Grammy Award®–winning saxophonist, composer, and producer Joe Lovano is fearless in finding new modes of artistic expression. With a Grammy® win for his 52nd Street Themes and 14 other nominations, he has won DownBeat Magazine’s Critics and Readers Polls countless times as Tenor Saxophonist, Musician of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year, and Triple Crowns from DownBeat. He has also received numerous awards from JazzTimes and the Jazz Journalists Association for Tenor Saxophone, Album of the Year and Musician of the Year. 

Born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 29, 1952, he attended the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston where years later he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate. Since 2001, he has held the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance and is a founding faculty member since 2009 of the Global Jazz Institute at Berklee directed by Danilo Pérez. He is a guest lecturer at New York University’s Jazz Program, Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music, as well as Clinician at Universities around the globe. 

From 1991 through 2016, Lovano released an unprecedented 25 records as a leader for the historic Blue Note Records. Joe Lovano Quartet: Classic! Live at Newport featuring Hank Jones was recorded in 2005 and released in 2016 to critical acclaim. In 2019, Lovano released his debut album as a bandleader on ECM Records, Trio Tapestry, with Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi. Over the next few years, Lovano saw the release of three additional ECM Records albums: ROMA, a collaboration with Enrico Rava; Arctic Riff, a special guest appearance with the Marcin Wasilewski Trio; and the sophomore release from Lovano’s Trio Tapestry, Garden of Expression. In 2021, Lovano released Other Worlds, his third album with Sound Prints, a quintet he co-leads with trumpeter Dave Douglas. The next year brought a collaboration with guitarist Jakob Bro, Once Around the Room: A Tribute to Paul Motian. Most recently, Lovano released his third Trio Tapestry recording entitled, Our Daily Bread. 

In addition, composer Mark Anthony Turnage wrote a Concerto for Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra for Lovano called “A Man Descending” which has been performed globally and Maestro Michael Abene orchestrated an album of all-Lovano originals called Symphonica for the WDR Symphonic Orchestra and Big Band, which was released on Blue Note and received a Grammy® nomination. 

Lovano has performed and recorded with a long list of jazz greats including Woody Herman, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Mel Lewis, Bob Brookmeyer, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Tony Bennett, Abbey Lincoln, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Gunther Schuller, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Ed Blackwell, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Hank Jones, Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Judi Silvano, Ravi Coltrane, Chucho Valdés, Ornette Coleman, Diana Krall, and many others. Lovano has created an extensive body of work for his own ensembles including strings, woodwinds, his horn-rich Nonet, the Classic Quartet, Trio Tapestry, and more. 

Joe Lovano continues to explore new horizons within the world of music as a soloist, bandleader and composer.

Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation and “highest category of improvising musicians" (The New Yorker), Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association and a spirit of infinite possibility. The California-born New York-based musician boasts a prolific resume on his own accord in addition to collaborating with Gary Burton and John Zorn, as well as duo projects with Nels Cline, Chris Eldridge and Fred Hersch, among others.

 Bassist and composer Asante Santi Debriano has been playing the bass since he was a teenager. Born in Panama, he has lived in New York City for many years, serving as the leader of his own groups and as a sideman for others. In the City’s community of jazz musicians, he is like an oak tree, with roots that stretch into many different idioms and styles practiced by some of the most accomplished musicians in the indisputable jazz capital of the universe. Santi has performed at many of the world’s most renowned jazz festivals and concert halls, often presenting his own compositions with his groups. 

Santi Debriano’s Arkestra Bembe, a nine-piece musical group, has released their most recent recording, Ashanti, on Jojo Records. His compositions are a soulful mix of jazz harmony with the melodies and rhythms of his Panamanian heritage, and they reference his African ancestry. He counts as his primary influences: Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Johnny Dyani, Israel Cachao Lopez, Miroslav Vitous, Archie Shepp, Scott LaFaro, Dave Holland, Eddie Gomez, Stanley Clarke, Buster Williams, Daniele Roccato, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Garrison.

Will Calhoun is a two-time Grammy Award®–winning musician, composer, and producer best known as the drummer of the groundbreaking rock band Living Colour. He has collaborated with Harry Belafonte, Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Mick Jagger, McCoy Tyner, Public Enemy, Lauryn Hill, Herb Alpert, and Mos Def, as well as African village masters in his lifelong exploration of the ancient art of drumming. 

By the early 1990s, Living Colour had attained worldwide success and earned accolades for their hit song "Cult of Personality," which won the Grammy® for Best Hard Rock Performance. In addition to drumming for Living Colour, Calhoun continues to explore various musical avenues, including jazz, electronic percussion, and world music. Calhoun serves on the board of the Bronx Music Heritage Center, which promotes Bronx music and offers free community programs; and The Way of the Rain, a multidisciplinary project that raises awareness about climate change through performance art. Most recently, Calhoun has been experimenting with visual art and photography. View his digital gallery at willcalhounart.com.