"Keefe Jackson, saxophonist/clarinetist/improvisor/composer, arrived in Chicago in 2001 from his native Fayettevile, Arkansas. He performs regularly in the U.S. and in Europe with many musicians including Pandelis Karayorgis, Tomeka Reid, Tim Daisy, Dave Rempis, Jeb Bishop, Jason Roebke, Jason Adasiewicz, Mike Reed, Jason Stein, Josh Berman, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Frank Rosaly, Oscar Jan Hoogland and Marc Unternaehrer. He has also appeared with Michael Moore, Ab Baars, Michiel Braam, Satoko Fujii, and Anthony Coleman. Bill Meyer (Chicago Reader): "...the impeccable logic of his lines and the richness of his tone leave you wanting more... Jackson's high-register squiggles and coarsely voiced, rippling runs push the limits of the tenor's tonal envelope." Frank van Herk, de Volkskrant (Amsterdam): "[Jackson] has an old-fashioned, warm-woolly sound, and a feeling for melodic lines that take their time in unfolding." He has been mentioned in the DownBeat Critics Poll in the Rising Star Tenor Saxophone category. Recordings are available on Delmark and Clean Feed Records."

Oscar Jan Hoogland: Improviser Composer - piano, electric clavichord, synth, guitar, record players, tape players, megaphones, crackle box, amplified slot machine

"The enfant terrible of the new Dutch impro scene, Oscar Jan Hoogland sprung onto the Amsterdam landscape approximately a decade ago, at the forefront of a new group of improvisers to arrive and simultaneously uphold the tradition of New Dutch Swing even while tearing it apart.

Hoogland is possibly most notable for his ability to use any and every influence as stimuli for improvisation and adventure. Piano may be his main instrument but he is often seen performing on a variety of old synths, a highly customized electric clavichord, guitar, turntables, voice, toys, even an amplified slotmachine... His projects show the diversity of his interests: Jazz with the Chicago based quartet These Things Happen, improvisation with Senegalese griot singer Mola Sylla and percussionist Frank Rosaly, cumbia with Superinca and the Galactic Green, sound installation and performance in Practical Music with Jasper Stadhouders and Christian Lillinger and his Phonograph Orchestra. The Bakfietsband performs on an old dutch transport bicycle for his quartet LOOT featuring Ab Baars Onno Govaert and Uldis Vitols he wrote all the repertoire. Ensembles and projects that link him directly to the history of Dutch improvising, are The Ambush Party "Impossible to predict and impossible to resist" featuring Natalio Sued, Harald Austbø and Marcos Baggiani, the Amsterdam Real Book repertoire project, teaming up with the Benjamin Herman trio for a run on Misha Mengelberg's compositions, and his duo with legendary drummer Han Bennink. He works regularly with Zea, from The Ex frontman Arnold de Boer, with whom he toured Ghana to bridge the worlds improvisation and popmusic.

In all these ensembles, one sees a Misha Mengelberg- like intellect which is just as focused on meta-music and discovering and challenging new ideas as it is on simply providing straight forward musical input.

Oscar has also been crucial in helping this music reach new and different audiences, constantly finding unusual settings which draw together young artists, dancers, and hip underground party folk..He has been running many different series and festivals in Amsterdam including, the legendary Eddie and the Eagles evening in collaboration with the Eddie the Eagle museum at OT301, the Amsterdam Real Book bicycle tours, The Impro Train series at Bimhuis and The 2nd Stop is Jupiter at De Ruimte. In 2016 het brought together the scenes of Amsterdam Berlin and Chicago in the ABC Doek Festival..Over the years he has engaged extensively in the world of theater in collaboration with o.a. De Veenfabriek, De Warme Winkel and De Niewe Tijd..Het Gemeente Museum Den Haag hosted his installation 'On The Line': an homage to Piet Mondriaan's Victory Boogie Woogie that consisted of 12 identical alined record players playing 12 copies of Guus Janssens solo piano record On The Line.

As a teacher Oscar Jan Hoogland is currently on faculty for the composition department at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and the Mime department for the Academie voor Theater en Dans in Amsterdam.

Hoogland is co-director of the improvisers collective DOEK and connected to the Amsterdam venue De Ruimte and runs his own record label De Platenbakkerij."

