Cellist Sam Bass, from Santa Cruz California, while a student of Irene Sharp, received a Bachelor's of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1994. A cellist with many interests, Sam performs and composes works for several eclectic, "pop" ensembles, solo cello and piano. His compositions have appeared in several independent feature films. Currently he is accompanying a play, "In spite of everything", with an original score on solo cello, and he is working on a piece commissioned by the Ballet San Jose, to be performed in February of 2009. As a performer he has appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he has shared stages with David Byrne,Thomas Dolby, Les Calypool and many others. As a recording artist he has worked with the many modern, pop artists: Mr. Bungle, Mars Volta, Third Eye Blind, Vanessa Carlton and Madeline Peyroux. Currently pursuinginterests in live looping, jazz performance and composition Sam performs and teaches regularly around the Bay Area and the United States. This fall he travels to Russia for a series of performances of "In Spite of Everything." For more information, or to hear and purchase music, go to www.loopthis.com, www.myspace.com/loopistation or itunes.

Guitarist Ian J. Smith (aka i.j. smith), began playing guitar at age
9 and started playing Hendrix covers at the Haight St. fair at the
age of 12. He studied classical guitar at the San Francisco
Conservatory of Music and received a Bachelor's of Music in 1996.
Since then, he has started his own record label
(www.monadicrecords.com), and self-produced two solo
albums of original music, (both available on iTunes) as well as a
number of scores for multi-media shorts and one full length Horror
film. Over the last few years he has dedicated himself to Jazz
performance and exploration. He performs regularly around the San
Francisco Bay Area.

Drummer Paul Conte, began playing drums at age 10. Moving to San Francisco from New York in 1990 to pursue musical interests, Paul received formal musical training at the San Francisco Community Music Center. A songwriter, singer and head pastry chef, Paul works as a session player and performs with a wide variety of musical artists. Currently he is working on a roots/blues record, due out in the new year. For more info go to www.myspace.com/juanderlust

Bassist Jim Shearer, started playing guitar at age 13, had his first professional gig at age 16 and has continued playing music semi-professionally all his adult life while pursing an academic career in the sciences (PhD, 1990 UC Berkeley). His training in jazz and classical music has included formal studies at college along with individual lessons on guitar, piano and upright bass. In public performances he has played a variety of instruments and styles such as keyboards in the Soca/Reggae band Bakana and piano and bass in collaboration with Palindrome dance company (most recently in the 2005 San Francisco International Arts Festival playing music of Erling Wold). For most of the new millennium he has been exclusively playing upright bass in jazz and Brazilian ensembles at venues throughout the Bay Area. He is a founding member of Sambosseros and plays on their CD Gabiroba. Recently, he has started playing Tango music.