and resonant strings written for piano in just intonation and a newly invented piano extension called the "Piano Monster" built in collaboration with NYC artist Ranjit Bhatnagar. This work premiered on April 2nd 2010 by pianist Tiffany Lin at the Chapel Performance Space as part of the Wayward Music Series in Seattle, WA and sponsored by Nonsequitur. Zachary designed the sound and composed music for the plays "I have loved Strangers" produced by Just Theatre, which was listed "top ten of 2007" in the East Bay Express and the 8th Annual ReOrient Theatre Festival. His sound art work entitled Designed Obsolescence, "spoke as a metaphor for the breakdown of the dream of technology and the myth of our society's permanence," review by Susan Noyes Platt in the Summer 05 issue of ARTLIES. ITCH, Walrus Press and the New York Miniature Ensemble have published the graphic score found print piece no.1. During October of 2006, Zachary was an artist in residence at the Espy Foundation. Zachary is currently a Lecturer of Music at the University of California at Santa Cruz."