"Erez Dessel (USA 1998) is an improvising pianist and composer living and working in Chicago, Illinois. He holds a BM in jazz piano from the New England Conservatory of Music. Dessel's work explores the piano as a vehicle for human connection. A primary part of his practice is the history of the instrument as a tool for storytelling and world-building. His current group activity includes the bands Edition Redux, Look Both Days, Ra Bishop, and Banana Acid; as well as frequent work as a solo performer. Dessel created and curates the Night School series, which presents video artists and improvising musicians in a spontaneous performance context. Dessel has toured nationally and internationally, including performances in Europe and Korea and festival appearances at Edgefest, the Catalytic Sound festival, the Madrid jazz festival, and the Wels Music Unlimited festival. His concerts and recordings have received critical acclaim, with releases on Endectomorph Music, Ornette Coleman Fiend Club, Audiographic Records, and Amalgam Music, and in 2025, he was selected as an Arts Club of Chicago fellow. He has worked continuously both as a performer and organizer in Chicago, recording in an array of contexts with many internationally renowned musicians (including Ken Vandermark, Tim Daisy, Kim Alpert, and Ben Hall)."

Detroit-based percussionist Ben Hall is a member of groups Burning Graveyard Lights, Cass Chamber, Death Knell, Graveyards, Hell And Bunny, Jack Wright Nonet, KillDevilHills, Machine Yardz, Mêlée, Psalm Alarm, The New Monuments, Traum, and Trauma, and leads his own Ben Hall's Racehorse Names.

"Fred Jackson Jr. was born in 1974 in Fort Worth, Texas. Although I did not come in a musical family, my family helped to craft me as a musician with their vast music collections. I heard every American genre, sitcom music on tv, etc growing up. I was attracted to the film scores in movies. I loved the way it brought out the characters in the stories.

I started on the saxophone in the seventh grade. My band director Brian Standridge at Paul Lawrence Dunbar Middle School saw my talent and worked with me. Then he turned me on to Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Duke Ellington then I was hooked. I vowed to follow the path of Jazz. My life would mirror the story of Jazz and it's migration. Which is the Great Migration in the United States. My first stop was Weatherford, Texas. I played big band music. The music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thad Jones. At Weatherford Junior College I would be under the direction of Tom Burchill. I met a lot of the musicians that went to the historic Dallas Arts Magnet who cultivated the talents of some of the great talents of the area. Roy Hargrove, Fred Sanders, many others. FredJacksonMic.jpeg

I went to Southern University, Baton Rouge and had the opportunity of studying with the world renown jazz clarinetist Alvin Batiste. I became the first graduate of his AA in Jazz studies. I spent two years with "Bat" most of the time it was one on one. (We shedded on his Mitotic Music concepts) I also studied a lot of Coltrane during this time. I also studied Counterpoint and Compositions from Dr Charles Lloyd. I also became a member of Phi Mu Alpha / Mu psi Spr '95. (HBCU). It should be noted that while in Louisiana I shared the stage with many great musicians and artists. All of my brothers of Phi Mu Alpha/ Mu psi, also Kafele Bandele, The Mike Foster Project (Brass Band), Troy Davis, Mark Whitfield, Lashawn Gary, Roland Guerin, Donald Edwards, Nicholas Peyton, Brice Winston, Alvin Batiste, Doja Composure (hip hop band before The Roots haha), Quamon Fowler, Wes Anderson (taught me lessons), many others. I used to run a jam session at M's Cafe in Baton Rouge owned by Ms Marian Prichard. My sessions used to have the cats from New Orleans come out. (professionals too) Nicholas Peyton set in on piano. Changed my perspective on things, I knew I had to learn piano.

After I received my Bachelors from S. U. In 1999, I moved to Chicago. I jumped into the scene right away. The first places where I stopped were, The Apartment Lounge (Von Freeman and the Velvet Lounge (Fred Anderson. From these two establishments I met all the cats first of which was Vincent Davis. I lived on the north side first, then Logan, then the Westside, then The Southside for most of the time. The whole time playing Jazz with Maggie Brown, Magic Carpet, Jimmy Bennington, Carrazz / Pati, Crosswinds, Corey Wilkes, Vincent Davis (in da basement), Harrison Bankhead, Avreeayl Ra, Perry Wilson (mentored me), Fred Anderson (we shedded together). Saalik Zyiad, AACM and so many more.

