"The music of saxophonist and composer Jorrit Dijkstra (Eindhoven, Netherlands, 1966) draws from the jazz tradition in spirit and sound, but has crossed stylistic and cultural borders in order to express a strong, evolving personal vision. He spent his formative years in Amsterdam's vibrant improvisation community playing jazz, free improvisation, and world music. Since moving to the United States in 2002, Dijkstra has deepened his affinity with the experimental forces of American music, while staying in touch with his Dutch musical roots. Jorrit works as a composer and is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and a faculty member of the New England Conservatory in Boston.

Dijkstra's recent projects include The Whammies play the Music of Steve Lacy, with leading Chicago, Boston, and Amsterdam improvisers, and duos with drummer/composer John Hollenbeck and trombonist Jeb Bishop. In Boston he leads the free improvisation quartet BOLT. In his solo project, he incorporates an array of electronic effect devices to process his saxophone improvisations live on stage. Dijkstra's use of analog electronics - including the Lyricon, a vintage electronic wind instrument from the seventies - extends his already flexible saxophone style into an idiosyncratic mix of cool jazz, free improvisation, and electronic minimalism.

Jorrit's work as a composer balances between similar stylistic boundaries. Commissioned by the North Sea Jazz Festival 2009, Pillow Circles brings together eight top improvisers in a mesmerizing sound world filled with indie guitar-rock and free jazz influences. His ongoing project Music for Reeds and Electronics explores the sonic possibilities of reed and electronics players in different improvisation communities in North America and Europe. Dijkstra has received other commissions from the David Kweksilber Big Band, Tetzepi Big Band, Amstel Saxophone Quartet, Kaida Duo, Duo X, The Harvard Jazz Band, electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans, saxophonist Ties Mellema, and bass clarinetist Fie Schouten. His commissioned works often incorporate electronic soundtracks and various forms of improvisation. Dijkstra's work has won him a Fulbright grant and the prestigious Podium Prize for jazz musicians in the Netherlands.

Jorrit has released eighteen CDs as a leader, and has participated in projects ranging from Anthony Braxton's Ghost Trance and Guus Janssen's opera Noach to a rare live performance of Texas outsider musician Jandek. He studied improvisation and composition with Misha Mengelberg, Steve Coleman, Steve Lacy, Bob Brookmeyer and Lee Hyla. He is co-founder of the artist-run label Driff Records. Jorrit is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and a faculty member of the New England Conservatory in Boston."

"Nate McBride, who was born in 1971, is a very versatile double-bassist and electric bassist, and has performed with such important musicians as Dennis Gonzalez, Pandelis Karayorgis, and Ken Vandermark. McBride is a Boston native, and recently relocated to Chicago, Illinois.

He has played in the groups: Bathysphere, Bridge 61, Dennis González Boston Project, Dull Thud Trio, FME, Jason Adasiewicz's Sun Rooms, Joe Morris Quartet, Joe Morris Trio, MI3, New Fracture Quartet, Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet, Pandelis Karayorgis Trio, Powerhouse Sound, Predella Group, Riot Trio, Spaceways Incorporated, The Engines, The Frame Quartet, The Whammies, Tripleplay, Wheelhouse"

"Drummer Eric Rosenthal is based out of the Boston area. The former student of Ed Blackwell has studied and performed more than American jazz drumming; he has also delved into West African traditional and South Indian classical percussion. Rosenthal has performed and improvised with Anthony Braxton, Mat Maneri, Pandelis Karayorgis, Mario Pavone, and the Either/Orchestra. He has performed all over North America and Europe, and appeared in Greece at the Patras Jazz Festival, at Montreal's North Sea Jazz festival, even at Finland's Pori Festival. Besides producing his own improvised music recordings, he also appears on CDs with the Hypnotic Clambake and the Zairean soukous band Freestyle. The late '90s found Rosenthal busy in the group Naftule's Dream. The band has two releases on John Zorn's Tzadik label, Search for the Golden Dreydl and Smash, Clap!"

"Jeb Bishop was born in Raleigh, North Carolina during the Cuban missile crisis. He began playing the trombone at the age of 10, under the tutelage of Cora Grasser. Other influential teachers during junior high and high school included Jeanne Nelson, Eric Carlson, Richard Fecteau, Greg Cox, and James Cozart.