"Jason Roebke is a double bassist, improviser and composer living in Chicago. He was born and raised in tiny Kaukauna, Wisconsin in 1974 and began playing electric bass at age 14. His first fascination was with Motown bassist James Jamerson. Roebke's first introduction to jazz was at a summer jazz camp run by local legend, pianist, John Harmon. Here he heard recordings of Charlie Parker and a life long fascination with music was begun. His high school band director had a small jazz CD collection which included Ornette Coleman's "The Art of the Improvisers" and Charles Mingus "Mingus Ah Um" which he listed to endlessly for years.

Entering college at the University of Minnesota for an extremely short stay, he returned to Wisconsin, graduating from a small liberal arts university in 1996. Roebke moved to Madison, WI to study with legendary saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell. There he worked as Mitchell's music copyist for 18 months, spending nearly everyday at Mitchell's home reworking orchestral and chamber music scores with the composer. In 1998, Roebke entered the University of Michigan where he studied with bassist Rodney Whitaker.

In 1999, Roebke moved to Chicago and quickly began working with a new crop of young improvisers. There were early associations with saxophonists Aram Shelton, Dave Rempis and Matt Bauder (also a Michigan alumnus); drummers Tim Daisy and Frank Rosaly and cornetist Josh Berman. Soon after his arrival in Chicago, Roebke organized his first quartet with Bauder, guitarist Jeff Parker, and drummer Chad Taylor. He also began playing with a large improvising ensemble Chicago Improvisers Group with Ken Vandermark, Jeb Bishop, Michael Zerang, Jim Baker among others. He made his first recording as a leader in 2003 with "Rapid Croche" on 482 Music. A trio session with saxophonist Aram Shelton and drummer Tim Daisy, the recording was a critical success. Also during this time, Roebke began his long and continuing association with Fred Lonberg-Holm. Roebke played, toured and recorded with Lonberg-Holm's Terminal 4 and Valentine Trio. Roebke was the instigator of three recordings and a tour with the improvising trio tigersmilk, with cornetist Rob Mazurek and Vancouver drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

In recent years, Roebke has been playing with Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown, Jason Stein Trio, Jeb Bishop Trio, James Falzone's KLANG, Jorrit Dijkstra's Flatlands Collective, Pillow Circles, and The Whammies, Keefe Jackson, and Mike Reed's People, Places, and Things. The trio of Nate Wooley, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Roebke released two recordings "Throw Down Your Hammer and Sing" and an untitled LP. Roebke and Berlin-based tenor saxophonist Tobias Delius released a duo CD on Nottwo Records in 2012."

"Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist Mikel Patrick Avery has been active within the Chicago art scene since moving to the area 8 years ago. Established as a jazz drummer, he is commonly recognized for his orchestral and melodic style of drumming that often involves the use of unconventional "non-musical" objects. Mikel is also a dedicated composer, photographer, producer and educator. In recent years, he has become an integral voice in Rob Mazurek's Moon Cycles, Joshua Abrams's Natural Information Society, The Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, and Theaster Gates's Black Monks of Mississippi. He also leads several of his own projects including 1/2 Size Piano Trio, Mikel Patrick Avery *PLAY*, and a new conceptual dance company co-led with artist Amanda Avery called The Something Beautiful Movement Orchestra. Mikel has performed at the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Documenta 13 (in Kassel Germany), Kepler Studio (Berlin), Guelph Jazz Festival, White Cube (London), MCA Chicago, and he has given a performance for President Barack Obama.

For the 2015 Festival, Kate Dumbleton, Executive & Artistic Director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, says that Mikel "is inventing a piece that will open in the form of a parade and likely culminate with a stage performance. . . .What he came up with is exactly why I wanted to pick him [for a commission]. . . .He's going to have this crazy parade - really connected to the neighborhood--a lot of fun."

The commission to Mikel Patrick Avery is a collaboration with the Rebuild Foundation. The project has been developed in conjunction with the Hyde Park Jazz Festival's Story Share Project. For this commission, Mikel has created a new composition in response to stories collected with residents in the neighborhood around the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative on the South Side of Chicago. We are grateful to the Chicago Community Trust for their support of this project."