FRED ANDERSON - Fred Anderson grew up in the Southern U.S. and learned to play the saxophone in his youth. Anderson moved his family to Evanston in the 1940's. Anderson was one of the founders of the AACM and is still an important figure in the development the musical collective, providing a space for many of the AACM’s artists to perform their works. In 1983, he founded the Velvet Lounge, located at 2128 ½ S. Indiana. This jazz and improvised music venue was a showcase for creative musicians and music enthusiasts for years until its recent closing. The club has since relocated and reopened a block from the original location where it will continue its vital mission.

TATSU AOKI - Bassist Tatsu Aoki is a prolific and accomplished musician, composer and educator. He works in a wide array of musical styles, ranging from traditional Asian music to jazz to experimental music and is a much in-demand artist performing on both contrabass and the shamisen (Japanese 3-stringed lute). He has recorded over 100 albums featuring many of the musical legends of Chicago, including Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Don Moye and John Watson Sr. 2006 saw Aoki present his most ambitious work to date, “re: Rooted,” a continuation of his “Rooted” composition cycle featuring the MIYUMI Project Big Band at Millennium Park;’s Pritzker Pavilion. Aoki is the founder and Artistic Director of the Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival.

NAVRAAZ BASATI - Hailing from Punjab, Navraaz is a true cultural artist. She writes original poetry and lyrics in both Punjabi and English, and has performed internationally for the past eight years. She also is a filmmaker, having studied film in Indian, and has worked extensively with production companies in Bombay. She has directed and produced numerous documentaries on social-related issues including care for the elderly in India as well as the conflict in Kashmir.

JEFF CHAN - Chicago saxophonist/composer Jeff Chan is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the Asian American experience through music. He has worked with many of the leaders of the Asian American creative music movement, including saxophonist Francis Wong, pianist Jon Jang and bassist Tatsu Aoki. A recipient of awards from Meet The Composer, the Zellerbach Family Fund, the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Illinois Arts Council, he has performed across the country as a leader and guest artist. A native of the California Bay Area, Chan made the move to Chicago in 2002 in order to be a part of the city’s rich musical culture. An increasingly visible figure on the Chicago music scene, Chan’s work has been described as “music of uncommon majesty, spirituality and emotional depth (Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune, October 11, 2005).”

RICH CONTI - Rich is a healer (by day, a physical therapist for markedly delayed/disabled youth) whose vibes bring an energy to funkadesi in more than just a musical way. Rich has been with percussion ensembles all around Chicagoland from Primal Connection, Sabu, Mambo Express, and most recently with Picante. Rich carries with him a rich depth of experience with Brazilian and other percussive genres, as well as a keen ear towards song arrangement.

JIMMY ELLIS - Saxophonist and educator Jimmy Ellis has been making the Chicago scene since the late 1940s, when he was still a student of legendary educator Captain Walter Dyett at DuSable High. Like many of Dyett's finest, he performed in an early incarnation of Sun Ra's inventive, genre-jumping Arkestra. Ellis has worked with a long list of greats in the course of his career, including Mercer Ellington, Earl Hines and Juan Tizol. In addition to his prowess as a performing artist, Ellis has been a key figure in the teaching of the music, having taught many of Chicago’s established (and up-and-coming) musical leaders. He's currently working Monday nights at the Hothouse with pianist/vocalist Yoko Noge's Jazz Me Blues band.

JASC TSUKASA TAIKO - JASC Tsukasa Taiko is the leading taiko ensemble in the Chicago area, established as Tsukasa Daiko in 1996 by head Sensei (Instructor) Hide Yoshihashi. In 2004, Tsukasa Daiko, Asian Improv aRts Midwest, and the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) initiated a collaborative program, establishing the renamed group as a resident arts program of the JASC.

Basing its operations out of the JASC, the organization's mission is to preserve and pass on the traditional concepts of taiko as a cultural legacy and to utilize these concepts in expanding and evolving the taiko form. Dedicated to building community and being a leader in the taiko drumming culture of the Midwest, it maintains a national and international profile by presenting public performances around the world throughout the year. JASC Tsukasa Taiko has performed at the Malta International Theatre Festival/Asian American Jazz Festival: Poznan (Poznan, Poland), the Smithsonian, the Chicago Jazz Festival, and the MCA among many national cultural institutions. It presents classes, workshops, lectures, and demonstrations on taiko performance and its the role in Asian and Asian American culture. Taiko classes are organized quarterly throughout the year for all levels of experience ages five and above.

