"b. 8 July 1964, New York City, New York, USA. The son of the legendary jazz bass player, Charles Mingus, he too plays bass. For some years he worked as a session musician and backing singer, playing on dates with artists such as Carla Bley, Bobby McFerrin and Karen Mantler. When performing in his own right, Mingus' work displays a politically aware and somewhat rebellious streak reminiscent of his father although in a different genre. In many of the songs he performs, some of which he also writes, he confronts issues that still detrimentally affect Black and mixed-race Americans. At the end of the 90s, Mingus' reputation began to spread overseas, owing in part to an appearance in England at the Meltdown Festival, during which he performed at London's Royal Festival Hall."

"Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.

A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City for over 30 years, Elliott Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from orchestral music to blues, jazz, noise, no wave rock, and techno music. He leads the projects Carbon and Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics, and Terraplane and has pioneered ways of applying fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors to musical composition and interaction.

His collaborators have included Radio-Sinfonie Frankfurt; pop singer Debbie Harry; Ensemble Modern; Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; Kronos String Quartet; Ensemble Resonanz; cello innovator Frances Marie Uitti; blues legends Hubert Sumlin and Pops Staples; pipa virtuoso Min-Xiao Feng; jazz greats Jack deJohnette, Oliver Lake, and Sonny Sharrock; multimedia artists Christian Marclay and Pierre Huyghe; and Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians Of Jajouka.

Sharp is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2014 Fellow at Parson's Center for Transformative Media. He received the 2015 Berlin Prize in Musical Composition from the American Academy in Berlin. He has composed scores for feature films and documentaries; created sound-design for interstitials on The Sundance Channel, MTV and Bravo networks; and has presented numerous sound installations in art galleries and museums. He is the subject of a new documentary "Doing The Don't" by filmmaker Bert Shapiro."-Elliott Sharp

"Don McKenzie (born June 28, 1974 in Brooklyn, New York) is a drummer known to many through his tenure with Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, in the band Masque. Reid the founder and leader of Masque has described its music as: "the place where rock, jazz, hip-hop and technology meet." When asked for his views on McKenzie's drumming, Reid says "His sense of pocket is very firm. I've always been fortunate to work with great drummers, like Marlon Browden and Ronald Shannon Jackson and Will Calhoun. Don is right up there at that level." McKenzie has also played with multi-instrumentalist/composer/producer Elliott Sharp, who says that: "Don McKenzie not only has the hands to play deep-pocket hip-hop and rock grooves, hard-hitting and asymmetrical jazz flavors, a la Tony Williams, and light-fingered sonic abstractions; most importantly, he has the ears to turn his authoritative gestures into music." Other artists McKenzie has played with includes Pharoahe Monch, New Kingdom, Sweetback, Martin Luther, Marc Ribot, The Persuaders, Mr. Complex, DJ Spinna, Cody Chestnutt, and jazz legend Roswell Rudd.

McKenzie's first instrument was guitar, but at the age of six he switched to drums. McKenzie's playing has a strong grounding in music theory and technique and for a period of time was a student of Everett Collins, who played with The Isley Brothers.

Keyboardist/singer Leon Gruenbaum, who has worked with Don on a number of projects (including his own Math Camp), notes that: "Don is a total powerhouse who can play in any style. He never overplays, instead allowing his extremely solid groove to provide a bed on which other musicians can feel completely comfortable to express themselves." For the latest Vernon Reid and Masque album, Other True Self, McKenzie composed Kizzy, inspired by a close friend."