The Untempered Ensemble, an improvisational Jazz ensemble, was formed in 1992 as a trio and gave its first performance in the fall of 1993 at Dartmouth College. The group expanded to its current 7-musician ensemble in 1994 and that year performed at the Improvisers Collective Festival in New York. Since 1996, the ensemble has played every year at the Vision Festival in New York, in addition to performing nationally to rave reviews. The Untempered Ensemble released its first CD in 2000; the group's fourth CD, "Seasoning the Greens," a Boxholder Records recording, was released in October 2002.

Bill Cole, musician, composer, educator and writer, has organized concerts in venues ranging from Town Hall and Symphony Space in New York to Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle and Hopkins Center in Hanover, New Hampshire. Since its inception Dr. Cole has led The Untempered Ensemble, and has also served as Artistic Director of Shadrack, Inc. He has performed and recorded with artists including Ornette Coleman, Jayne Cortez, Julius Hemphill, Sam Rivers, James Blood Ulmer and Fred Ho. He has written acclaimed compositions for large and small groups: "The Seven Cycles," "Freedom 1863," and "Seasoning the Greens." Dr. Cole's primary instruments are Asian double reed horns, including Chinese sonas, Korean hojok and piri, Indian shenai and nagaswarm, Ghanaian bamboo flute, Tibetan trumpet, and digeridoo. Dr. Cole records for Boxholder Records. He is the author of two biographies, "John Coltrane" and "Miles Davis: The Early Years," as well as many articles as jazz critic for "Downbeat," "Coda," and other journals. He holds Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. Dr. Cole was a full professor at Dartmouth College's Music Department before his retirement.

Warren Smith, master vibraphonist, percussionist and trap drummer, has an overwhelming history in many musics, including classical, jazz, R&B, and improvisation. Mr. Smith came to New York from Chicago in the late 1950's, studied at the Manhattan School of Music, and soon was heard playing with Gil Evans, Makanda Ken McIntyre, and Sam Rivers. Along the way, he was a staff musician at ABC-TV for three years in the 1960's, and he founded and ran Studio WIS, one of the seminal spots of the loft era. Mr. Smith has played and recorded with a vast array of musical stars in many musical languages, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Barron, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Solomon Burke, Jaki Byard, John Cage, Bill Cole, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Julius Hemphill, Lena Horne, Elvin Jones, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Charles Mingus, Van Morrison, Harry Partch, Esther Phillips, Max Roach, George Russell, Jimmy Smith, Sonny Stitt, and Tony Williams.
Mr. Smith can be contacted at WISpercussion@yahoo.com.

Joe Daley, musician, composer and educator, is a low brass specialist on tuba and euphonium. Mr. Daley has performed and recorded with Muhal Richard Abrams, Carla Bley, Jayne Cortez, Bill Dixon, Dave Douglas, Ellery Eskelin, Gil Evans, George Gruntz, Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, Howard Johnson's Gravity band, Taj Mahal, Sam Rivers, Cecil Taylor, Assif Tsahar and the Brass Reeds Ensemble, and more. He is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Award for Music Compsition and New Jersey's Outstanding Teacher Regognition Award. Joe Daley is also a MacDowell Colony and Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellow. Mr. Daley holds Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music Education degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. For more information visit www.josephdaley.com; contact Mr. Daley at jodamusic@yahoo.com.

Cooper Moore, (fka Gene Ashton) is a composer, improviser, instrumentalist, designer and builder of musical instruments, and music educator, living and working in New York City. A native of the Piedmont area of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Cooper-Moore began studying piano at age eight. Four years later, he was listening to Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus and Thelonius Monk, and working on improvisation. Moving to New York in 1973, he took over a five floor space at 501 Canal Street and transformed it into an artist's live-in / work space, making possible numerous experimentations among performing and visual artists. While his attention was focused on piano performance in New York clubs and on touring abroad, Cooper-Moore also began designing and building musical instruments, playing them in collaboration with all kinds of artists at lofts, galleries, artist spaces and museums, and in the streets of New York City. Cooper-Moore can be contacted at gya@aol.com.

William Parker, whom "The Village Voice" has characterized "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time," has commanded a unique degree of respect throughout his career from fellow musicians. After entering the New York music scene in 1972 at the age of 20, Mr. Parker quickly became the bass player of choice among his peers. Within a short time, he was asked to play with older, established musicians such as Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, Bill Dixon, Milford Graves, Billy Higgins and Sunny Murray. In 1980 he became a member of the Cecil Taylor Unit, where he played a prominent role for more than a decade. From the beginning of his musical career, Mr. Parker has been prolific, composing music for almost every group with whom he performs. His compositional skills span a wide range comprising operas, oratorios, ballets, film scores and soliloquies for solo instruments. He has also successfully explored diverse concepts in instrumentation for large and small ensembles. In the last few years Mr. Parker has performed solo bass concerts with long-time associate, choreographer and dancer Patricia Nicholoson and with poet David Budbill, as well as successfully leading and touring with his groups In Order to Survive and The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, both to critical and popular acclaim. In addition, Mr. Parker is a poet, with three volumes published thus far: "Music Is," "Document Humanum," and "The Shadow People." For more information, visit www.williamparkermusic.com. Mr. Parker can be contacted at info@williamparkermusic.com or centeringmusic@earthlink.net.

Sam Furnace is a saxophonist, flautist, composer and arranger. He developed his skills through studies with master musicians such as Bill Barron, Harold Jones, Billy Mitchell and Paul West. Mr. Furnace received several National Endowment Grants to study with jazz greats such as George Coleman, Buddy Pearson, Frank Wess and Ernie Wilkins. Over the past two decades he has performed with artists such as Art Blakey, Jaki Byard, Chico O'Farrill, The Four Tops, Jennifer Holliday, Abdullah Tyner and Randy Weston. Mr. Furnace can be heard on recordings with Bill Cole, Johnny Copeland, Craig Harris, Milt Hinton, The Jazz Passengers, The Julius Hempill Saxophone Sextet, Fred Ho, The New York Jazz Composers Orchestra, Mongo Santamaria and Elliott Sharp. He has taught master classes and workshops at Hunter College and the State University in Plattsburgh, New York and has appeared as guest soloist with the SUNY Plattsburgh Jazz Ensemble. An affiliated writer and publisher with BMI, Mr. Furnace is also involved in composition through use of comptuer music applications. Sam Furnace can be contacted at moreheat@earthlink.net.

Atticus Shadrack Cole began studying music at the age of 6. His father, Bill Cole, introduced him to his colleague, Ghanaian Master drummer Abraham Adzinyah, with whom Atticus began studying West African music in the oral tradition. Atticus received private instruction from Mr. Adzinyah and became a member of the West African drumming ensemble at the age of 7. He worked extensively with the ensemble, studying song, dance and drumming techniques. He continued his studies with drummer Hafiz Shabazz, learning West African, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. Atticus received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he studied jazz composition. Atticus Cole's playing has supported such artists as DeLaSoul, Julius Hemphill, LL Cool J, KRS-One, Maceo Parker, SouLive and WAR. He has worked with his father for over 20 years, meanwhile maintaining his own original Hip-hop group The Formula and playing with The Grace Singers, a gospel group based in Boston, MA. Atticus Cole can be contacted at shadrack33@hotmail.com.