In 2010 I became a member of AACM. Also around this time I went to Poznań, Poland on a "Made in Chicago'' tour. First time I traveled to Germany was with the AACM New Generations ensemble (under the direction of Ben Lamar Gaye). I was in the first inaugural band of "The Bridge'' that played at the MCA in 2010. Since then because of the Bridge I have been to France many times. (I've also toured France in 2017 with that same ensemble Ste.) I went back to school in 2012 - 14 and received my Masters in Jazz studies from DePaul where I studied with Mark Colby, Dr Dana Hall, Dr Robert Lark, Tom Matta (composition) and many other professors. I have always been a student of music. Also I studied extensively the music of the African diaspora for ten years, mainly the North and west. Magic Carpet allowed me the opportunity to study music from all over the world. I've had the honor of performing with some of Ethiopia's finest vocalists and musicians. Abonesh Sedinew, Tigist, Teddy Akililu and many others. I've also performed and studied the music of the Middle East. Chicago has allowed me to play all types of music from House, Funk and many other genre.

I've been teaching pre - k - 8th grade since 2015 at St Symphorosa and St Mary's Star of the Sea School. Currently I'm working with a Sitarist (Shanta Nuerulla of AACM) and my Erudition Project. My newest venture is Spacetonic Music (Music publishing label since 2017).

I was recently awarded the 2020-21 "Fresh Works, New Voices" grant from the Jazz Institute of Chicago. This grant will be an opportunity to make a documentary and an album of original compositions.

Now I'm back on the north side of Chicago still studying, still writing and still teaching. My life is has been a total dedication to Music.

Dean of the AACM School."

"Mai Sugimoto is a saxophonist, composer, and active member of Chicago's jazz and improvisational music scene. "A compelling performer" with "dry-champagne tone and lyrical lines" (Chicago Tribune), Sugimoto draws inspiration from her upbringing in Japan and her roots in jazz to compose and perform from her unique multicultural experience. Born/Raised, her debut album (Asian Improv Records, 2018), explores this cultural and musical binary, juxtaposing, among others, a jazz rendition of a Japanese children's song alongside compositions inspired by the American jazz idiom. Sugimoto is also a core member of the quartet Hanami, whose two albums similarly mix Japanese culture into creative music. Mai has performed three times at the Chicago Jazz Festival: in 2015 with Hanami, in 2019 as a leader, and in 2018 with renowned bassist Tatsu Aoki, with whom she frequently plays, including appearances in his Fred Anderson Legacy Band. Her first solo album, monologue (Asian Improv Records) was released in March of 2021."

"Marvin Tate (born 1959) is an American artist, poet, and singer-songwriter from Chicago.

Tate was born in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago in 1959. Tate attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, studying with Sterling Plumpp. In 1983 Tate moved to New York City, moving back to Chicago in 1985.

Tate lives and works in Chicago, IL. Tate is the author of Schoolyard of Broken Dreams (Tia Chucha Press, 1994) and The Amazing Mister Orange (Curbside Splendor, 2014). His honors include grants from the Poetry Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council.

In the mid-1980s, Tate started performing at open mics and slam poetry competitions around the city, and was a regular participant in the Uptown Poetry Slam.

In 1990, Tate became Chicago's poetry slam champion, after which he was featured on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. In the early 1990s Tate was a member of Uptighty, with Leroy Bach (Wilco) and Dan Bitney (Tortoise), and hosted a local talk show called Talk-A-Riot-Y. Tate won a poetry slam hosted as part of Lollapalooza 1994. In 1997, Tate appeared with David Sedaris on This American Life.

Tate fronted the experimental poetry/funk band D-Settlement from the 1990s to early 2000s, which released three albums from 1997 to 2002 as Marvin Tate's D-Settlement. The Chicago Tribune wrote: "By merging ferociously honest poetry with various black musical traditions, Tate stands as heir to Chicagoan Oscar Brown Jr., the veteran urban griot whose lyrics long have decried racism and social injustice."

In 2004, Tate appeared on the compilation reVerse with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alexi Murdoch, Lou Reed and Mark Strand. In 2005, Tate performed the poem "My Life to the Present" on Def Jam Poetry. In 2014, Joyful Noise released the album Tim Kinsella Sings the Songs of Marvin Tate by LeRoy Bach Featuring Angel Olsen, an album interpreting Tate's songs. In 2017, the Jazz Institute of Chicago invited Tate to perform Langston Hughes' poem "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz." Tate adapted it into "A Great Day in the Neighborhood - Echoes of Langston Hughes," incorporating film, dance, and jazz instrumentals from Greg Ward and Ben LaMar Gay.

Tate is represented by Hana Pietri Gallery in Chicago, IL. In 2019, Intuit: The Center for Outsider Art presented an exhibition of Tate's artwork, Looking at You From a Distance Not Too Far: Work by Marvin Tate.Poetry

Tate's influences include Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Charles Bukowski, Ivor Cutler, Stephen Dobyns, doo-wop, gospel, and the blues. The Chicago Tribune notes of Tate's writing: "Though it's often funny or absurd, the work's most striking aspect is the calm sense of melancholy consistent in every piece..." "-Wikipedia