"William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City, heralded by The Village Voice as, "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time."

In addition to recording over 150 albums, he has published six books and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists.

Parker's current bands include the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, In Order to Survive, Raining on the Moon, Stan's Hat Flapping in the Wind, and the Cosmic Mountain Quartet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore. Throughout his career he has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Milford Graves, and David S. Ware, among others."

"Kevin Murray is a NYC-based drummer, improvisor, and organizer. He has worked with Joe Morris, T.J. Borden, William Winant, Eddie Gale, Arrington de Dionyso, Peter Kuhn, Ava Mendoza, Rent Romus, Dave Sewelson, Cooper-Moore, Nicole Mitchell, Jackson Krall, Chris Pitsiokos, Elinor Speirs, and others. Frequent collaborators include William Parker, gabby fluke-mogul, Tom Weeks, James McKain, Drew Wesely, Aaron Rubinstein, Kaelen Ghandhi, as well as Elaine the Singer, a side project of math-rock duo Floral that will be releasing their debut LP in 2020."

Jim Clouse is an audio engineer and musician, performing on drums and saxophone. His musical idioms are generally Jazz, Blues, Folk and World. He runs Park West Studios in Brooklyn, NY, the source of many well-recorded and well-known modern jazz records.

"Jason Kao Hwang (composer/violin/viola) recently released the CD Sing House, featuring his quintet, and VOICE, which features several ensembles with poetry. Sing House performances include the Vision Festival and Edgefest (MI). Burning Bridge, his octet of Chinese and Western instruments was one of the top CDs of 2012 in Jazziz and the Jazz Times. Performances include the Festival International de Musique Actuelle (Canada) and Freer Gallery (D.C.). The 2012 Downbeat Critics' Poll voted Mr. Hwang as "Rising Star for Violin." In 2011 he released two critically acclaimed recordings, Symphony of Souls, for improvising orchestra, and Crossroads Unseen, the third CD of his quartet EDGE. His opera, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown, was one of the top ten recordings of 2005 in Opera News. As violinist, he has worked with Wadada Leo Smith, Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Steve Swell, Tomeka Reid, and others. Mr. Hwang has received support from Chamber Music America, US Artists International, the NEA, Rockefeller Foundation and others. Mr. Hwang currently teaches sound design at New York University."

Eri Yamamoto Pianist/ Composer

Since moving to the United States in 1995, Eri Yamamoto has established herself as one of jazz's most original and compelling pianists and composers. Jazz legend Herbie Hancock has said, "My hat's off to her... already she's found her own voice."

The Eri Yamamoto Trio has developed a unique sound and repertoire, and has built a strong following in New York and abroad. They have recently toured the U. S., Canada, Europe, and Japan, with appearances at major festivals in Jazz en Raffale, Canada; Cheltenham, England; Terrassa, Spain; Bray/Derry, Ireland; Time Zones in Bari, Italy; and Shiga, Japan. Eri has also been collaborating with such creative and celebrated musicians as William Parker, Daniel Carter, Hamid Drake, Federico Ughi, and Yves Léveillé.

In 2009, Eri composed trio music to accompany the 1932 silent film by the master director, Yasujiro Ozu, I Was Born But... This music was premiered in a festival in Munich, Germany, and five of the songs appear on her CD, In Each Day, Something Good.

In 2012 release, her latest trio CD, The Next Page on AUM Fidelity Label is her eighth CD as a leader. Her ten new compositions evoke a wide range of images and moods, inspired by moments of grace in her daily life, and her encounters of natural beauty at home and throughout her travels.

Eri has also developed a personal voice as a solo pianist, and has moved audiences with her renditions of her own compositions and her spontaneous improvisations. In 2008, she gave a nine-concert solo tour of Italy to popular and critical acclaim. She has also given solo concerts in Japan and the United States.

Since 2009, Eri has had a special collaboration with French-Canadian pianist

Yves Léveillé, performing at several concerts and clubs throughout Canada.

