An excellent drum set player and percussionist, Gil Alexander has emerged as a musician who is as well versed in jazz or classical drumming as he is in West African, Middle Eastern, steel drumming, or Brazilian music. After a very musical childhood, Gil received a percussion degree at the University of Illinois, and then moved to Brooklyn, NY. While in New York, Gil played at Carnegie Hall, Blue Note Jazz Club, and Symphony Space, and performed with Ethos Percussion Ensemble, Martha Graham Dance School, Brian Lynch, Drum Cafe, and countless small jazz groups. Through Drum Cafe Gil had a chance to perform with many of the top West African drummers in the US, including Mbemba Bangoura, Fode Bangoura, Mamadou Dembele, Pablo Dembele, and Mangue Sylla.
     In 2006, Gil moved to Chicago, and while earning his masters in jazz from DePaul University, quickly began playing around Chicago. He has performed with Chicago guitar great Bobby Broom, has subbed the drum book for the musical Wicked, and has played at the Green Mill, Congress Theater, and Millennium Park. Gil’s own jazz quartet, Kosher Curry, features Mike Pinto on guitar, Andrew Zallar on keys, and Corbin Andrick on sax, and plays much of Gil’s original jazz. He also performs with Toque Chicago, Bangers and Mash, Bulbul Ensemble, and Gone 2 Paradise, and maintains an active teaching schedule. To learn more about Gil, or to contact him, go to www.gilalexander.com

Doug Brush is an extremely versatile percussionist. He has studied and performed many music styles all over the world, including Cuba, Spain, North India, South India, North Africa, and West Africa among other locales. In the world of Arabic music, he has studied with Karim Nagi and has performed with the Mosaic Ensemble and the Chicago Classical Oriental Ensemble. He also provided the music for many events at the Art Institute of Chicago during their "Pharaohs of the Sun" exhibit. For more information, see dougbrushpercussion.com

A Chicago native, Ronnie Malley is a multi-instrumentalist who has been performing for audiences since the age of thirteen. He began guitar lessons at an early age, moving on to piano Middle Eastern percussion. He is self-taught on the oud (Mid- Eastern lute). In his family band with his father and brother, both percussionists, Ronnie began his stage experience performing at weddings, concerts, festivals and local Middle Eastern clubs with renowned artists-- Kazem Elsaher, Majdi Husseini, and Tony Hanna. Eventually touring throughout the US, the Middle East, and Europe, Ronnie expanded his ethno-musical palette to study, perform and record with Sufi and folk musicians from Senegal, Sudan, North Africa, Turkey as well as with Afro- Peruvian folk artists, Rodolfo Munoz and Miguel Ballermos. Recent credits include assistant music arranger and performer in a Goodman Theatre production of Mary Zimmerman"s "Mirror of the Invisible World" and French FTS Production documentary, "One World Music". Ronnie expresses the message of cultural awareness that "although we have many differences, music and art remain universal and help illuminate our commonalities." He teaches at the Old Town School of Folk Music, conducts Arabic music workshops for Chicago Public Schools and the University of Chicago"s Startalk camp, composes and records for various film projects, as well as performing and touring with music groups Lamajamal, Mucca Pazza and the U of C Middle Eastern Music Ensemble.