Sam Sadigursky (saxophones/flute) has played and recorded with artists as diverse as Ray Brown and Brad Mehldau. He is the winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award(2003), the NFAA/IAJE Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship (1997), and the John Coltrane Young Artist Award (1996). Currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, he performs in many top jazz venues, Broadway pits and has toured the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He has also played in the Monterey Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Music Festival and the CMJ Festival. He was recently featured playing saxophone and flute on the score to the film Seeing Other People and can be heard in New York with the Mingus Orchestra.

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Ricardo Gallo (piano) is active as a composer of contemporary concert music, both acoustic and electronic, and as a player performing jazz and improvised music. In both of these outputs he maintains a strong bond with Colombian traditional music. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of North Texas in 2002, and was honored “Outstanding Composition Student” the same year. The next year, he participated in the recording of “La Revuelta,” the first CD of “Asdrubal,” a Bogotá-based Colombian avant-jazz band. He finished a Masters degree and is at the moment pursuing a PhD in composition at Stony Brook University. During his visits to Bogotá, he formed a quartet to perform his own music with bassist Juan Manuel Toro, drummer Jorge Sepúlveda, and percussionist Juan David Castaño. With them he recorded in 2005 his first CD as a group leader titled “Los Cerros Testigos.” He performs in New York with the Colombian jazz group Sativasur, the free-improvisation group “Apama,” and traditional Colombian music with the Gallo/Flórez duo.

A Native of Bogotá, Colombia, Alejandro Flórez (guitar) came to the United States to study music at the University of North Texas. While pursuing his Bachelor’s and Master's degrees in Jazz Studies, he had the opportunity to play with faculty members Fred Hamilton and Stefan Karlsson and study composition with professors John Mallia and Cindy McTee. In addition, he was a Teaching Fellow in the UNT Jazz program. Over the course of his five years in Texas, he received private lessons from John Stowell and Ben Monder. After graduating in the summer of 2005 he moved to New York City, where he has been active since his arrival. His current projects include the free improvisation trios "Apama" and "Torus," the Colombian-influenced jazz quintet Sativasur, and the Gallo/Flórez Duo, a group that explores the traditional music of the Colombian Andes.  

Jim McNamara (bass) has been playing bass for 20 years. He has studied with Charlie Haden, James VanDemark, and Ralph Alessi. He holds a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Arts from The California Institute of the Arts, both in Jazz Studies. He also majored in math as an undergrad, and now works as a linux sysadmin during the daylight hours. Besides his work in Sativasur, Jim also works with the Columbian band Coba under the direction of Sebastian Cruz. He also works with his brother Andy, a singer songwriter.

Folklorist and multi-instrumentalist Martín Vejarano Ávila (drums/percussion) performs a variety of styles, ranging from jazz and rock to the music of Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean. For the past eight years he has specialized in researching the traditional Colombian musical forms. In New York he has performed and recorded with several musical and theatrical groups and companies, including La Mama ETC Great Jones repertoire directed by Ellen Stwart, Loco 7, Society of Educational Arts (SEA), Ballet Mestizo, Pablo Mayor’s Folklore Urbano, Maquina Mono, Sebastian Cruz’ Coba, Frankie DiDonato’s Nova, the Cosquelour Congolese Dance company and the Columbo project. He is also the founder and director of La Cumbiamba eNeYé, which has recently performed at such venues as Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Central Park SummerStage, Symphony Space and Wave Hill in New York. He also conducts Colombian music and dance workshops all over the country.