In 2010, they released a CD, Pianos, that features 10 of their original compositions in duo and solo settings. They added multi-reed virtuoso Paul McCandless to their ensemble, and recently toured Canada, where they deeply moved audiences with their lyrical and compelling music.

Eri was born in Osaka, Japan, and began playing classical piano at age three. She started composing when only eight years old, and studied voice, viola, and composition through her high school and college years. In 1995, she visited New York for the first time, and by chance heard Tommy Flanagan performing. She was so inspired by her first experience of a jazz piano trio that she decided on the spot to move to New York and dedicate herself to learning jazz.

Later that year, Eri entered the New School University's prestigious jazz program, where she studied with Reggie Workman, Junior Mance, and LeeAnn Ledgerwood. In 1999, while still in school, she started playing regularly at the Avenue B Social Club, a popular spot among jazz musicians in the East Village. There she developed a musical friendship with fellow pianist Matthew Shipp.

Since 2000, Eri's trio has been appearing regularly at Arthur's Tavern, a historic jazz club in New York's Greenwich Village. In addition to her European performances, she has performed at the Hartford International Jazz Festival, An Die Musik in Baltimore, and Lincoln Center Summer Festival in New York City.

Eri has appeared on two William Parker recordings, Luc' s Lantern and Corn Meal Dance, and has performed in Italy, Holland, Norway, Tunisia and Portugal with his trio and sextet. She has also worked with such musical luminaries as Ron McClure, Andy McKee, Lewis Barns, Rob Brown, Leena Conquest, Butch Morris, Arthur Kell, Kevin Tkacs, and Whit Dickey.

Finally, Eri is a gifted educator. She received her master of music in education and composition from Shiga University, Japan. She has taught private lessons and workshops to jazz musicians of all instruments from the U. S., Japan, Europe, and North Africa.

www.eriyamamoto.com eri@eriyamamoto.com

Eri Yamamoto bio, p. 2

"Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson was born in Oklahoma City in 1951. His music extends from Classical to Jazz.

In the words of William Parker: "Jalalu has a big personality. He is full of that Oklahoma red-man, black-man, ghost-dance song and is truly one of the unsung heroes in twentieth - and 21st-century music. For me, the quality and volume of his work is on the same level as Ornette Coleman and Duke Ellington. Jalalu has written a full range of music for dance and theater, and for an endless combination of ensembles, including solo bass, music for 25 tubas, string quartets, full symphony orchestra, voice, percussion and electronics, to name a few. A wonderful trumpet player and improviser, he is continually searching for new sounds through the world of children. Due to the lack of respect in America, he has been living in Europe in order to find some solace while he continues opening new doors to the universe of music." "

"Matt Moran received a Master's degree in jazz composition from New England Conservatory in 1995. At NEC he studied with the visionary composer and multi-instrumentalist Joseph Maneri, and has continued to learn from Maneri through performances with him. Since moving to New York in 1995 he has performed both as leader and sideman, including billings for the Knitting Factory's What Is Jazz? Festival, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Panasonic Village Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and the Vision Festival, as well as leading tours in the U.S. and Europe.

Also active as a performer, teacher, and curator in the Balkan folk music scene, Moran plays traditional percussion with artists such as Lefteris Bournias, Raif Hyseni, Demetri Tashie, and other master musicians from the Balkans who have immigrated to New York. With Slavic Soul Party!, he sparked "Balkan Cabaret", a downtown music series for Balkan and Balkan-inspired music.

Moran currently leads the groups Sideshow and Slavic Soul Party! He is also active performing and recording with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet, the Mat Maneri Quintet, Theo Bleckmann, Dan Levin, Nate Wooley, Kavala Brass Band, and Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band.

Vibraphonist and tunesmith Matt Moran "plays the vibraphone like a speed-chess master, always darting off into flurries of ingenious, unexpected activity" (Village Voice). He has performed and recorded with artists as diverse as Mat Maneri, Lionel Hampton, Combustible Edison, Ellery Eskelin, and Saban Bajramovic. Moran's sound is integral to an innovative group of New York musicians who blur the boundaries of composition, improvisation, and folk traditions."

