John Curcio - trumpet

John Curcio has been active as a freelance trumpet player since 2002. Since then he has performed and recorded with a wide variety of musicians and ensembles. His most recent performing experiences include such jazz groups as the Chico O'Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra led by Arturo O'Farrill. John has also performed the entire production of Stravinski's L'Histoire Du Soldat with the Nota Bene Chamber group of Queens College at the Players Theatre in Manhattan. Other groups include the Brooklyn Chamber Symphony, the One World Symphony Orchestra led by Sung Jin Hong, The Queens Philharmonic, The Queens College Orchestra led by Maurice Peress, and the Queens Chamber Symphony led by renowned clarinetist Charles Neidich. John is also currently active in performing and recording with the Queens College Jazz Ensemble led by Michael Philip Mossman, and he has performed with R&B Artists such as Chrisette Michelle (Def Jam recording artist), and Tommy Bowes, the lead singer of the Funk Filharmonik and Tower of Power.

John received his bachelor's degree in trumpet performance at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. During that time he studied under the guidance of David Kraus (principal trumpet at the MET), Michael Philip Mossman, Antonio Hart, Scott Wendholt (Vanguard Jazz Orchestra) and David Schober.

As a composer, John has premiered original works for his brass quintet and small chamber orchestras as well as working on sacred works for the church where he grew up and first learned the art of improvisation.

John has performed at many notable venues including the Bowery Ballroom NYC, BB Kings NYC, Players Theatre NYC, Port Jazz, Patchogue Theatre, Lefrak Concert Hall, and Birdland.

Caleb Garby- rhythm guitar

Caleb Garby has been involved in music since the age of 10. He started out singing in the youth choir and youth band in church. He then moved on to playing rhythm guitar and bass guitar in the church band at around 14. His musical influences are deeply rooted in gospel, funk, blues, jazz, and rock. His major influences on guitar are John Scofield, Trey Anastasio, Derek Trucks, Eric Krasno, and Frank Zappa.

Michael Macallister - lead guitar

24-year old guitarist and composer, Mike MacAllister, is a Boston native who now resides in the great city of New York. He is a regular member of a number of musical ventures including Kyle Salunier’s Awakening Orchestra, acoustic chamber/pop septet Alice, the Connection, a 9-Piece world music fusion band led by saxophonist Dave Richards, Argentinean jazz group the Pablo Ablanedo Octet, the Long Island funk band Hydroyum, and rock/soul band the Thing In Itself. Mike currently leads a quartet with pianist Aaron Kotler, bassist Scot Hornick, and drummer James Windsor-Wells. He can be seen every Thursday night at the Cocoa Bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Mike has studied under the guidance of such teachers as Mick Goodrick, Greg Hopkins, Hal Crook, Michael Philip Mossman, Tony Moreno, Tiger Okoshi, Wayne Krantz, and Dave Fiucyzinski. Mike’s compositions have received numerous awards including the ASCAP Foundation Louis Armstrong Scholarship (2006), the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award (2002 Finalist, 2003 Winner, 2004 Finalist, 2005 Honorable mention), first place in the 2004 IAJE Massachusetts Robert Ayasse Memorial Jazz Ensemble Composition Contest, the Herb Pomeroy Award (2003), and the Millican Endowed Scholarship (2004). His commissions have included The Boston Latin School and the Massachusetts All-State Jazz Band. In 2004, Mike released Finders Keepers an album of big band compositions.

Gerad O'Shea - saxophones

Gerad O'Shea has, over the course of his young music career, filled many roles including performer, composer, arranger, educator, producer, booking agent, manager, and engineer. After graduating from Berklee College in Boston in '04 having studied under such teachers as Greg Hopkins, George Garzone, Jeff Galindo and Ken Pullig, he helped to found an independent record label with a national release and multiple regional releases before moving to New York City in September 2006. His Boston performances have included Ryle's, The Paradise main stage and The Berklee Performance Center, and since being in New York has played The Patchogue Theatre, The Slipper Room and The Knitting Factory. His influences include Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, Chris Potter, and Stevie Wonder.

Jesse Smith - drums

Ever since he started piano lessons as a kid, Jesse has been drawn to the thrill of musical performance. After moving to alto and then tenor saxophone in school, he soon found that his "hobby" instrument, the drums, was where all of his practice time was being spent. While spending all of his teen years as the drummer for his church, he was able to amass a great amount of experience performing in a band with a group of older, more experienced musicians, and had the opportunity to perform at several tent meetings and Madison Square Garden before turning 17.

Jesse graduated from Stony Brook University in 2005, with a bachelors in computer science. During his time at Stony Brook, he was able to do research, under the direction of Dr. Daniel Weymouth, in the area of real-time audio synthesis. The end result of the project was an application entitled "Synthesthesia", which allows a user to generate soundscapes in real-time by painting on a virtual canvas. Since graduation, Jesse's main musical outlet has been as the drummer for progressive funk band Hydroyum, though he also regularly performs with the Long Island-based Fusion Collective. Additionally, he has utilized his knowledge of computer audio to do the bulk of Hydroyum's engineering and production work.

Jesse's influences include Elvin Jones, David Garibaldi, Billy Martin, Tony Allen, Bjork, and DJ Shadow.

Matt Smith - bass

Matt Smith's musical journey began with his early exposure to the upbeat, soulful, and joyous sounds of gospel music, which his family and friends were heavily involved in. Like his brother, Jesse, Matt began playing the piano at a young age. After playing the trumpet in both the concert and jazz ensembles throughout elementary and middle school, he discovered his love of the electric bass after thriving on the driving lines of gospel rock.

By the age of 15, he was spending up to 6 hours at a time practicing along with recordings of not only the bass greats, but rock bands, and funk bands alike. By this time, it was evident to both his family, friends, and most assuredly himself that music would be his passion, career, and hobby. At 16, Matt was accepted to the Preparatory Division of the Manhattan School of Music, although lack of funding would prevent him from attending. By 17, a long list of school groups, including pit orchestras, jazz ensembles, concert bands, and countless improvisational sit downs with whoever was willing to play had begun to provide the experience he was looking for.

Matt has studied privately with several guitarists and bassists, including players from the famed Berklee College of Music, John DeWitt from Mannes College, and Mike Frost, a student of the late Jaco Pastorius.

Currently attending The City College of New York, working on a Jazz Performance degree, Matt is still heavily involved in all types of performing groups. He has played bass in Hydroyum since 2004, plays "lead bass" and sings lead vocals in the pop/rock/funk band Hey Pluto, works with a hard rock band, Razorblade Romance, and regularly plays in a jazz quartet, performing jazz standards.

His influences include Oteil Burbridge, Jaco Pastorius, Richard Bona, Charlie Parker, Frank Zappa, Stevie Wonder, Fela Kuti, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Tito Puente, and Chick Corea.