From San Antonio street corners to Michael Bublé's Grammy-winning stages, Jacob Rodriguez has woven a musical tapestry that spans continents and genres. This Manhattan School of Music alumnus doesn't just play saxophone—he channels stories through reed and breath, whether he's painting midnight hues with Ambrose Akinmusire in Brooklyn's underground scene or igniting arena crowds alongside pop royalty. Now nestled in Asheville's Blue Ridge embrace, Jacob has become the valley's secret weapon, teaching the next generation at UNC Asheville while moonlighting with everything from Hard Bop Explosion's fire-breathing quintet to the mystical rhythms of Coconut Cake's traditional Congolese explorations. His baritone sax doesn't just anchor the low end—it rumbles with the wisdom of a world traveler who's learned that the most profound music happens when you're brave enough to blend your influences into something entirely new.

Quinn Sternberg doesn't just play bass—he becomes the gravitational center around which musical solar systems orbit, his four strings serving as the invisible force that holds melody and rhythm in perfect harmonic balance. In Asheville's intimate jazz venues, Sternberg has mastered the art of musical architecture, building rhythmic foundations so sturdy that horn players can stretch toward the stratosphere while drummers explore the outer reaches of syncopation. His upright bass doesn't merely walk—it tells stories with every step, each note choice revealing decades of deep listening to masters like Ray Brown and Ron Carter while forging his own path through the modern jazz landscape. This is bass playing as conversation rather than accompaniment, where Sternberg's melodic sensibilities transform traditional rhythm section roles into something more akin to chamber music, proving that the most profound musical statements often come from the spaces between the obvious beats, where subtlety meets groove and creates something that makes everyone else in the room sound better.

quinnsternbergmusic.com

The first instrument **Alfred Sergel IV** ever touched was an 18-inch cymbal his father brought home from the band room. His dad was a band director — started in the schools, eventually landed at a college — and Al was the little kid walking next to the drumline, absorbing the pulse of organized sound before he had any language for what it was. The cymbal was surplus from the marching band, dented and heavy and probably not worth keeping, but it was enough. He hit it and the vibration traveled through his hands and into the rest of his life. What came next was liner notes. Sergel got hold of a jazz record — the specifics matter less than the chain reaction — and started reading the credits. Art Blakey. Elvin Jones. Philly Joe Jones. Jo Jones. Ed Thigpen. Roy Haynes. He wrote down every name, took the list to the library, and began researching their discographies one by one. This is how a drummer builds a lineage in reverse: not through apprenticeship but through archaeology, digging backward through the catalog until the names become sounds and the sounds become a vocabulary. He studied percussion and jazz studies at Florida State, then spent a year at Berklee with John Ramsey, and by the time he emerged he had internalized enough history to move comfortably through nearly any musical situation he encountered — which turned out to be a wider range of situations than most drummers ever see. Sergel's career has unfolded across territories that don't usually share a map. He joined the Chad Lawson Trio in 2000 and watched their single climb to number seven on the national jazz charts. He toured internationally with singer-songwriter Jason Upton, appearing on the BBC. He shared stages with Bob Mintzer, Jim Snidero, Marcus Printup, Nnenna Freelon, and Ricky Skaggs — names drawn from hard bop, straight-ahead, and deep country, often in the same season. He served as Worship Director at MorningStar Ministries, playing drums in sacred contexts where the music carries a different kind of weight. He sat in with Bernadette Peters, Joan Rivers, and Sir Tim Rice. He recorded with Grammy-winning bassist Tim Lefebvre, whose work with David Bowie represents exactly the kind of genre-dissolving ambition that Sergel's own playing has always pointed toward. For years, Sergel carried song ideas around on his phone — voice memos recorded in late-night places after gigs, hummed melodies and rhythmic fragments captured before they evaporated. He thought of them as sketches, not compositions. Then a friend listened to a batch of them and asked a question that changed his trajectory: *Why don't you think these are songs?* That was the moment the Alfred Sergel IVtet was born — the name a sly fold of his generational numeral into a quartet designation, the band itself a vehicle for the music he'd been carrying in his pocket for years. Charlotte musicians Ron Brendle, Troy Conn, and Phil Howe joined him. The debut EP caught the attention of All About Jazz. His single "Y Closed" landed at NPR Music. *Sleepless Journey* hit number one on the NACC jazz charts. His compositions draw from Beck and Tycho as readily as from Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau — pop melodicism threaded through jazz architecture, the kind of music that makes sense when you've spent three decades crossing between sacred and secular, arena and club, the library and the bandstand. Based in Charlotte and teaching at Davidson College and Central Piedmont, Sergel remains a working musician in the truest sense — someone for whom the gig is never just the gig but always a continuation of that first vibration, the one that traveled from a surplus marching cymbal through a kid's hands and into a life spent listening for what comes next.

Originally from Asheville, NC, Chris Bullock's musical obsession began as a child with early interests in the Beach Boys, hip-hop cassettes, and learning the clarinet and electric guitar—a foundation that would eventually transform him into a modern-day musical wanderer who chases creativity across continents. As a longtime member and composer of Snarky Puppy since 2005, this tenor saxophonist has collected five Grammy Awards while performing at major concert halls and music festivals around the globe, proving that the most interesting music happens when you refuse to acknowledge genre boundaries. Over the years, Bullock has evolved from being identified primarily as a saxophonist specializing in flutes, clarinets, and keyboards into a composer and producer exploring recording and production to find an ever-evolving, unique, and personal sound. His 2018 debut solo album "Boomtown" represents this hybrid approach—combining improvisation, jazz, woodwind chamber music, electronic music, and hip-hop production elements into something entirely his own. His interest in hip-hop and electronic music has pushed him into exploring DJ'ing, beat making, and production, while his performance resume reads like a who's who of diverse musical minds: David Crosby, Michael McDonald, Lalah Hathaway, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Charlie Hunter, Chris Thile, Eric Harland, Phish, and Soulive. With degrees from East Carolina University and Michigan State University, plus studies at the University of North Texas, Bullock balances his globe-trotting performance schedule with his passion for education as a clinician and former adjunct professor. From Asheville church music to Brooklyn beat-making to concert halls in over 50 countries, Bullock embodies what happens when childhood curiosity about four-track cassette recorders evolves into a lifelong commitment to making every musical conversation feel like a discovery.

chrismbullock.com