"Composer and Tubist, Ben Stapp, although classically trained with Tommy Johnson and Roger Bobo while pursuing his love for jazz tuba, Ben further opened up his horizons while living in Portugal, hanging out at Clean Feed's record store. Since then he's been living in New York since 2007 and experienced the diversity of New York's music scene including engagements with Steven Bernstein's Universal Melody Brass Band, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), toured with Red Barrat, played with the Garden State Philharmonia at Carnegie Hall, with Slavic Soul Party, Mario Pavone's Accordion Project, playing Earle Brown with the ECCE Ensemble at MIT, frequent traditional jazz and brass band freelancer, Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain, tubist for the Chelsea Symphony, with TILT at Lincoln Center to Premier John Luther Adam's Sila, for Eli Yamin's Blues Band, Sousaphone player for Jacob Sac's live Heavens Trombone Choir, plays tuba in Stephen Haynes Quintet with Joe Morris, Warren Smith, and William Parker, and dedicated Colombian-music tubist with Martin Vejarano's Cumbia River Band, Chia's Dance Party, Pablo Mayor's Folkore Eurbano, and the experimental Alejandro Florez' Tin Throat Ensemble."

"Called "a thrilling improviser" by Downbeat magazine, Fay Victor consistently hones a unique vision of the vocalist's role in jazz and improvised music. Victor's eight (8) critically acclaimed recordings as a leader since the late 90's has seen praise in venerable media outlets such as Downbeat, JazzTimes, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, The Wire, Signal to Noise, Popmatters.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out Chicago, The Chicago Reader, The New York City Jazz Record and JazzWise (UK). Victor's long standing group, the Fay Victor Ensemble - an expansive and cohesive mix of jazz, rock, blues, new music and free improvisation - released three albums to huge critical acclaim (2009's The FreeSong Suite made it onto numerous year-end lists including The Village Voice, NPR and Popmatters.com). The experimental blues project The Exposed Blues Duo, with FVE guitarist Anders Nilsson delving deep into a variety of blues forms released Bare in 2010. There is Herbie Nichols SUNG, Victor's homage to the unsung be-bop pianist incorporating Victor's lyrics and arrangements in a quintet and trio format. The trio project has been recorded and currently looking for label support for release and 2018 will see Victor release Wet Robots on ESP-DISK, a brand new vehicle for fresh sounds and improvisational approaches in a group called SoundNoiseFUNK.

In addition to Victor's band-leading vehicles on record, her voice has attracted esteemed ensembles including Other Dimensions in Music (ODIM), the perennial free jazz outfit joined forces with Victor for 2011's Kaiso Stories on Silkheart Records in 2011, lauded for its impressive fusion of Calypso, the music of Trinidad & Tobago and home to Victor's cultural roots, with free jazz. The legendary and longstanding Dutch outfit, the Instant Composer's Pool Orkest (ICP) led by Misha Mengelberg/Han Bennink invited Victor to tour with them in Europe in 2010 and appear during US tours in 2011, 2014 and 2015. Victor is the first vocalist to work consistently with ICP in it's 50 year history. Victor was one of the vocalists on Trillium E (New Braxton Records 2011) with Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Orchestra and Trillium J during the four-day Braxtonian Festival in 2011. Reedist Ab Baars invited Victor and french horn hero Vincent Chancey to celebrate 20 years with his esteemed trio in 2011 including a 15-concert European tour, the first time Baars had written material for voice and specifically for Victor; that work is contained on The Invisible Blow (Stichting Wig 2014). Victor received a presenting commission from Anthony Braxton himself on behalf of the Tricentric Foundation for Neighborhood Dynamics (co-composed with Jochem van Dijk) that was presented during the TriCentric Festival in a double bill with Anthony Braxton's Nonet in 2014. Neighborhood Dynamics is a piece about gentrification and the changing demographic landscape of Brooklyn, NY, where Victor calls home. Over the past four years, Victor's work with esteemed avant-garde trombonist Roswell Rudd has seen a deeper connection appearing on his 2014 Trombone for Lovers(Sunnyside Records 2014) and now appearing on every track of Embrace (RareNoise 2017), a project of re-imagined standards. Victor was part of a voice/percussion/piano duo with MacArthur genius grant recipient, professor and composer/multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey, with appearances at Constellation in Chicago, IL (2016) and Vision Festival XVVI (2014) amongst their performance highlights.

