"During the past decade, Jessica Ackerley has established herself on the Canadian and American music scenes as a unique and versatile guitarist, composer and bandleader. Born in Alberta, Canada, Jessica now resides in New York City, where she has worked alongside notable musicians such as Tyshawn Sorey, Daniel Carter, Marc Edwards, Luke Stewart, Patrick Shiroishi, and Jason Nazary, to name a few. She has performed at established venues like John Zorn's The Stone, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Blue Note, and has toured both as a bandleader and side musician throughout Canada and the United States. Her musical palette is diverse, split between highly refined compositional structure, free improvisation, and Black American Music, as well as noise soundscapes derived from experimental rock, as explored in her collaborative band, ESSi.

In 2017 and 2019, Ackerley released her debut and sophomore albums as a bandleader - Coalesce and A New Kind of Water - to much acclaim, making critics' year-end lists on Jazz Right Now, Avant Music News, Free Jazz Blog and Jazz Times Magazine. In 2019, she founded The Brink Guitar Festival, a four-day event featuring some of the most innovative players on the instrument such as Miles Okazaki, Elliott Sharp, Wendy Eisenberg, and Dan Lippel, among others. She has been commissioned by Adult Swim to compose and record a track for their 15-song Jazz compilation entitled New Jazz Century alongside other tracks by notable artists Matana Roberts, Anna Webber, and Jaimie Branch. As a recording artist, she has performed and released 11 albums as a side musician and bandleader to date. As an educator and mentor, she has lectured at Grant MacEwan University and University of Toronto, as well as guided many aspiring musicians in private study throughout the years. Jessica continuously expands her musical horizons with various projects, never setting boundaries or compromising her limits as a guitarist and artist."

"Yuma Uesaka (b. 1991) is a saxophonist, clarinetist, and improviser-composer mostly known for his work in jazz and creative music. Since his arrival to New York City in 2014, Yuma quickly built a reputation for his improvisational sensibilities and his powerful sound. As an advocate for music that celebrates modernity, hybridity, and rigor, Yuma works across diverse musical communities including jazz, creative music, and new classical music.

Yuma has performed at many of the notable venues in NYC such as National Sawdust, Roulette, The Jazz Gallery, Cornelia St Cafe, and Zinc Bar. He tours regularly both as a leader and as a sideman, and has performed across the US and beyond, making appearances in international festivals such as Detroit Jazz Festival (US), Lima ICPNA Jazz Festival (Peru), Otsu Jazz Festival (Japan), TU Jazz Festival (Canada), and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Festival (China).

He currently co-leads Ocelot, a collaborative trio consisting of Colin Hinton and Cat Toren. Ocelot recorded their debut album in 2019, which will be released on March 26th, on 577 Records. Yuma released his debut EP, Spear and Shield, in 2015. Dave Sumner (Bird is the Worm) praises the album as a "compelling debut from saxophonist Uesaka, who susses out some powerful moments from his gentle lyricism."

As a sideman, Yuma has performed and/or recorded with Anna Webber's New Large Ensemble, Jeff Lederer and The Brooklyn Blowhards; Lex Korten's Make/Believe; Colin Hinton's Simulacra; Gabriel Zucker; Lesley Mok's Living Collection, Peter Nelson's Ash, Dust, and Chalkboard Cinema; Ken Ychicawa's Thruworld; Pravin Thompson's A Thoughtful Collapse; Alec Goldfarb's Laughing Coffin. Through these projects, he had the pleasure of working with leading musical figures such as Jorge Roeder, Allison Miller, Eric Wubbels, and Kate Gentile, as well as rising young talents such as Nick Dunston, Adam O'Farrill, and Lex Korten. He was also a part of a world premier of Monteverdi Shapero by Alvin Lucier as a part of Ensemble Evolution at Banff Center for the Arts.

Born in London, Yuma spent his early childhood in Nagoya, Japan. He moved to West Bloomfield, Michigan at the age of 8 and started playing the saxophone at the age of 10 and clarinet at age 12. He holds two bachelor's degrees from University of Michigan, where he majored in Jazz Studies and Computer Science Engineering. He studied with Geri Allen, Robert Hurst, Andrew Bishop, and Erik Santos. An alumnus of Banff Jazz and Creative Music Workshop and Ensemble Evolution, Yuma worked and studied with cutting edge luminaries such as Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Nicole Mitchell, Amir ElSaffar, Claire Chase, and Steve Schick. Since relocating to NYC, he has studied clarinet with Vasko Dukovski and composition with Eric Wubbels.

Yuma is a member of Polyfold Musical Arts Collective. Polyfold is a grassroots, artist-led non-profit organization that helps create opportunities for improvising musicians to present creative works."

"Colin Hinton is an active member of Brooklyn's creative music community. A drummer, percussionist, and composer, his music draws from the jazz and free music traditions of Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, and Muhal Richard Abrams, as well as 20th century classical composers Messiaen, Scriabin, Feldman, and Grisey.

He has performed in the US, Canada, Central and South America, and Asia, and has had his compositions performed in the US, Italy, and Canada. An active educator in the NYC area, Colin has taught at the City College of New York, numerous music academies, and has many private students.

Hinton studied drums with Ed Soph, Tyshawn Sorey, Dan Weiss, Ralph Peterson, and Ari Hoenig, and composition with Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey, and Eric Wubbels. Hestudied at the University of North Texas and City College of New York,completing a BFA in Jazz Performance and an MA in Music Performance with a focus in 20th century theory.

Colin has performed with Ingrid Laubrock, Todd Neufeld, Tony Malaby, Brandon Seabrook, Michael Formanek, Okkyung Lee, Eivind Opsvik, Tyshawn Sorey, Brandon Lopez, Jacob Sacks, Briggan Krauss, Miles Okazaki, Michaël Attias, Jesse Zubot, and Anna Webber. He performed on Jake Hanlon's 2012 CD release "Follow",which was nominated for ECMA Jazz Recording of the Year.

Hinton currently leads contemporary classical/avant jazz quintet Simulacra andfree-jazz/post-punk hybrid Glassbath."