LEWIS JORDAN - Born in San Francisco, grew up in Chicago…with the blues…which he got too from time to time…with learning to associate creative musicians with the advancement of society as we know it.

He is an international touring and recording musician; poet; actor and playwright. He was a founding member of United Front, the seminal San Francisco Bay Area ensemble known for its originality, aggressive imagination and cultural synthesis. As a performer Jordan has bridged the worlds of music and the written word —through composition, saxophone and poetry.

In his career, he has focused on creative structures for improvisation, which has led to his work with artists from a range of disciplines. He has performed with dancers, poets, actors and musicians—including Brenda Wong Aoki, Anthony Braxton, Juan Ceballos, Scott Davis III, Lisle Ellis, Sara Felder, Danny Glover, Q.R. Hand, Mark Izu, Jon Jang, Kash Killion, Genny Lim, devorah major, James Newton…Donald Robinson, Ntozake Shange, Cecil Taylor and others, many presented in his Music At-Large series.

His interest continues to be meeting and working with performers delving into their deeper resources for modes of expression that honor their traditions while speaking to the urgency of the present. If that’s in B-flat, fine. If it’s in time, that could work too. If it’s outside, it must be honest.

RAHUL SHARMA - Rahul was born in the U.S. shortly after his parents emigrated from Kenya. He has performed blues, funk, and reggae for many years. He has more recently studied sitar and tabla, studying with Zakir Hussain and the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music. Rahul has also completed his doctorate in Clinical Psychology, specializing in Intercultural Psychology. He currently is Assistant Professor and Diversity Concentration Coordinator at the American Schools of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Chicago.

CHAD TAYLOR - Chicago-raised drummer Chad Taylor grew up in Atrium Village near Wells and Division, and briefly studied classical guitar (which he'd briefly begun studying at the age of 8) at Millikan University in Decatur, fleeing to the NYC's New School to study jazz drumming. After a stint in the Big Apple, where he played with the Life Ensemble, Junior Mance, Lou Donaldson and Mark Turner, among others, he returned in the summer of '97 for good. He is Rob Mazurek's partner in the Chicago Underground Duo, Chicago Underground Trio, and Chicago Underground Orchestra. Taylor also plays regularly with some of the Chicago free-jazz giant, Fred Anderson, and earlier worked with saxophonist Lin Halliday.

ED WILKERSON - Internationally recognized Chicago-based composer, arranger, musician, and educator, Edward Wilkerson, Jr., is founder and director of the cutting edge octet, 8 Bold Souls and the twenty-five member performance ensemble, Shadow Vignettes, Edward has toured festivals and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. Defender, a large-scale piece for Shadow Vignettes, was commissioned by the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund and featured in the 10th Anniversary of New Music America, a presentation of Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. The 1998 Chicago Jazz Festival featured another commissioned work by Wilkerson entitled Dark Star. Wilkersonís work may be heard on fourteen recordings, including two film soundtracks. Wilkerson has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the Community Arts Assistance Program, and has been cited in numerous music polls. A former member of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Wilkerson has also played with such artists and groups as the AACM Big Band, Roscoe Mitchell, Douglas Ewart, The Temptations, Chico Freeman, Gerri Allen, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Muhal Richard Abrams, Aretha Franklin, George Lewis, and many others.

FRANCIS WONG - Francis Wong is a prolific recording artist featured on more than thirty titles. For more than two decades he has performed his innovative brand of Asian American jazz with numerous ensembles in North America, Asia, and Europe. The Bay Area native is also a respected community leader, performing music as well as serving as youth mentor, composer, artistic director, community activist, music producer, and academic lecturer. Wong is cofounder of the production company Asian Improv aRts and a Senior Fellow at the Wildflowers Institute. He was a California Arts Council Artist in Residence from 1992 through 1998, and a Meet The Composer New Resident in 2000-2003. In 2000-2001 he was a Rockefeller Next Generational Leadership Fellow.

Observing on his role as an Asian American musician, Wong says ”I choose for my work to build community and to seek out how I, as an artist, can meet the challenges that our community faces. In the Asian American community, the biggest challenge is continuity of culture and the impact of assimilation. Through music, I envision a way to create continuity through the integration of tradition and innovation.”