Victor is also out on record as a part of Glorious Ravage, a sprawling song-cycle in honor of Victorian-era female explorers composed by Bay Area bassist/composer Lisa Mezzacappa (New World Records 2017). Mezzacappa and Victor have collaborated frequently since 2011 and the song cycle was originally inspired by Victor's first trip out West to play with Mezzacappa. Finally, Victor is part of ReDDeer a trio of improvisors that met at MusicOmi in 2010 with a record of live duo/trio recordings in New York & Austria called New York - St. Johann (Evil Rabbit Records 2017) and Victor is a featured guest on Marc Ribot's Songs of Resistance, due for release in January 2018. Victor was just awarded a residency at Yaddo Corp. for Music Composition, staying there for 6 weeks to complete a large work on the life and death of her mother, in early 2018.

Victor performances has included such luminaries as Wadada Leo Smith, Marshall Allen (Sun Ra), NEA Jazz Master Dr. Randy Weston, NEA Jazz Master Archie Shepp, Roswell Rudd, Nicole Mitchell, William Parker, Myra Melford, Lawrence Butch Morris, Gary Lucas, Dave Burrell, Henry Threadgill, Andrew Cyrille, Jason Moran, Sam Newsome, Darius Jones, Anthony Coleman, Aruan Ortiz, Joe Morris, Vijay Iyer, Matana Roberts, Mark Dresser, Steven Bernstein, Marika Hughes, Mazz Swift, Marty Ehrlich, Melvin Gibbs, Henry Butler, Curtis Clark and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Victor has graced stages around the world including BAMCafe Live, The Stone (NY), Symphony Space (NY),The Jazz Standard (NY), Jazz at Lincoln Center (NY), National Sawdust (NY), Firehouse 12 (New Haven), The Bimhuis (The Netherlands), Cankarjev Dom (Slovenia), Koln Philharmonie (Germany), Nardis(Turkey), Rostov Philharmonic Hall (Russia), De Loft (Koln), The 55 Bar (monthly residency for over 5 years - NY), Vision Festival XV, XVI, XVIV, XXI, The ArtActs Festival (Austria), New Frequencies Festival (San Francisco) and River to River Festivals (New York)."

"Hamid Drake (born August 3, 1955) is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. He lives in Chicago, IL but spends a great deal of time touring worldwide. By the close of the 1990s, Hamid Drake was widely regarded as one of the best percussionists in jazz and avant improvised music. Incorporating Afro-Cuban, Indian, and African percussion instruments and influence, in addition to using the standard trap set, Drake has collaborated extensively with top free-jazz improvisers. Drake also has performed world music; by the late 70s, he was a member of Foday Musa Suso's Mandingo Griot Society and has played reggae throughout his career.

Drake has worked with trumpeter Don Cherry, pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Fred Anderson, Archie Shepp and David Murray and bassists Reggie Workman and William Parker (in a large number of lineups)

He studied drums extensively, including eastern and Caribbean styles. He frequently plays without sticks; using his hands to develop subtle commanding undertones. His tabla playing is notable for his subtlety and flair. Drake's questing nature and his interest in Caribbean percussion led to a deep involvement with reggae."

"Jean Carla Rodea (b in Mexico City) is a research-based interdisciplinary artist and educator currently living between Brooklyn, NY and San Francisco, CA. Her/their work involves a variety of disciplines and mediums such as music, sound, poetry, vocal performance and performance art, photography, video, movement, and sculpture. Her artistic practice deals with spaces and instances where problematic socio-political and cultural constructs are rendered visible through multimedia installations and performance.

