Oakland native Ambrose Akinmusire won the 2007 Thelonious Monk competition for trumpet with a panel of judges including among others Herbie Hancock, Herb Alpert, Terence Blanchard and Wayne Shorter. The 28 year-old Ambrose has performed with influential jazz musicians Steve Coleman, Walter Smith III, Vijay Iyer, Esperanza Spalding, Gretchen Parlato, and numerous others. Ambrose was signed to Blue Note records in 2010 and was named one of the Los Angeles Times’ “Faces to Watch” for 2011.

Saxophonist and composer Steve Lehman works across a broad spectrum of experimental musical idioms. Lehman’s pieces for large orchestra and chamber ensembles have been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), So Percussion, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, The Jack String Quartet, members of the Argento and Wet Ink Ensembles, and by the pianist Marilyn Nonken. An alto and sopranino saxophonist, Lehman has performed and recorded nationally and internationally with his own ensembles and with those led by Anthony Braxton, Dave Burrell, Mark Dresser, Vijay Iyer, Oliver Lake, Meshell Ndegeocello, David Wessel, and High Priest of Anti-Pop Consortium. His recent electro-acoustic music has focused on the development of computer-driven models for improvisation, based in the Max/MSP programming environment. Lehman’s work has been featured in Artforum, Downbeat Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Wire, and on National Public Radio and the BBC.

Brooklyn based janus trio was formed in 2002 with the goal of presenting and creating new repertoire for the trio through commissioning projects and works-in-process collaborations. Named after Janus, the Roman god whose double-faced image peers into the past and future, the trio maintains the established tradition for the instrumentation while breaking new ground into unexplored sonic frontiers. Beginning with Debussy and including Toru Takemitsu, André Jolivet, Sophia Gubaidulina and Kaija Saariaho, composers have been allured by this intriguing combination of something bowed, something blown and something plucked. janus has added over twenty new pieces to the trio library through individual submissions and collaborative projects with universities.

Darcy James Argue is one of today’s most talked-about jazz musicians thanks to his Grammy-nominated debut record, Infernal Machines, which features his 18-piece big band, Secret Society.

Formed in 2005, Secret Society evokes an alternate musical history in which the dance orchestras that ruled the Swing Era never went extinct, but remained a popular and vital part of the evolving musical landscape. Adopting a steampunk-inspired attitude towards the traditional big band, Argue refashions this well-worn instrumentation into a cutting-edge ensemble.

The band’s first studio recording, Infernal Machines is described by Newsweek’s Seth Colter Walls as “a wholly original take on big band’s past, present and future” and Time Out New York’s David R. Adler awarded it five stars, proclaiming it “a seven-track marvel of imagination.”

Argue has topped the Rising Star: Composer category in the DownBeat Critics Poll for the past two years, and has won Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards for Large Ensemble of the Year and Up & Coming Artist of the Year. The group has played high-profile concerts in New York and other North American cities, as well as in Europe.

NYC-based and Washington, DC raised drummer Allison Miller defies all boundaries bringing her individual sound to diverse types of music while preserving their stylistic authenticity. Allison goes from leading her band, BOOM TIC BOOM, to playing with legendary songwriting vocalists Ani DiFranco, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Merchant, to touring with avant-garde saxophonist Marty Ehrlich and legendary organist Doctor Lonnie Smith. She approaches each of these musical situations with her own stylistic identity and a creative, fresh and energetic approach. Allison was chosen as “Rising Star Drummer” in Downbeat’s 53rd and 58th Annual Critics Poll.
Raised in the Washington D.C. area, Miller began playing the drums at the age of ten, studying with Walter Salb, and was soon thereafter featured in Downbeat magazine’s “Up and Coming” section in 1991. Her jazz skills have been embraced by everyone from avant-garde saxophonist Marty Ehrlich to organ legend Dr. Lonnie Smith, with a wide range of leaders in between, including Steven Bernstein, Ben Allison, Kenny Barron, Erik Friedlander, Mark Helias, Ellery Eskelin, Ray Drummond, Peter Bernstein, Sheila Jordan, George Garzone, Mike Stern, Rachel Z, Kevin Mahogany, Bruce Barth, and Mark Soskin.