"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."

"Edward L. Wilkerson Jr. (born July 27, 1953 in Terre Haute, Indiana) is an internationally recognized American jazz composer, arranger, musician, and educator based in Chicago. As founder and director of the cutting-edge octet 8 Bold Souls, and the 25-member performance ensemble Shadow Vignettes, Wilkerson has toured festivals and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. "Defender", a large-scale piece for Shadow Vignettes, was commissioned by the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund and featured in the 10th Anniversary of New Music America, a presentation of BAM's Next Wave Festival.

His music can be heard on 14 recordings, including two film soundtracks and the critically acclaimed albums Birth of a Notion, and 8 Bold Souls, both on his own Sessoms Records label.

One of the great saxophone and clarinet players on the Chicago scene, Wilkerson from the 1980s into the new millennium may have become best known as a bandleader and composer, particularly associated with medium- to large-scale projects (somewhat daunting in an era when creative music bandleaders are challenged to keep even small ensembles together). He has also been a major presence in Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), teaching composition at the organization's music school and serving for a time as AACM president.

The AACM collective, with its spirit of community as well as unbridled creativity, has been a predominant nurturing force for Wilkerson and has informed much of his work. He was an original member of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (formed by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar upon El'Zabar's 1976 graduation from the AACM school) and remained with the group until 1997, when he was replaced by Ernest "Khabeer" Dawkins. However, while appearing on such Ethnic Heritage Ensemble recordings as Three Gentlemen From Chicago (Moers), Hang Tuff (Open Minds), and Dance With the Ancestors (Chameleon), Wilkerson was also becoming more involved in leading his own projects, which characteristically saw the reedman thinking big. His most ambitious project, Shadow Vignettes, was initiated in 1979; with 25 musicians and incorporating dance, poetry, and visual arts, the ensemble's influences include the big band work of Muhal Richard Abrams, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Sun Ra. Shadow Vignettes released one CD, Birth of a Notion, on the Sessoms Records label in 1985. One of Shadow Vignettes' major pieces is entitled "Defender", commissioned by the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund and featured in the tenth anniversary of New Music America, presented by the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival.

Wilkerson's best-documented ensemble as a leader is 8 Bold Souls, an octet initiated in January 1985 with a series of Thursday-night concerts at the Chicago Filmmakers performance space. The popularity of the concerts led Wilkerson to establish 8 Bold Souls as a working band, and since their formation, four Souls CDs have been issued: 8 Bold Souls on Sessoms Records, Sideshow and Ant Farm on Arabesque Records, and Last Option on Thrill Jockey. Influenced by the small groups of Duke Ellington and Jimmie Lunceford, 8 Bold Souls also makes plenty of room for adventurous experimentation in the AACM spirit, drawing fully on the unusual sonic possibilities of the group's instrumentation of two woodwinds, trumpet, trombone, cello, tuba, bass, and trap drums. Overall, Wilkerson's work may be heard on 14 recordings, including two film soundtracks.

In addition to his work with 8 Bold Souls, Shadow Vignettes, and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Wilkerson has also played with the AACM Big Band, Roscoe Mitchell, Douglas Ewart, the Temptations, Chico Freeman, Geri Allen, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Muhal Richard Abrams, Aretha Franklin, and George Lewis.

Wilkerson's most recent release is the ensemble performance, Frequency, on the Thrill Jockey label. Encompassing distinctive compositions, and high-quality improvisational flights plus World and Native American sonic echoes, this debut CD confirms both the talents of the band Frequency and the continued adaptability of AACM members.

Besides the AACM-link, each participant in this Chicago-based quartet brings different sensibilities to the session. It includes reedist Ed Wilkerson and bassist Harrison Bankhead from 8 Bold Souls. Flautist Nicole Mitchell leads her own groups as well as working as an educator, while veteran percussionist Avreeayl Ra's AACM involvement goes back almost to the cooperative's founding.

Wilkerson has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the Community Arts Assistance Program, and has been cited in numerous music polls.

In his free time, Wilkerson, past president and longtime member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), teaches composition at the AACM School of Music."

"Ishmael Ali is a first generation Filipino-Arab-American cellist, guitarist, improviser, composer, and electronic artist currently residing in Chicago. His work centers on exploring sound through improvisation, experimentation, collaboration, as well as a wide array of idiomatic approaches in an ever-changing, always-growing list of projects with diverse focuses and influences.Though varying drastically from group to group, a common thread in his work is the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements to create something new: both foreign and familiar.

In addition to performing, Mr. Ali is a co-founder and audio engineer at the recording space Marmalade in Chicago and was the founder and director of the now inoperative music and art space, Orotund Music. He continues to work as an organizer and promoter through the music series OBTC."

"Jim Baker was born in Chicago a number of years ago and has been playing in and around Chicago and elsewhere in the world for a few decades, mostly on piano and analog synthesizer; mostly in improvisational contexts; in situations involving, amongst others, Fred Anderson, Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang, Mars Williams, Brian Sandstrom, Steve Hunt, Edward WIlkerson Jr, David Boykin, Rob Mazurek, Guillermo Gregorio, Nicole Mitchell, Vincent Davis, the Thing XXL, Tortoise, Dave Rempis, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Paul Hartsaw, Janet Bean, Damon Short, and numerous others.

For a number of years, Mr Baker was the house pianist at the weekly jam sessions at Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge; and for most of the past decade, has played weekly with the improvising quartet Extraordinary Popular Delusions (the other three Delusions: Messrs. Williams, Sandstrom, & Hunt) , who currently play nearly every monday night at Beat Kitchen in Chicago."

"Chicago master drummer/percussionist Avreeayl Ra was born in Chicago and still lives there today. He is a renowned musician always in demand among visiting jazz artists in Chicago. Avreeayl's father, Arthur 'Swinglee' O'Neil, was a tenor saxophonist who was mentor to many young Chicago musicians, including John Gilmore, later the mainstay of Sun Ra's Arkestra. Avreeayl is a long-term member of the Chicago AACM, and has performed and/or recorded with Fred Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Fontella Bass, Lester Bowie, Ari Brown, Oscar Brown, Jr., Henry Butler, Henry Byrd ('Professor Longhair'), Hamid Drake, Nicole Mitchell, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Malachi Thompson, and many more."