As a musician, Jean Carla is dedicated to perform and compose a plethora of music/sound in a variety of settings - from solo to large ensembles. She/they have performed and recorded with William Parker, Darius Jones' vocal quartet Elizabeth-Caroline Unit, Gerald Cleaver's Uncle June, Anthony Braxton's Syntactical Ghost Trance Music Choir, Cecilia Lopez's Machinic Fantasies, and Talibam!. In addition to this, she/they lead her/their own multi-media projects; Buscando a Marina/Looking for Marina, and Azares. Jean Carla has worked with Asiya Wadud, Miriam Parker, rebeca medina, Merche Blasco, Amirtha Kidambi, Patricia Nicholson, Jo Wood Brown, Rachel Bersen, Anastasia Clarke, Taylor Ho-Bynum, Joe Morris, Stephen Haynes, Matt Mottel, etc. She has performed extensively and shown work at Roulette Intermedium, Carnegie Hall, BRIC, Knockdown Center, Judson Church, Danspace, Center for Performance Research, Panoply Lab, Parallel, Rio ll Gallery, The Clemente, BRAC, WAAM, El Museo de Los Sures, Casul, The Graduate Center, to mention a few."

"Ariel Bart is a New York-based harmonica player and composer.

She was born in 1998 and plays chromatic harmonica since age 7.

Trained by the best musicians in Israel including Dror Adler, Yaaki Levy, and Yuval Cohen. She studied at the Jerusalem high school for the Arts (jazz music department).

Served in the IDF as an outstanding musician between 2016-2018.

Preformed with the top Israeli artists such as Shlomo Gronich, David D'aor, Miki Gavrilov, Atraf (band) and as a solo performer with the Jerusalem East and West orchestra.

Ariel is a student at The new school university for jazz and contemporary music in New York (graduating in May 2020).

Between 2018-2019 studied with some of the top musicians in NY such as Aaron Parks, Reggie Workman, Jon Cowered, Tony Malaby, and Kirk Nurock.

During 2019 performed and recorded with the musicians William Parker, Steve Swell, and Andrew Cyrille."

Jim Clouse is an audio engineer and musician, performing on drums and saxophone. His musical idioms are generally Jazz, Blues, Folk and World. He runs Park West Studios in Brooklyn, NY, the source of many well-recorded and well-known modern jazz records.

"Matt Lavelle (Paterson NJ 1970), began his music career with a High School Big Band tour of the Soviet Union in 1988, and then a 5 year period of study with Hildred Humphries, a Swing era veteran that played with Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and many others of the time. Lavelle played Trumpet during this time as a member of Hildred's band.

Lavelle then made his move on New York City to go through the trials of all new Jazz musicians, and played Straight-ahead Jazz until 1995. When he relocated to Kingston New York, and immersed himself in the study of the Bass-clarinet, keeping the trumpet going, creating the only known successful double of these 2 challenging instruments.

Lavelle returned to New York seeking out what is known as the Downtown community in 1999, which he has been a member of to this day (2009). Along the way Lavelle has played with William Parker, which also consisted of a tour in Sardinia Italy, Sabir Mateen, consisting of a tour of Northern Italy, and also toured in Scotland with an improvisation collective known as Eye Contact.

Lavelle began study with Jazz Legend Ornette Coleman in 2005, having huge impact and transformational impact on the Musician, also resulting in the addition of the Alto Clarinet as another voice.

Matt also was the key in the return and resurgence of Jazz legend Giuseppi Logan, playing on and producing his comeback record after a 40 year absence.

Lavelle has played and collaborated with Ornette Coleman, Giuseppi Logan, Hildred Humprhries, William Parker, Eric Mingus, Sabir Mateen, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, Jemeel Moondoc, Mat Maneri, Ras Moshe, Potato Valdez, and many others."

