Groove Collective’s impressive history began in the early 1990’s as they fueled the growth of New York City’s acid-jazz scene. They quickly became a staple of a budding underground club scene known for pairing DJs with live performers. This groundbreaking enterprise was run under the media and event production mogul that would eventually become Giant Step. Groove Collective crafted and popularized the fusion of jazz and funk, pioneering what is now referred to globally as “groove” music. Jon Pareles of The New York Times says, “Groove Collective’s identity lies not in one fixed style, but in its capable hospitality to whatever might keep hips swaying.”

Through the years they have remained faithful to the “collective” spirit their name suggests, featuring a rotating cast of talented players. Their current six-piece incarnation features five original members.

For more than a decade, this legendary group of musicians has improvised and refined the stylistic crosspollination of funk, jazz, house, Latin, hip hop, rock and every party-inducing sound in between. Their 2007 Grammy nomination for “Best Contemporary Jazz Album" is an acknowledgment of the band’s pioneering sound. The members of Groove Collective are fluent in the international language of “groove,” and transcend musical category with one goal in mind: to move listeners’ minds and feet. In-the-pocket drum and bass, colorful and vibrant horns, flavors of world percussion and intricate harmony all fuse together seamlessly under their watch. Groove Collective’s innovative and refined sound is unparalleled. They are the masters of multi-hued funk. Billboard Magazine says that they “erase musical borders” and are “jazz/funk fusion at its most sublime.”

“Impressive” does not adequately describe Groove Collective’s accolades. They have toured Japan with BB King, Europe with Fred Wesley,Canada with the Dave Matthews Band, and recorded with Grammy winning Cuban pianist Chucho Valdez. The have backed the likes of Tupac Shakur (voted 2 all time live Hip Hop performance on MTV), Morcheeba, Don Cherry, Pharcyde and Natalie Merchant, and shared stages with some of the biggest names in music, including James Brown, Maceo Parker, Erykah Badu, Tito Puente, Issac Hayes, The Roots, Dave Matthews, Guru, Widespread Panic, Ben Harper, Bela Fleck, Roy Hargrove, Michael Franti, Hiram Bullock, and the list goes on. They have spread their New York City vibe across the globe, making stops at Switzerland’s Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Netherland’s North Sea Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Japan, and New Orleans’ Jazz Fest. This all-star cast of players hits hard, and hits funky.

The theorem of turntablist as musician has been long proven in the capable hands of DJ LOGIC, whom with jazz as his foundation has become a wax innovator by crossing genres and sprinkling his sound across the map. As one of the world's most accomplished turntablist’s, DJ LOGIC is widely credited for introducing jazz into the hip - hop realms and is considered by most as a highly respected session musician and an innovative bandleader.

Since his emergence in the early nineties amidst the Bronx hip-hop scene, the New York City based deejay has been amassing a veritable mountain of collaborations ranging from the likes of: MEDESKI MARTIN AND WOOD, CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE, VERNON REID, CHARLIE HUNTER, JACK DeJOHNETTE, JOHN MAYER, BEN HARPER, MOS DEF and THE ROOTS, to name but a few.

These days, DJ LOGIC is focusing on studio endeavors, producing notable projects such as: Re-imagination with jazz piano phenomenon ELDAR ; collaborating with VERNON REID on a project he co-founded called the Yohimbe Brothers ; touring with CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE in support of Live at Tonic ; participating in a side project called SOLESIDE (featuring KYLE HOLLINGSWORTH from STRING CHEESE INCIDENT and SPEECH from ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) and co-anchoring a rock band with JOHN POPPER (The John Popper Project featuring DJ Logic) . LOGIC’S body of work also includes three highly accomplished solo albums (Zen of Logic; The Anomaly; Presents Project Logic), all released on Ropeadope Records.

DJ LOGIC and his role as an electronic-music ambassador keeps him at the top of his game. Whether the scratch artist instructs tablas to flirt with drum 'n' bass (such as on his NINA SIMONE and BILLY HOLIDAY remixes found on Sony Legacy's Remixed and Reimagined volumes) , or while meshing free styling MC's with Afro-Cuban rhythms (such as on 'Share Worldwide Funk' - a remix produced for JACK DeJOHNETTE and Golden Beams Collected, Volume 1 ) , LOGIC can always be found paying homage to his predecessors while contributing his vision to the deejay genre. While the context of his work may vary, DJ LOGIC’S spinning skills are definitely beyond reproach. He works with a phenomenal roster of invited guests, and he knows how to pick his collaborators as well as his samples. With a growing catalogue of recordings under his belt, DJ LOGIC’S supreme musicianship and catholic tastes will allow him to journey wherever an infectious groove may take him.

Bernie Worrell first came to prominence as a founding member and musical director of Parliament/ Funkadelic.While this massively influential supergroup was radically altering the course of music, he was radically charting the course of emerging keyboard technology during the golden age of analog synthesis. Among the key ingredients in his sonic stew were perfect pitch and a well-honed facility with the classical canon.