He majored in classical trombone performance at Northwestern University from 1980-82, studying with Frank Crisafulli. Deciding he did not want to pursue a career as an orchestral musician, he returned to Raleigh in 1982 and took up engineering studies at NC State University. Raleigh's developing underground rock scene attracted him, and from 1982-84 he played bass guitar in rock bands in the Raleigh area.

At the same time, he developed an interest in philosophy, eventually majoring in the subject, and spent 1984-85 studying philosophy at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.

Returing to Raleigh in 1985, he spent the next few years working at menial jobs and playing guitar, bass, cheap keyboards, drums, etc., in rock bands including and/or, the Angels of Epistemology, Egg, and Metal Pitcher.

In 1989 he left Raleigh to pursue graduate studies in philosophy, first at the University of Arizona, then at Loyola University of Chicago (where he was awarded the Crown Fellowship in the Humanities). During 1991-92 he returned to Europe, spending the summer of 1991 studying German at the Goethe-Institut Iserlohn (now closed), and then pursuing independent studies in philosophy at the French-language division of the University of Louvain.

Returning to Chicago in 1992, he completed his M.A. at Loyola in 1993. By this time he had already begun to make connections with improvising musicians in Chicago, having joined the Flying Luttenbachers as bassist (later adding trombone) in late 1992, and playing guitar occasionally in a quartet with Weasel Walter, Ken Vandermark, and Kevin Drumm. Other bands during this period included the Unheard Music Quartet (with Vandermark, Mike Hagedorn on trombone, and Otto Huber on drums) and the Rev Trio (with Walter and saxophonist Joe Vajarsky). Bishop played electric bass in both these bands.

In late 1995, Bishop joined the Vandermark 5 as one of its founding members, and remained with the band through the end of 2004. During this period he also became associated with many other groups, including the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, School Days, Ken Vandermark's Territory Band, and his own Jeb Bishop Trio, and became a very frequent participant in ad hoc and free-improvised concerts in Chicago. Bishop performed in the inaugural concerts of two of the longest-running free-music concert series in Chicago: the Myopic Books weekly concerts (originally at Czar Bar; with Rev Trio) and the Empty Bottle Wednesday night concert series (with a quartet of Terri Kapsalis, Kevin Drumm, and Jim O'Rourke). He curated the monthly Chicago Improvisers Group concerts at the Green Mill from 1999-2002, and co-curated the weekly Eight Million Heroes concert series at Sylvie's in 2005-6.

Bishop has made dozens of recordings with many different groups, has toured North America and Europe many times, and maintains a busy performing schedule."

"Boston-based trombonist Michael Prentky takes pride in his musicality, reliability and professionalism.

Michael most actively performs with Tiny Desk-featured Mozambican funk band Kina Zoré. He has performed with jazz groups the Seajun Kwon Walking Cliché Sextet, Jorrit Dijkstra's Porch Bone, the Makanda Project, the Henry Godfrey Jazz Orchestra, and Charlie Kohlhase's Explorer's Club. He has performed with salsa singers Tito Puente Jr., Los Adolescentes, Frankie Negron, Felix Manuel, Felipe Jorge (Grupo Felix), Jorge Maldonado, Willie Gonzalez, David Pabon, El Montuno Y La Cimorronada and others.

As an educator, Michael is currently teaching for ZUMIX as a specialist partnering with East Boston Public Schools to develop an instrumental music program for 5th-12th graders. He has taught trumpet, trombone, tuba, euphonium, general music, improvisation, music theory, composition, and arranging.

He attended New England Conservatory for his Bachelor's degree in Jazz Performance on trombone while completing their Music-In-Education program and later a Master's Degree in Performance. He has been a freelance trombonist and educator in Boston for over a decade."

"Bass trombonist and tubaist Bill Lowe has been a major force in the music world for over thirty years as a performer, composer, producer, and educator. He has worked with most of the masters of African-American creative music, across all genres and musical cliques, from musical legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Eartha Kitt, and Clark Terry, to the leaders of the avant-garde like Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, and Cecil Taylor, to under-heralded greats like George Russell, James Jabbo Ware and Bill Barron. He has co-led the Boston Jazz Repertory Orchestra, the Bill Lowe/Phillipe Cretian Quintet, and JUBA, co-produced Boston's annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, and composed several major works, including his opera, Reb's Last Funeral, his ongoing interdisciplinary project Signifyin' Natives, and the music/theater piece Crossing John at the Crossroads. As an educator, Lowe has taught at several major universities, lectured throughout the world from Cuba to Paris, and mentored countless young musicians."