"Described as both "utterly original" and "a singer with an uncanny emotional touch for the past 50 years of jazz," Andrea Wolper, "brings songs to life, whatever their source, working in a milieu that begins with jazz and reaches out to embrace an expressive area that is uniquely her own."*

Andrea appears in clubs, festivals, and concert spaces in the U.S. and abroad. Performance credits as a leader in her New York home base include the Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Jazz at Lincoln Center), Mezzrow, JVC New York Jazz Festival, Kitano, Arts for Arts Evolving Series, and more, and she has toured across the U.S., in Europe, and beyond. Working frequently as both leader and side-person, Andrea is "an audacious artist [who] flouts genre limitations, singing songs for the love of it and delivering an inventive, thrilling, appealing musical vision."

One of the "great jazz singers" included in "The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide" (Yannow, BackBeat Books), Andrea is as accomplished with the Great American Songbook as she is with more unusual repertoire and spontaneous improvisation. Andrea has also made her mark as a songwriter; Cadence magazine calls her "easily superior to the ever expanding population in the singer/songwriter category," and she has been awarded composing fellowships by Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Ucross Foundation, Newnan ArtRez, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Uncool Residency.

Andrea's third CD, "Parallel Lives" (Jazzed Media) received rave reviews, and was included on several Top Jazz CDs and Notable Releases lists for 2011. Co-produced by Todd Barkan, it features her group with guitarist Michael Howell, pianist Kris Davis, bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer Michael T.A. Thompson. Her previous release, "The Small Hours" (VarisOne.Jazz), built around her trio with guitarist Ron Affif and Ken Filiano, was produced by Barkan, and features drummers Victor Lewis and Jamey Haddad, as well as guest artists Lou Marini (flute) and Frank London (trumpet and flugelhorn).

Andrea also appears as a side person across jazz genres, from holding the vocal chair with the straight ahead Heavenly Big Band to appearing in several performance and recording projects of free jazz bassist William Parker. In addition, she was one third of the improvising trio TranceFormation, with Filiano and the late pianist Connie Crothers; the trio's live CD, "TranceFormation in Concert" (New Artists) was a best vocal CD selection in the 2012 Downbeat critics' polls.

Andrea curated the "Why Not Experiment?" series at Whynot Jazz Room in New York city for nearly two years (2014-15). She is a past President of International Women in Jazz, and served on the Advisory Board of the Jazz Vocal Coalition.

Andrea offers singing lessons in her private studio, and conducts clinics in jazz vocal performance, and workshops and master classes on performance and improvisation.

Fun Facts: Andrea is an accomplished writer whose journalism and poetry have appeared in numerous publications. Among her works are two books, "Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives" (with Julie S. Peters; Routledge) and "The Actor's City Sourcebook" (Watson-Guptill). In addition, she's spent time on the stage, and came to New York from her native California to attend the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She earned a black belt in Shotokan Karate, and has two dust-gathering trophies to tell the tale."

"Ariel Bart is a New York-based harmonica player and composer.

She was born in 1998 and plays chromatic harmonica since age 7.

Trained by the best musicians in Israel including Dror Adler, Yaaki Levy, and Yuval Cohen. She studied at the Jerusalem high school for the Arts (jazz music department).

Served in the IDF as an outstanding musician between 2016-2018.

Preformed with the top Israeli artists such as Shlomo Gronich, David D'aor, Miki Gavrilov, Atraf (band) and as a solo performer with the Jerusalem East and West orchestra.

Ariel is a student at The new school university for jazz and contemporary music in New York (graduating in May 2020).

Between 2018-2019 studied with some of the top musicians in NY such as Aaron Parks, Reggie Workman, Jon Cowered, Tony Malaby, and Kirk Nurock.

During 2019 performed and recorded with the musicians William Parker, Steve Swell, and Andrew Cyrille."

"Melanie Dyer performs and composes in creative, improvised and through-composed music spheres. She trained with William Lincer (Principal Violist, New York Philharmonic), Lee Yeingst (Principal Violist, Colorado Symphony Orchestra), John Jake Kella (NY Metropolitan Opera) and Naomi Fellows (Colorado Symphony Orchestra); and studied viola performance at the LaMont School of Music/University of Denver.