A child prodigy who began studying piano at the tender age of three, performed his first classical concert at the age of 4, wrote his first Concerto at the age of eight and performed with the Washington Symphony Orchestra at ten. His classical studies would continue throughout his adolescence, including private lessons at the Julliard School of Music, before Majoring in Classical Piano at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Bernie WorrellUpon leaving the Conservatory, Worrell served for several years as Musical Director for Maxine Brown before joining George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic crew. Worrell then proceeded to provide this freewheeling collective with a structural foundation which, while occasionally implied, was ever present. At the same time, he explored and expanded his own musical ideas in every conceivable direction with a brazenness which was both revolutionary and evolutionary. From fanciful forays on clavinet which leapt without warming from guttural gulps to squiggly squeals to liquid Minimoogª bass-lines which herded listeners to the dance floor, it all represented new musical language. All the while, his rapid advancements of the synthesizer's potential were actually traceable to his classical foundation. "When the synthesizers came about, my having been brought up classically - knowing a full range of orchestra, tympanis and everything, I knew how it sounded and what it felt like. So, if I'm playing a horn arrangement on the keyboard or strings, it really sounds like real strings or horns, because I know how to phrase it - how a string phrases, different attacks from the aperture for horns, for the trumpets, sax, or trombones." The hits were many: Flashlight, Atomic Dog, Aqua Boogie, Cosmic Slop, and Red Hot Mama are only a few of the Parliament/Funkadelic classics which Worrell co-wrote, played, and co-produced on literally dozens of albums - not to mention his years of wild P-Funk performances, which quickly became the stuff of lore.

After departing Parliament/Funkadelic, he resurfaced with the revamped Talking Heads lineup for several albums, including the Name of This Band is Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues, and Jonathan Demme's dazzling concert film, Stop Making Sense. Worrell's ominous colorings, this time delivered via new digital keyboards such as the Prophet 5, were central to the recasting of group leader David Bryne's musical ideas through African rhythms.

In the years since he left Talking Heads, Worrell has been a phenomenally prolific studio musician, serving as a primary change-agent in the many experimental works of producer bill Laswell while contributing his singular flair to projects the likes of Keith Richards, The Pretenders, Jack Bruce, Deee-Lite and Bootsy's New Rubber Band.

Bernie WorrellAt the same time, he has been among the most sampled musicians ever, with Digital Underground, De La Soul, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, DMX and countless others having acknowledged his timeless grooves by building their tunes around his signature riffs.

Worrell also released a series of critically acclaimed solo efforts including Funk of Ages, Blacktronic Science, Pieces of WOO/The Other Side and Free Agent: A Spaced Odyssey. He has become quite a sensation on the jam band circuit, playing with groups ranging from Warren Haynes' Gov't Mule to Laswell's Material and Praxis conglomerations.

In 1997, Worrell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Parliament/Funkadelic (Talking Heads would follow five years later). That same year, he launched his own group, Bernie Worrell and the WOO Warriors, which has performed all over the US and abroad to rave reviews. The in-concert energy of this ensemble has twice been captured on live albums: Bernie Worrell and the WOO Warriors Live (1998) and True DAT (2002).

Worrell's work has also continued to surface in other places. In 1993, when David Letterman moved his program to CBS, Worrell helped launch the CBS Orchestra with Paul Shaffer. He co-wrote the score for the cult classic, Car 54, Where Are You? and other films, including the Ice Cube vehicle, Friday. In 2003, his music was featured in the NBC television mini-series, Kingpin.

The "Wizard of WOO" continues to wear many hats as effortlessly as he mixes musical forms, performing with both Mos Def's Black Jack Johnson band and Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains - while at the same time, continuing to perform from time-to-time as "special Guest" with Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars.

~ Larry Alexander

Internationally known as one of the premier jazz keyboardists in the history of the idiom, Dr. Lonnie Smith is a dominant talent and pace-setting proponent of the Hammond B3 Organ and widely recognized and gifted pianist. Dr. Lonnie Smith is a phenomenal B3 burner who can light up a room with visceral intensity or lay down some of the nastiest funk ever played on an organ, states Bill Milkowski in JazzTimes. Lonnie has been at the forefront of the jazz scene since he was named Top Organist by Downbeat Magazine in 1969. Recently, Lonnie was voted the Organ Keyboardist of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005 by the Jazz Journalist Association. Lonnie is a dynamic performer who typically infuses his music with enough energy to light a city block, says Tad Henderickson in The Star Ledger. He tours regularly throughout the United States and Europe and has performed at major world jazz festivals with Dizzy Gillespie, Grover Washington, Jr., Ron Carter, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Scott, Frank Foster, Leon Thomas, Willis Jackson and other prominent jazz artists. His versatility as a musician has caused him to be in demand with rhythm and blues greats Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Etta James, Esther Phillips, the Impressions and the Coasters. Lonnie was born into a musical family in Buffalo, NY where his mother introduced him to gospel, classical and jazz music. As a young man in the 1950's, Smith sang in several groups including the Teen Kings and the Supremes. A music store owner in Buffalo named Art Kubera gave his first organ to him. Lonnie devised his own play-by-ear method and within a few months, he was on the road with a regional touring group. It wasn't long before George Benson hired him. Lonnie has produced over 30 albums as a leader and has been featured on over 70 more including recordings with George Benson, David Fathead Newman and Lou Donaldson. In 2005, the Doctor released his first album on Palmetto Records entitled Too Damn Hot! Called, a fiery package that features soulful grooves and heartfelt blues by Allaboutjazz, Too Damn Hot! features guitarists Peter Bernstein and Rodney Jones as well as drummers Greg Hutchinson and Fukushi Tainaka.

