Duende

Marcus Shelby
Marcus Shelby is a Bay Area powerhouse, as influential as he is musical. A superb bassist and composer whose mentors include Charlie Haden and James Newton, Marcus has found a particular calling in the jazz world: Commenting on events and themes in Afro-American history through the medium of the big band, not unlike Duke Ellington....

Howard Wiley

Mads Tolling
Mads Tolling, internationally renowned violinist, violist, and composer, is a member of the two time Grammy Award-Winning Turtle Island Quartet. As a soloist, he regularly tours as jazz violinist with the acclaimed bassist Stanley Clarke and his touring band....

Myra Melford
An ambitious composer/pianist with a taste for adventure, Myra Melford emerged in the late '80s and early '90s as one of the more highly acclaimed young jazz pianists of the day. Melford's early work reflected her primary musical mentors/influences: on piano, Don Pullen, whose percussive mannerisms she successively adapted; and, as a composer, Henry Threadgill, whose formal techniques she obviously studied....

Renee Wilson
Proud New Orleans native Reneé Wilson began her professional acting career portraying Raelette Pat Lyle in the Academy Award-winning film, Ray, with Jamie Foxx. She has been seen on television, film and stage and recently co-produced and directed, Crepe Covered Sidewalks, a documentary film about Hurricane Katrina and her family's experiences with the storm over past five years....