Melanie founded WeFreeStrings, an improvising string/rhythm collective rooted in improvised music in 2011. ​From 2004 - 2013, under her Bb Universe banner and in collaboration with the multi-generational, multi-ethnic Scientific Soul Sessions collective, Melanie's Harlem home became the scene of underground public performances by WeFreeStrings and other large and small music ensembles. Bb Universe hosted open rehearsals and performances, recordings, lectures, one-act plays and films including presentations by recognized indigenous activists Toaksin Ghosthorse, a performance of Robbie McCauley's Sally's Rape and a screening of John Douglas' documentary, Grenada: The Future Coming Towards Us. These monthly and semi-monthly events brought cultural luminaries, emerging artists, social and environmental activists, working and under-employed people together. Open dialogues, emphasizing individuals as agents of change, were central to Bb Universe and Scientific Soul Sessions.​Melanie currently performs with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Heroes Are Gang Leaders, Gwen Laster's New Muse 4tet, William Parker, Tomeka Reid Stringtet, Patricia Nicholson's Women w an Axe to Grind. She's played and/or recorded with Henry Grimes, Nona Hendryx, Joe Bonner, Reggie Workman, Howard Johnson, and a many other notable musicians in Europe, South Africa and across the U.S.

Recordings include WeFreeStrings Fulfillment (Indepstrings, 2018), David Haney's Birth of a City (2019), Come Sunday (T. Cumberbatch, 2015); Fred Ho & Quincy Saul Present the Music of Cal Massey: A Tribute (2011); Live at St Nick's Pub, Salim Washington & Donald Smith Ensemble, Cadence Records (2007); With Strings, Salim Washington & The Harlem Arts Ensemble, CIMP Records (2007); Harlem Homecoming, Salim Washington & The Harlem Arts Ensemble, UJam Records (2005), and others. WeFreeStrings has received project support from New Music USA, Chamber Music America, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, and individual donors."

"Jason Kao Hwang (composer/violin/viola) recently released the CD Sing House, featuring his quintet, and VOICE, which features several ensembles with poetry. Sing House performances include the Vision Festival and Edgefest (MI). Burning Bridge, his octet of Chinese and Western instruments was one of the top CDs of 2012 in Jazziz and the Jazz Times. Performances include the Festival International de Musique Actuelle (Canada) and Freer Gallery (D.C.). The 2012 Downbeat Critics' Poll voted Mr. Hwang as "Rising Star for Violin." In 2011 he released two critically acclaimed recordings, Symphony of Souls, for improvising orchestra, and Crossroads Unseen, the third CD of his quartet EDGE. His opera, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown, was one of the top ten recordings of 2005 in Opera News. As violinist, he has worked with Wadada Leo Smith, Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Steve Swell, Tomeka Reid, and others. Mr. Hwang has received support from Chamber Music America, US Artists International, the NEA, Rockefeller Foundation and others. Mr. Hwang currently teaches sound design at New York University."

"Gwen Laster is a nationally acclaimed musician who has been the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jubilation Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Arts Mid Hudson, Lila Wallace and the Cognac Hennessey 1st place Jazz Search. She's a native Detroiter whose creative influences come from the Motor City's exciting urban and classical music culture. Gwen started improvising and composing because of her parents love of jazz, blues, soul and classical music and her inspiring music teachers from Detroit's public schools.

​Laster relocated to NYC after earning two music degrees from the University of Michigan. She began collaborating, performing and recording with internationally-known creative and commercial artists including Anthony Braxton, Nona Hendryx, Aretha Franklin, Wadada Leo Smith, William Parker, Danny Elfman, Sun Ra Arkestra, Tyler, the Creator, Gladys Knight, Emeline Michel, Andrea Bocelli, David Foster, Alicia Keys, Rhianna, Shaggy, Andrew Baba Lamb, Natalie Cole, Solange, Mark Anthony, J Lo and Shakira at President Obama's Inaugural Neighborhood Ball."