Roy Hargrove is a hard bop-oriented musician (and acclaimed "Young Lion") who became one of America's premier trumpeters during the late 1980s and beyond. A fine, straight-ahead player who spent his childhood years in Texas, Hargrove met trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis in 1987, when the latter musician visited Hargrove's high school in Dallas. Impressed with the student's sound, Marsalis allowed Hargrove to sit in with his band and helped him secure additional work with major players, including Bobby Watson, Ricky Ford, Carl Allen, and the group Superblue. Hargrove attended Berklee for one (1988-1989) before decamping to New York City, where his studio career took flight.

In 1990, the young Hargrove (he was only 20 at the time) released his first of five recordings for Novus. He often toured with his own group, which for several years including Antonio Hart. In addition to Novus, Hargrove also recorded for Verve and served as a sideman with quite a few notable figures, including Sonny Rollins, James Clay, Frank Morgan, and Jackie McLean, and the ensemble Jazz Futures. His Verve album roster includes 1995's Family and Parker's Mood. Habana (a Grammy-winning album of Afro-Cuban music) and Moment to Moment followed at the end of the decade. Hargrove also went on to contribute to well-received R&B albums by Erykah Badu and D'Angelo, but he also remained indebted to hard bop with such albums as 2008's Earfood. A year later, Hargrove returned with his 19-member big band on Emergence.

Vijay Iyer (VID-jay EYE-yer) is is a pianist, composer, bandleader, producer, electronic musician, and writer based in New York City. One of today’s most acclaimed young jazz artists, he has released thirteen albums, most recently “Historicity,” which was named #1 jazz album of 2009 in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and the annual Village Voice jazz critics poll.

In recent years, Iyer won the Downbeat Magazine International Critics’ Poll in the Rising Star Jazz Artist, Composer, and Pianist categories, was named Up & Coming Musician of the Year in the JJA Jazz Awards, and received the CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and numerous composer commissions.

In 2003, he collaborated with poet and producer Mike Ladd on “In What Language?”, a song cycle about the post-9/11 world. His oratorio with Ladd, “Still Life with Commentator,” was commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music for its 2006 Next Wave Festival.

Iyer has also composed orchestral and chamber works; scored for film, theater, radio and television; collaborated with poets and choreographers; and joined forces with artists in hip-hop, rock, experimental, electronic, and Indian classical music. His employers have included Steve Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Amiri Baraka, Butch Morris, Oliver Lake, dead prez, Karsh Kale, Talvin Singh, Imani Uzuri, and DJ Spooky, among others.

Iyer teaches at New York University, The New School, and School for Improvisational Music. His writings appear in Music Perception, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Current Musicology, JazzTimes, Wire, The Guardian, and the anthologies Uptown Conversation, Sound Unbound, and Arcana IV. He is a Steinway artist.

West African-born guitarist Lionel Loueke is one of the most distinctive new voices in jazz. On his newest album, Karibu, he collaborates with his long-standing trio of bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth, and is graced by rare guest appearances by legendary pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

Since arriving in New York in 1995, bassist-vocalist-composer Richard Bona has been one of the most sought-after talents on the scene. To date, guitarists Larry Coryell, Mike Stern and Pat Metheny, keyboardists Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Jacky Terrasson and Bob James, saxophonists Sadao Watanabe, Branford Marsalis and David Sanborn, violinist Regina Carter, vocalist Bobby McFerrin and trumpeter Randy Brecker have enlisted his services as a sideman. But it is in the context as a leader in his own right that the gifted Cameroonian has revealed the full scope of his artistry.

Haitian master drummers and veterans of Haitian supergroups Boukman Eksperyans and Boukan Ginen. As most people haven't heard Vodou music, they'll be in for a treat, this is some incredible and very exciting drumming, these are some of Haiti's best. If theres room we can set them up at an angle on one of the wings so they can play during the set changeovers.

Grammy Winning Music Director and Drummer (John Legend) (S.W.I.S.S. Foundation) Ladell Mclin on guitar, Cole Williams on vox, Swiss Chris on Drums/Percussion & Sheila Anozier Haitian Dance, (African Rhythm, Blues and Rock and Hip-Hop elements and haitian dancers)